Dreaming Peer Support Futures

Drawing on practices of diffractive reading supported by zine-making methods, throughout this major research paper I explore the question: “what could a lens of futurity offer the world of consumer/survivor peer support?”

In Chapter 1, I engage in a theoretical dialogue between the realm of peer support and notions of futurity to demonstrate the benefits and alignment of a futural (re)turn within the peer support sector, setting the stage for the rest of my analysis.

In Chapter 2, I explicate the ways – the whys and hows – that peer supporters are exploited by the psychiatric industrial complex under neoliberal rule, grounded in a historical approach that draws on the frameworks of confluence (Joseph, 2015) and neuroliberalism (Moussa, 2019) so that we may “learn from the past” (Butler, 2000, p. 166) in order to better anticipate the future.

In Chapter 3, I explore how the peer support sector is itself implicated in upholding systems of oppression (white supremacy, Western dominance, colonization, and colonialism) by troubling the “peer support origin story” and the current demographics of the field, as well as identifying what futures are currently in construction.

Lastly, in Chapter 4, I explore how we can draw on the lessons of funga and flora to both locate ourselves within the present and dream peer support futures beyond the limits of realism.