Psychosocial welfare: reflections on an emerging field

Abstract

This paper argues that shifting regimes of welfare provision are accompanied by shifting disciplinary practices. Concern with the psychological dimension has always been present in welfare practices but has typically played a subordinate role in political constructions of policy. We raise the idea that we have entered an epoch in which the `psycho' resonates as surely as the `social' alongside `welfare'. We challenge the popular psychologization of well-being which can result, arguing instead that welfare and well-being need to be rethought together and that one implication of this is the need to rethink the knowledge practices of the social and psychological disciplines in relation to changing configurations of welfare.