A micropolitics of sociomaterial inequalities in mental health recovery assemblages
A BSA New Materialisms Study Group Event
11 November 2026 (13:00-14:00 GMT)
Online
About the Event
Speaker: Dr Jarkko Salminen and Professor Liisa Häikiö
Abstract
In our presentation, we examine health-related sociomaterial inequalities from a new materialist micropolitical perspective, exploring how seemingly minor forms of material deprivation accumulate and create barriers to recovery. Drawing on a Deleuzian-Guattarian approach, we conceptualise recovery assemblages as heterogeneous configurations of human and nonhuman elements, encompassing material and immaterial dimensions. We argue that material deprivation - what is absent or missing - is not simply “nothing” but can have agentic capacities, actively shaping everyday recovery assemblages and possibilities for recovery.
We demonstrate how financial deprivation produces loneliness and restricts everyday life, limited care resources undermine access to safe recovery environments, and depleted bodily strength constrains capacities to act. We also show how young adults and their families challenge these constraints through seemingly small everyday actions, opening up possibilities for change. A new materialist approach offers nuanced insights into everyday experiences of deprivation and identifies ways to challenge and transform sociomaterial inequalities through everyday actions.
Registration
This event is free to attend but registration is required.