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Journal of Urban Design and Mental Health 2016;1:2
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A new journal for urban design and mental health?
Layla McCay
Director, Centre for Urban Design and Mental Heath
Director, Centre for Urban Design and Mental Heath
When I launched the Centre for Urban Design and Mental Health in 2015, it was as a multidisciplinary think tank initiative to meet a need. As a psychiatrist and public health specialist - and a city aficionado - I was frustrated with not having an obvious place to go to think, talk, write and learn about the nexus of urban design and mental health. The more people I spoke to, the more it seemed that people felt stuck in professional silos. Academics told me they were frustrated when their research wasn't prioritized in urban health, architects and planners were frustrated about challenges accessing and understanding the latest research, and many funders and policymakers were surprised to hear that the link between urban design and mental health was an issue at all.
In fact, with the majority of the population now living in cities, and one in four people having mental health problems in their lifetime, urban design has the potential to have real impact on public mental health around the world: helping maintain the population's mental health, supporting people when they have mental health problems, and promoting their recovery. This is an issue with particular opportunities for inter-disciplinary work. And so the Centre for Urban Design and Mental Health was born to bring together not just the academic research, but also the case studies, the ideas, and the experiences from around the world that reflect and share the breadth of growing expertise and players in this field. Right now, we do not receive funding - everything we achieve is through people who share their time and ideas because they are passionate about this topic.
We have pursued many interesting opportunities since we launched, including growing a cohort of Fellows researching different links between urban design and mental health, participating in a UN meeting for urban thinkers around the global Habitat 3 policy process, hosting inter-disciplinary dialogues in Washington and London (the next will be in Tokyo), sharing news and opportunities via social media, and publishing weekly Sanity and Urbanity op-eds from around the world. One of the exciting things about this organic growth is that those who get involved get inspired about something interesting and useful, and then they go ahead and make it happen. This journal is one result of that process. Several friends and fellows of UD/MH have pointed out the demand for a dedicated journal to publish, promote and validate research at the nexus of urban design and mental health. Itai Palti, who co-authored the Manifesto for Conscious Cities last year in The Guardian, UK, stepped forward as guest editor and proposed a pilot edition on the theme of conscious cities. We decided to go ahead and publish this online, and you are reading it now. While we have not yet fully delved into the full range of formal research in this exciting field, we present a fascinating selection of diverse papers and op-eds that reflect some of the breadth of thought and approaches currently being undertaken in urban design and mental health. We seek to publish pieces that are easy for everyone to understand, and which link academic work with practical application.
To turn this journal into a fully-fledged, formal peer-reviewed journal needs a few things:
1. Validation that people do think that this is worth the effort (please complete the survey below)
2. Editors including thematic guest editors who are interested in helping source papers and deliver new editions, perhaps biannually
3. Peer reviewers, who will commit to reading papers and helping identify the best papers for the journal
4. Funders (if we continue to have this journal as an open-access online journal, a proper hosting platform will cost a few thousand pounds a year)
5. Contributors - this means academics working in the field, but also architects, urban planners, transport specialists, and the full breadth of roles that touch on the links between urban design and mental health, and we seek contributions from all over the world
If you have any thoughts or ideas about the journal, or want to discuss or put your name forward for any of these roles, or can offer funding or hosting, please contact us to help us think and plan next steps:
In fact, with the majority of the population now living in cities, and one in four people having mental health problems in their lifetime, urban design has the potential to have real impact on public mental health around the world: helping maintain the population's mental health, supporting people when they have mental health problems, and promoting their recovery. This is an issue with particular opportunities for inter-disciplinary work. And so the Centre for Urban Design and Mental Health was born to bring together not just the academic research, but also the case studies, the ideas, and the experiences from around the world that reflect and share the breadth of growing expertise and players in this field. Right now, we do not receive funding - everything we achieve is through people who share their time and ideas because they are passionate about this topic.
We have pursued many interesting opportunities since we launched, including growing a cohort of Fellows researching different links between urban design and mental health, participating in a UN meeting for urban thinkers around the global Habitat 3 policy process, hosting inter-disciplinary dialogues in Washington and London (the next will be in Tokyo), sharing news and opportunities via social media, and publishing weekly Sanity and Urbanity op-eds from around the world. One of the exciting things about this organic growth is that those who get involved get inspired about something interesting and useful, and then they go ahead and make it happen. This journal is one result of that process. Several friends and fellows of UD/MH have pointed out the demand for a dedicated journal to publish, promote and validate research at the nexus of urban design and mental health. Itai Palti, who co-authored the Manifesto for Conscious Cities last year in The Guardian, UK, stepped forward as guest editor and proposed a pilot edition on the theme of conscious cities. We decided to go ahead and publish this online, and you are reading it now. While we have not yet fully delved into the full range of formal research in this exciting field, we present a fascinating selection of diverse papers and op-eds that reflect some of the breadth of thought and approaches currently being undertaken in urban design and mental health. We seek to publish pieces that are easy for everyone to understand, and which link academic work with practical application.
To turn this journal into a fully-fledged, formal peer-reviewed journal needs a few things:
1. Validation that people do think that this is worth the effort (please complete the survey below)
2. Editors including thematic guest editors who are interested in helping source papers and deliver new editions, perhaps biannually
3. Peer reviewers, who will commit to reading papers and helping identify the best papers for the journal
4. Funders (if we continue to have this journal as an open-access online journal, a proper hosting platform will cost a few thousand pounds a year)
5. Contributors - this means academics working in the field, but also architects, urban planners, transport specialists, and the full breadth of roles that touch on the links between urban design and mental health, and we seek contributions from all over the world
If you have any thoughts or ideas about the journal, or want to discuss or put your name forward for any of these roles, or can offer funding or hosting, please contact us to help us think and plan next steps:
About the Author
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Layla McCay is the founder and director of the Centre for Urban Design and Mental Health. A psychiatrist and public health specialist, she has worked for the World Health Organization, World Bank, British Government, the British National Health Service, and various global health NGOs. She is an adjunct professor in international health at Georgetown University and is currently based in London and Tokyo.
Contact her @urbandesignmh |