Bedlam on the Streets

What happens when the mentally disturbed are let out of hospitals and there is nowhere for them to go? This hard-hitting and controversial new book traces the terms on which in the mentally ill occupy the city streets, homeless shelters, shopping areas, and fast food outlets. This social geography of the mentally ill is situated within the broader parameters of systems on social welfare and globalization. Using Montreal as a case study, Caroline Knowles argues that the community must take responsibility for their own neglect of these ill people.Bedlam on the Streetsis a richly textured work that combines stark photographic images with the ill's own voice.

Caroline Knowles is Reader in Sociology at the University of Southampton.