Arts, Health and Well-Being

This important book develops a critical understanding of the bridging of arts and health domains, drawing on models and perspectives from social sciences to develop the case for arts and health as a social movement. This interdisciplinary perspective offers a new research agenda that can help to inform future developments and sustainability in arts, health and well-being.

Daykin begins with an overview of the current evidence base and a review of current challenges for research, policy and practice. Later chapters explore the international field of health and the arts; arts, with well-being as a social movement; and boundary work and the role of boundary objects in the field. The book also includes sections summarising research findings and evidence in arts and health research and examples from specific research projects conducted by the author, chosen to highlight particularly widespread challenges across many arts, health and well-being contexts.

Arts, Health and Well-Being: A Critical Perspective on Research, Policy and Practice is valuable reading for students in sociology, psychology, social work, nursing, psychiatry, creative and performing arts, public health and policymakers and practitioners in these fields.

Norma Daykin is Professor in New Social Research at Tampere University, Finland, Professor Emerita in Arts in Health at the University of the West of England, UK and a visiting Professor in Arts as Wellbeing at the University of Winchester, UK. She is a social scientist known for her award-winning research on arts, health and well-being. Her research has spanned a wide range of methodologies and topics, from the impact of hospital design on patient well-being through to the impact of participatory arts in mental health, primary care, community and justice settings.