Critical suicidology (which includes emerging work in the anthropology of suicide) isĀ developing theoretical and practical tools of engagement that go against the current āone size fits allā evidence-based trend in suicide prevention/intervention (that, ironically, is losing ground under the weight of its own evidence) towards collective and community-driven approaches.
As a counterpoint to current research on suicide, which is primarily located in quantitative and positivist studies, the collaboration we envisage will emphasize the importance of qualitative and ethnographic research on suicide, rethinking the very meaning of evidence vis-Ć -vis a good or bad life and a good or bad death.
Critical Suicidology works from the well-reasoned understanding that we need frameworks, strategies and concepts relevant for the complex, contemporary world inĀ which are all now living, or in which some are struggling for liveability.
Critical Suicidology is not a unified approach that seeks to stand on the margins of suicide research; rather, it is site for diverse voices to come together around the fact that suicidology has become too narrowly focused on individual pathology and on the sometimes-exclusive use of positivist research methodologies, thereby actively excluding from consideration new, innovative and valuable approaches that do not fit well within these orthodoxies.Ā A suicidology that operates with a singular form of evidence or truth loses the possibility of creativity and plurality in developing new approaches to help address and understand suicide.