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Research staff:
- Health and Wellbeing
- Salutogenesis and Holistic Health
- Social Determinants in Health
- Community Resilience
- Qualitative Methods
Teaching staff:
- Qualifications:BA(Hons), PhD
- Position:Associate Professor in Public Health (Health and Wellbeing)
- Department:College of Health, Science and Society School of Health and Social Wellbeing
- Telephone:+441173288783
- Email:Stuart.Mcclean@uwe.ac.uk
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About me
Stuart McClean is an internationally recognised social scientist and Associate Professor in Public Health at the University of the West of England, Bristol, where he contributes extensively to postgraduate research training and doctoral supervision. His work sits at the forefront of contemporary social science inquiry into the resurgence of complementary, alternative and holistic health practices in Western societies and the socio-cultural dynamics that shape how people create, maintain and experience health in everyday life.
With over 50 peer-reviewed publications, including Folk Healing and Health Care Practices in Britain and Ireland (co-editor, Berghahn, 2010), Thinking About the Lifecourse (Palgrave, 2014), and Research Methods for Public Health (Sage, 2019), McClean’s scholarship critically examines how health beliefs and practices long regarded as marginal are increasingly woven into broader debates about wellbeing, culture and modernity. His research brings anthropological depth to understanding the complex interplay between folk, complementary and biomedical health systems, challenging conventional boundaries and offering fresh insights into why holistic health approaches have gained traction in Western contexts.
A unifying theme in his work is salutogenesis, the study of what creates and sustains positive health, rather than merely preventing disease. McClean’s research program explores how individuals and communities actively work at “doing well” and “being well”, and how social, spatial and cultural environments enable or constrain these processes. This includes scholarship on salutogenic spaces and places, such as hybrid workplaces or repurposed community environments like medieval churches, where social belonging, coherence and wellbeing can flourish. McClean investigates how sense of coherence, meaning, manageability and connection to environment shape psychosocial health across diverse contexts.
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