Sarah Curtis

There is a strong case today for a specific focus on mental public health and its relation to social and physical environments. From a public health perspective, we now appreciate the enormous significance of mental distress and illness as causes of disability and impairment. Stress and anxiety, and other mental illnesses are linked to risks in the environment. This book questions how and why the social and physical environment matters for mental health and psychological wellbeing in human populations. While putting forward a number of different points of view, there is a particular emphasis on ideas and research from health geography, which conceptualises space and place in ways that provide a distinctive focus on the interactions between people and their social and physical environment. The book begins with an overview of a rich body of theory and research from sociology, psychology, social epidemiology, social psychiatry and neuroscience, considering arguments concerning 'mind-body dualism', and presenting a conceptual framework for studying how attributes of 'space' and 'place' are associated with human mental wellbeing. It goes on to look in detail at how our mental health is associated with material, or physical, aspects of our environment (such as 'natural' and built landscapes), with social environments (involving social relationships in communities), and with symbolic and imagined spaces (representing the personal, cultural and spiritual meanings of places). These relationships are shown to be complex, with potential to be beneficial or hazardous for mental health. The final chapters of the book consider spaces of care and the implications of space and place for public mental health policy, offering a broader view of how mental health might be improved at the population level. With boxed case studies of specific research ideas and methods, chapter summaries and suggestions for introductory reading, this book offers a comprehensive introduction which will be valuable for students of health geography, public health, sociology and anthropology of health and illness. It also provides an interdisciplinary review of the literature, by the author and by other writers, to frame a discussion of issues that challenge more advanced researchers in these fields.

`At last! A tour de force on cities and health by someone who knows that geography matters. This is a groundbreaking text, preoccupied as much with health and well-being as with death, disease and despair. It is concerned with who wins and who loses from the social and spatial patterning of risk… Combining breadth of coverage with depth of analysis, Health and Inequality provides an intricate map of harmful spaces and healing places, together with some guidelines on how to get from one to the other' - Professor Susan Smith, Ogilvie Professor of Geography, University of Edinburgh 'Too often as health professionals we remain embedded in nursing and medical literature neglecting the opportunities offered through engaging with other bodies of knowledge. Such an opportunity presents itself in this book which draws on work undertaken by geographers that can help us in our thinking about health inequalities. The strength of this work lies in its aim to ensure that place and space are recognised as significant factors in health inequalities' - Community Practitioner Health and Inequality presents a comprehensive analysis of how geographical perspectives can be used to understand the problems of health inequalities. The text has three principal themes: to discuss the geography of health inequality and to examine strategies for reducing disadvantage; to review and develop the theoretical basis for a geographical analysis of these problems - the discussion will illustrate how theoretical developments can help in the design and evaluation of intervention; and to explain how different methodologies in the geography of health, both quantitative and qualitative, can be applied in research - demonstrating the complementarity between them. By relating theoretical arguments to specific landscapes, Health and Inequality will be a key resource for understanding the articulation between theory and empirical methods for understanding health variation in urban areas.

`At last! A tour de force on cities and health by someone who knows that geography matters. This is a groundbreaking text, preoccupied as much with health and well-being as with death, disease and despair. It is concerned with who wins and who loses from the social and spatial patterning of risk… Combining breadth of coverage with depth of analysis, Health and Inequality provides an intricate map of harmful spaces and healing places, together with some guidelines on how to get from one to the other' - Professor Susan Smith, Ogilvie Professor of Geography, University of Edinburgh 'Too often as health professionals we remain embedded in nursing and medical literature neglecting the opportunities offered through engaging with other bodies of knowledge. Such an opportunity presents itself in this book which draws on work undertaken by geographers that can help us in our thinking about health inequalities. The strength of this work lies in its aim to ensure that place and space are recognised as significant factors in health inequalities' - Community Practitioner Health and Inequality presents a comprehensive analysis of how geographical perspectives can be used to understand the problems of health inequalities. The text has three principal themes: to discuss the geography of health inequality and to examine strategies for reducing disadvantage; to review and develop the theoretical basis for a geographical analysis of these problems - the discussion will illustrate how theoretical developments can help in the design and evaluation of intervention; and to explain how different methodologies in the geography of health, both quantitative and qualitative, can be applied in research - demonstrating the complementarity between them. By relating theoretical arguments to specific landscapes, Health and Inequality will be a key resource for understanding the articulation between theory and empirical methods for understanding health variation in urban areas.

Focusing on Catholic primary schooling in France from 1830 through World War I, Curtis shows how religious education played a key role in transforming France into a modern nation. She finds persuasive evidence that the French Catholic teaching orders created the culture needed for the development of a modern educational system. Curtis focuses her extensive research on the province of Lyon, though many of her findings can be applied more generally. Her argument that decisions about schooling were driven by pragmatic as well as ideological considerations, for example, is a model for further investigation. Educating the Faithful is the first major study in English of religious education in modern France.

What are persistent young offenders, children of 14 to 16 or even younger, really like? What do they think about when they steal or rob people? Why do they think they are always getting into trouble? In this vivid, compelling and combative work Sarah Curtis chronicles at first hand young people talking about all aspects of their chaotic lives, their hopes for the future and their anxieties - where possible recording their parents views also.Following an analysis of youth justice based on 20 years direct experience she points out that we do know how to prevent much juvenile offending through community projects of proven benefit and other tried and tested means of reintegrating children in trouble with the law into schools, colleges, communities and careers. To this end, she makes suggestions which go well beyond the reforms of successive governments (including those in the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 and Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Bill) who have preferred the rhetoric of punishment rather than to direct adequate resources into more effective and constructive outcomes.