Thanks David, sounds like an interesting development and I'll look out for
the event.
Mark
> Dear Mark,
>
> For the last two years I have been working as a member of a small steering
> group set up by the British Psychological Society College of Fellows to
> explore possible contributions which psychology might make to the
> 'understanding and management of some of today's major issues in our
> society'. I have attempted to contribute to that as a community critical
> psychologist.
>
> In the spring of this year, this group ran a study day on 'Promoting
> mental health and well-being in communities: Psychological perspectives',
> which received some positive feedback from those attending. As part of
> that day Cathy McCormack. Elaine Swift and George Black (community
> activists) and I gave an input titled 'Psychology for Transformation:
> Understanding the insanity of many people's lived reality from a critical
> community psychology perspective. Part of this is Cathy's notion of 'the
> war without bullets', the 'briefcase war', being waged in our housing
> schemes. Ironically the poorly insulated damp housing which has caused
> physical and mental health damage to many tenants and which Cathy has
> worked to expose and contest has also been responsible for tenants heating
> the skies over Glasgow in an effort to keep well.
>
> Colleagues in the College of Fellows steering group and I have for some
> time now been planning the next venture of which the provisional title is
> 'Climate change: what is the role of Psychology? That is planned for
> November or December in London. Negotiations are underway with potential
> contributors as I write and I can not disclose further details at present.
> As a community critical psychologist I am working to get this issue of
> climate change onto the agenda of issues addressed by psychologists.
>
> As for 'the role of community psychology' in relation to climate change,
> as a community critical psychologist I have been working to maximise
> chances that, in my view problematic, default assumptions of acritical
> psychology that the contribution of psychologists to climate change is to
> engage in individualistic analysis and intervention regarding motivation
> and attitude and behaviour change at the individual level is challenged
> effectively in such a study day.
>
> I have also been working to maximise chances that the claim that the
> discipline of psychology, as it is constructed and maintained in
> industrialised societies like ours, is an essential element of the
> rapacious exploitation of people and natural resources which is the
> contemporary manifestation of capitalism i.e. that psychology is part of
> the problem of the generation of deleterious climate change.
>
> I have recently been considering the arguments of Ian Parker (in
> 'Revolution in Psychology: Alienation to Emancipation') that community
> psychology is no different from the rest of psychology in this respect
> i.e. that community psychology is also part of the problematic capitalist
> system and thus part of the problem of the generation of global warming.
> Certainly I believe that the intellectual colonisation of UK community
> psychologies by US CP is profoundly problematic
>
> So I am with you in trying to ensure global warming is critically
> addressed but lack confidence that community psychology currently
> constructed can 'help' i.e. is part of the solution and I am more
> interested in collective critical reflexivity about the problematic nature
> of our own ways of thinking and acting and working as community
> psychologists than in assuming we have a solution in community psychology
> to offer others grappling with global warming
>
> David
>
> ________________________________
>
> From: The UK Community Psychology Discussion List on behalf of Mark Burton
> Sent: Tue 8/21/2007 14:55
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Community psychology and climate change - how can it help?
>
>
>
> Community psychology and climate change - how can it help?
>
> The conclusion is now inescapable that the environment is going critical
> on us. According to the most coherent sources we need to look at a
> reduction of some 80-90% in greenhouse gas emissions to avert a runaway
> warming process that could end human life on earth. Meanwhile governments
> are acknowledging the problem, pretending to take action, while doing
> precisely nothing that will have any real effect on the problem.
>
> There are a number of problems to be addressed in mobilising for effective
> change:-
> * Building a popular movement that keeps the real issues on the
> agenda and
> builds a dominant consensus for radical action.
> * As part of this, communicating effectively on a grand scale about
> the
> nature of the problem, effective versus ineffective actions and the
> benefits to be attained.
> * Dealing with enemy(1) propaganda that suggests either that the
> problem
> isn't real, or that it can be dealt with by minimalist action.
> * Demonstrating the positive benefits for people and communities of
> an
> alternative way of living that lives within ecological limits.
> * Finding ways to manage the transition - where there will be
> winners and
> losers.
>
> A quick internet search finds little or no engagement of community
> psychology with the problem. This may be because attention is elsewhere.
> For too long, community psychology has pursued a policy of quietism behind
> the attractive slogan, 'think globally, act locally'. It is now time to
> use what know how community and social psychology can lay its hands on in
> furtherance of this great struggle.
>
> How?
> Community psychologists need to
> 1. Get up to speed with the problem (2).
> 2. Intervene publicly in relation to each of the tasks above.
> 3. Draw on or raid psychology's knowledge base, together with real
> world
> experience to identify effective and ineffective strategies, particularly
> for communication and mobilisation.
> 4. Create spaces in which ideas, experience, contacts, information
> etc.
> can be exchanged.
>
> In other words, think globally and locally, act locally and globally.
> Sorry, it isn't so catchy, but it is far more appropriate to the scale of
> the problem and the nature of politics today.
>
> So here is the bit that you have to write: first of all, where are you
> going to engage in the political struggle? Second, what can you lay your
> hands on in the cannon of community psychology that will assist in this
> giant task? Third, how will you communicate what you are doing?
>
> Mark Burton
> August, 2007
>
> 1 No apology for this term - the deniers and the apologists are directly
> threatening the livelihoods and lives of people in the majority worlds,
> our own lives, and certainly those of our children and grandchildren. We
> know who they are - the paid agents of capital, of the oil, motor car and
> aviation industries in particular, and the military industrial complex in
> general. See for example
> http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2005/05/some_like_it_hot.html
> 2 Try George Monbiot, Heat, 2006 for a quick start.
> http://www.penguin.co.uk/nf/Book/BookDisplay/0,,9780141026626,00.html
>
> ___________________________________
> COMMUNITYPSYCHUK - The discussion list for community psychology in the UK.
> To unsubscribe or to change your details visit the website:
> http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/COMMUNITYPSYCHUK.HTML
> For any problems or queries, contact the list moderator Rebekah Pratt on
> [log in to unmask] or Grant Jeffrey on [log in to unmask]
>
>
>
> --
> The University of Stirling is a university established in Scotland by
> charter at Stirling, FK9 4LA. Privileged/Confidential Information may
> be contained in this message. If you are not the addressee indicated
> in this message (or responsible for delivery of the message to such
> person), you may not disclose, copy or deliver this message to anyone
> and any action taken or omitted to be taken in reliance on it, is
> prohibited and may be unlawful. In such case, you should destroy this
> message and kindly notify the sender by reply email. Please advise
> immediately if you or your employer do not consent to Internet email
> for messages of this kind.
>
>
> ___________________________________
> COMMUNITYPSYCHUK - The discussion list for community psychology in the UK.
> To unsubscribe or to change your details visit the website:
> http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/COMMUNITYPSYCHUK.HTML
> For any problems or queries, contact the list moderator Rebekah Pratt on
> [log in to unmask] or Grant Jeffrey on [log in to unmask]
>
>
>
___________________________________
COMMUNITYPSYCHUK - The discussion list for community psychology in the UK.
To unsubscribe or to change your details visit the website:
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/COMMUNITYPSYCHUK.HTML
For any problems or queries, contact the list moderator Rebekah Pratt on [log in to unmask] or Grant Jeffrey on [log in to unmask]
|
