The Leverhulme Trust has just awarded a research grant for a project entitled ‘Beyond Personal Wellbeing: Mapping the Social Production of Mindfulness in England and Wales’, for which Richard King, Professor of Buddhist and Asian Studies in the Department of Religious Studies, is co-investigator.
Mindfulness is now being employed not only as a therapy, but also to ensure national well-being, happiness, and flourishing; productivity, performance, and efficiency; sustainability, creativity and activism. But what does the exponential rise of mindfulness tell us about the social world in which we are currently living?
Beginning in October 2017, the project will investigate mindfulness provision in England and Wales, looking at the increasing availability of mindfulness practice, specifically in the fields of health and well-being, education, business, politics, and religion.
Richard has recently given a Think Kent lecture on mindfulness, entitled ‘Mindfulness and the Buddhist Tradition’.
The project is led by Dr Steven Stanley (University of Cardiff). Richard is co-investigator alongside Dr Alp Arat (British Sociological Association) and Dr Peter Hemming (University of Cardiff).
For more details of Leverhulme Trust Research Project Grants, please see the page here:
www.leverhulme.ac.uk/funding/grant-schemes/research-project-grants