Understanding the interaction between the individual human being and the modern social world is one of the key intellectual challenges of our time. The Life Sciences Institute (LSI) Centre for Mind in Society (MiS) investigates how an individual’s cognitive capacities structure, and are structured by, social environments within which the individual is embedded.
Focus
The Centre takes as its starting point that all human lives are lived in and molded by social contexts. Understanding this complex interdependence of mind and society is the focus of the Centre.
The Centre aims to generate a better understanding of the mutual influences between mind and society, and to develop ways of working with communities to improve the psychological experience of individuals. This includes, but is not limited to, initiatives to reduce mental distress. The fundamental objectives are to understand the nature of the mental lives of individuals from an integrated perspective that includes but goes beyond the clinical. This includes:
(i) how individuals reason about the social and cultural world around them, how they conceive of their own identities and how they make decisions about that world;
(ii) how they interact and communicate with others, both within and outside of their communities;
(iii) how they express their creativity and appreciate the creativity of others;
(iv), how their own mental lives develop and change in response to the challenges they face.
Partnerships within Queen Mary
The MiS brings together concepts from humanities, cognitive and social sciences, and medicine, representing a genuine sharing of expertise in methodologies, theoretical approaches and scientific practices. Links are forged across the three faculties of Queen Mary (QM) as well as close relationships with local communities to advance research in the real world.
Collaborations include:
- School of History: Centre for the History of Emotions
- School of Electronic Engineering & Computer Sciences: Cognitive Science Research Group
- School of Geography: Centre for Studies of Home
- School of Law: Centre for Law and Society in a Global Context
- Wolfson Institute for Preventative Medicine: Centre for Psychiatry
- QM & World Health Organisation Collaborating Centre: Unit for Social and Community Psychiatry
- School of Mathematical Sciences: Probability and Applications Group
- School of Economics & Finance: Economic Theory Group
- School of English & Drama: Centre for Poetry
