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Cited by 66Foucault, Power, and EthicsInterdisciplinary Research and CollaborationGlobal Public Health Policies and Epidemiology

Exclusivity and Circularity in the Production of Global Governance Expertise: The Making of “Global Mental Health” Knowledge

Open access
Littoz-Monnet, Annabelle·2022·International Political Sociology
DOI 10.1093/ips/olab035
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Abstract

Global mental health expertise favors biomedical explanations of mental disorders that conceive such disorders as stable entities, which can be diagnosed according to universal categories. Following this logic, universal and standardized solutions can also be applied throughout the world, regardless of context. Despite its assumptions and data being contested within the field of psychiatry itself, global mental health expertise has been highly stable. How is such expertise produced? Through what mechanisms are its products, such as reports, studies, or numbers, made and replicated? The article proposes a model of expertise production in global governance that discloses specific mechanisms of circularity and exclusivity in knowledge-making processes, which result in the circular and exclusive character of expertise itself. These include the circulation of profesionals and data across spheres and organizations, as well as the role played by several sites such as boundary expert groups, influential research clusters, and “policy-scientific” journals, which operate as powerful centers of knowledge production at the intersection of the policy, scientific or private spheres. Such sites not only act as loci where people's circulation operates at its best but also as autonomous mechanisms that produce, cement, and perpetuate the circularity and exclusivity of expertise beyond the role of specific individuals.

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  • The evidence for efficacy of psychiatric drugs has often been questioned, and several authors point out that global mental health retains significant ties with the pharmaceutical industry.

    “The evidence for the efficacy of psychiatric drugs has often been questioned, too, with several authors pointing out that global mental health retains significant ties with the pharmaceutical industry (e.g., Littoz-Monnet 2022;Fernando 2011;Lovell et al. 2019).”

    From Throwing therapy at the problem mental health and humanitarian intervention in Palabek refugee settlement, northern Uganda (2023) · cites this paper as Littoz-Monnet 2022

    The Global Mental Health Nucleus section describes WHO partnerships with organizations funded by the pharmaceutical industry and says the industry participates in mental-health governance. The Abstract and Global Mental Health sections say evidence for biomedical explanations is contested and note criticism of industry's role in expanding psychotropic medication use. They do not specifically say that evidence for the drugs' efficacy has often been questioned. Page numbers are unavailable in our copy. (LLM, conf=0.88)

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  • The global mental health assemblage has relied on circularity of knowledge production to construct and solidify its expertise.

    “ever since its early days the global mental health assemblage has relied on forms of circularity of knowledge production construct and solidify its expertise.”

    From Throwing therapy at the problem mental health and humanitarian intervention in Palabek refugee settlement, northern Uganda (2023) · cites this paper as Littoz-Monnet 2022

  • These global mental health ideas have had widespread ramifications, especially in WHO discourse on mental health care in low- and middle-income countries, which has largely incorporated global mental health statistics and approaches.

    “These ideas have had widespread ramifications, particularly amongst international health policy hubs such as the WHO, whose discourse on mental health care in low-and middle-income countries has largely incorporated global mental health statistics and approaches (Littoz-Monnet 2022).”

    From Throwing therapy at the problem mental health and humanitarian intervention in Palabek refugee settlement, northern Uganda (2023) · cites this paper as Littoz-Monnet 2022

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Research works printed but not linked: 12

  1. Bhugra, 2019, “(THE) WPA–Lancet Commission on the Future of Psychiatry (“WPA/Lancet 2019”), The Lancet, 4, 775
  2. Biersteker, 2014, Participating in Transnational Policy Networks: Targeted Sanctions, 137
  3. Deleuze, 1983, Capitalisme et Schizophrénie. L'anti-Oedipe
  4. Latour, 1983, Give Me a Laboratory and I Will Raise the World. Reprinted (1999), 141
  5. Lehmann, 2019, Transparency First: Disclosure of Social Interest in the Psychosocial Field, The Journal of Critical Psychology, Counselling and Psychotherapy, 19, 131
  6. The Lancet's Series on Global Mental Health, 2007, The Lancet, 370
  7. The Lancet's Series on Global Mental Health, 2011, The Lancet, 378
  8. World Health Organization, 2008, Mental Health Gap Action Programme (MhGAP)
  9. World Health Organization, 2013, Mental Health Action Plan 2013–2020
  10. World Health Organization, 2016, MhGAP Intervention Guide for Mental, Neurological and Substance Use Disorders in Non-specialized Health Setting
  11. World Health Organization, 2019, The WHO Special Initiative for Mental Health (2019–2023): Universal Health Coverage for Mental Health
  12. World Health Organization and Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, 2017, Improving Access to and Appropriate Use of Medicines for Mental Disorders

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Authors
Littoz-Monnet, A.
Affiliations
Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies , Switzerland
Venue
International Political Sociology
Publisher
Oxford University Press (OUP)
Published
2022-04-04
Volume
16
Issue
2
ISSN
  • 1749-5679 (ISSN-L)
  • 1749-5687
DOI
10.1093/ips/olab035
OpenAlex
W4226407104
Semantic Scholar
fb0bd7e1fd246d71eba08d356fc4ee0832e0666c
Cited by
65
References
57
Citations by year
2026: 4 · 2025: 33 · 2024: 21 · 2023: 6 · 2022: 1
FWCI
21.95
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • International Political Sociology (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • Graduate Institute Geneva Institutional Repository (Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies) (submittedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Foucault, Power, and Ethics
  • Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › Information Systems and Management › Interdisciplinary Research and Collaboration
  • Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management › Global Public Health Policies and Epidemiology
Keywords
global mental health, global governance, circularity, exclusivity, knowledge production, research clusters, data circulation

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