Book Review: Understanding Mental Distress: Knowledge, Practice and Neoliberal Reform in Community Mental Health Services by Rich Moth

Abstract

political, economic and ideological background of the countries under consideration. For example, we are told that India is ‘still far from ratifying C189’ (p.33), or that the requests of Ecuadorian ‘domestic workers to make formal rights a reality were not taken up by the state’ (p.41), but the authors provide no information as to why. For a book which is about domestic workers, their voices seem strangely absent; they are heard only via their representatives, but not directly. The book focuses on the responses to Convention 189 of institutions and organisations (governments, trade unions, NGOs). Of the 200 ‘key informants, such as activists, organisers, policy makers, legal professionals and experts’ who were interviewed during the research project on which the book is based, only a minority (22 out of 200) had had experience of working as domestic workers (p.16). This may be due to the remit of the research but is jarring, especially considering the stress placed in the book on self-organization and empowerment. Giving preferential voice to organisers, academics and other ‘experts’ seems to be reinforcing the top down channels of knowledge formation that underpin constituted power relations. Nevertheless, the book is valuable in providing a bird’s eye view of the organised struggles of domestic workers globally. In doing so, it helps highlight the problems faced by multiply marginalised groups. Domestic workers’ experiences of different fronts of oppression as women, carers, marginalised workers, migrants, racialized minorities, and their demands for economic, legal, social and cultural recognition may help, the authors suggest, create a ‘space of convergence’ for movements that have traditionally been seen as separate. By challenging the boundaries between feminist struggles, labour movements and identity based activism, this book reminds us of the importance of building and deepening alliances that can better push for societal changes and equitable social policies.