Jakubec, Sonya Lee2024-08-142024-08-1420012001https://hdl.handle.net/1828/18295This thesis explores how research about mental health services is part of the social organization of international development. Institutional ethnography is used to explicate the social relations of the work of 'World Mental Health'. Data analysed include the author's personal experience in West Africa as a development worker in community mental health services. The inquiry is a textual analysis of a survey called a "Pathways Study" that the author implemented to support her funding requests from international aid agencies. The argument made is that the "Pathways Study", beyond being a source of information for aid agencies, is part of a ruling relation. Its implementation and use inserts a 'World Mental Health' framework into a local setting where it disorganizes local mental health efforts. The survey reconstructs what is known about the setting into concepts that match dominant Western (banking, scientific, professional and corporate) ideas and interests. The author suggests that through the systematic official process of privileging certain discourses, texts and approaches, local perspectives are subordinated.109 pagesAvailable to the World Wide WebThesis