Where is the citizen? Comparing civic spaces in long-term mental healthcare

Abstract

This paper explores the spatial properties of several notions of citizenship used in long-term mental healthcare. We claim that speaking of citizenship is a way of drawing borders: some people fall inside and some fall outside the civic domain. Informed by Science and Technology Studies, we use topological methods to see where borders are drawn by different notions of citizenship and analyse the notions of space that are co-produced with them. With this study we develop a new way of thinking about citizenship: citizenship as ‘being-in-place’. Being in-place can emancipate clients and help them expand their social networks.