Nikolas Rose

• Australian National University

A new style of thought is emerging in debates around psychiatry and mental health, which I term ‘5E Mental Health.’ This goes beyond the well-known and much criticised ‘biopsychosocial’ approach, and entails a fundamental challenge to the deeply socially embedded ‘psychiatric complex.’ It is mapping biosocial mechanisms through which ‘social determ...

How should sociologists understand the everyday lives of those living in adversity, coping with the experience of structural violence? In this article, focusing on the urban experience, we suggest a perspective on ‘everyday life’ that can encompass corporeal, mental, relational and social dimensions, which we term ‘niche sociality’. First, we use G...

Computational brain models use machine learning algorithms and statistical models to harness big data for delivering disease-specific diagnosis or prognosis for individuals. They are intended to support clinical decision making and are widely available. However, their translation into clinical practice remains weak despite efforts to improve implem...

The Ethics and Society Subproject has developed this Opinion in order to clarify lessons the Human Brain Project (HBP) can draw from the current discussion of artificial intelligence, in particular the social and ethical aspects of AI, and outline areas where it could usefully contribute. The EU and numerous other bodies are promoting and implement...

Social theory has much to gain from taking up the challenges of conceptualizing ‘mental health’. Such an approach to the stunting of human mental life in conditions of adversity requires us to open up the black box of ‘environment’, and to develop a vitalist biosocial science, informed by and in conversation with the life sciences and the neuroscie...

There has been widespread discussion of the possible impact of Covid-19 on mental health, but little comparison with previous crises. The report reviews the effects on mental health and well‑being of crises caused by disasters, war and conflict, economic collapse, and pandemics. For each crisis topics, two case studies are selected to explore in...

We argue that predictions of a ‘tsunami’ of mental health problems as a consequence of the pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and the lockdown are overstated; feelings of anxiety and sadness are entirely normal reactions to difficult circumstances, not symptoms of poor mental health. Some people will need specialised mental health supp...

Current and newly emerging insights and technologies arising from research in brain sciences increase capabilities to access, assess and affect thought, emotion and behaviour. While much of this research and development is directed towards clinical use, it also has applications in other settings, notably in the political, security, intelligence and...

Dual-use (DU) technologies are both a threat to human security and an opportunity to generate economic value. This article reflects on tensions between state preferences for greater competitiveness in DU technologies and its implications for human security. These tensions are analysed through the lens of the Ethics Issues Checklists (EIC) used by t...

This research takes as a starting point key privacy challenges and concerns raised by the Human Brain Project and then focuses on conceptual and empirical research on privacy and data protection undertaken in the context of the project. The document includes a set of recommendations to the HBP and is followed by a Data Protection Action Plan.

The EU-funded Human Brain Project (HBP) aimed to deliver advances in brain science, cognitive neuroscience and brain-inspired computing which would have broad-ranging implications and benefit European citizens. Achieving such outcomes is dependent, in part, upon the ability of large scale research projects to anticipate potential needs and concerns...

This paper is about the relationship between cities and brains: it charts the back-and-forth between the hectic, stressful lives of urban citizens, and a psychological and neurobiological literature that claims to make such stress both visible and know-able. But beyond such genealogical labour, the paper also asks: what can a sociology concerned wi...

This paper is about the relationship between cities and brains: it charts the back-and-forth between the hectic, stressful lives of urban citizens, and a psychological and neurobiological literature that claims to make such stress both visible and knowable. But beyond such genealogical labour, the paper also asks: what can a sociology concerned wit...

This paper proposes a re-thinking of the relationship between sociology and the biological sciences. Tracing lines of connection between the history of sociology and the contemporary landscape of biology, the paper argues for a reconfiguration of this relationship beyond popular rhetorics of 'biologization' or 'medicalization'. At the heart of the...

In recent years, the concept of class has come under increasing scrutiny, as a means of explaining both the present and the past. The post-industrial class has superceded the manual working class, and new forms of industrial management have broken up more traditional hierarchies and outlooks. Furthermore, feminism has now brought into question the...