In this paper we explore what we consider to be the shared concerns of those neurodivergent and/or mad-identified scholars and activists who are seeking to make space for themselves within the academy. In doing so, we consider what critical questions and action people involved in these could address together in ways that move beyond identity-based politics

Since the 1990s, the concept of "recovery in/from serious mental health problems" has been iterated internationally as the new paradigm in mental health policy and practice.A constitutive element of recovery discourse is a struggle over what defines a "good" life-in-time, yet temporalities of recovery remain under-investigated. This paper offers an empirical exploration of recovery enacted in an NHS "arts for mental health" service called Create. I present an analysis of several intersecting temporalities at play withinCreate through the lens of one service-user's story. The temporal orderings of the situated aesthetic care practices at Create encapsulate competing articulations of recovery, hope, and aspiration. These different temporalities enact different subjectivities, revealing recovery to be a set of socio-political struggles over what lives are deemed liveable in the context of global neoliberal capitalism.

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Maintaining good wellbeing in older age is seen to have a positive effect on health, including cognitive and physiological functioning. This paper explores experiences of wellbeing in a particular older adult community: those who have served in the military. It aims to identify the specific challenges that ex-service personnel may have, reporting findings from a qualitative study focused on how older veterans told stories of military service and what these stories revealed about wellbeing. We used a qualitative approach; data are drawn from 30 individual interviews, and from engagement with veterans in workshops. Analysis was conducted using a data-driven constant comparison approach. Three themes are presented: how loneliness affects older adult veterans; how they draw on fictive kinship; and the role of military visual culture. Although participants had diverse experiences of military service, they felt that being a veteran connected them to a community that went beyond association with specific experiences. Using narratives of military experience to connect, both in telling stories and by stories being listened to, was vital. As veterans, older adults were able to access each other as a resource for listening and sharing. However, it was also exclusionary: civilians, because they lacked military service experience, could not empathise and be used as a resource.

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