Work Package 4: Liveable and unliveable lives: Suicide and the state
WP4 centres the roles of politics and the state in shaping conditions for – and responses to – liveability. Researchers will analyse how governments and NGOs create different representations and stories about un/liveability in relation to suicide prevention. By looking more closely at the interaction of politics, policy, state and global NGO practices, WP4 will shed light on ways that lives of different groups and populations are made more or less liveable. Overall, WP4 will grow our understanding about how wider government policies and practices shape responses to suicide and liveability, and how global NGOs contribute to the politics of suicide prevention.
WP4 Research Questions are:
- How far and in what ways is liveability present in government and global NGO policies?
- How and to what extent do wider government policies and political discourses construct and respond to hierarchies of liveable lives?
- In what ways are the lives and deaths by suicide of some groups politicised or depoliticised through political discourse and policy regimes?
Key activities for WP4:
Qualitative analysis of parliamentary debates: Building on previous work from the Suicide In/As Politics project, researchers will analyse publicly available data from parliamentary databases (Westminster, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales) from 2009 up until 2023, paying close attention to how notions of un/liveability are present and contested; and how different populations are constructed.
Extended critical policy analysis: Researchers will analyse UK suicide prevention policies and WHO suicide prevention documents, examining how far liveability is present within a global policy context.
Expert interviews: Researchers will conduct 30 interviews with policy makers and NGO staff involved in suicide prevention policies
Writing, analysis and policy engagement workshops: Researchers will analyse findings from their interviews and host collaborative events with key stakeholders focused on policy.
