Hiya David and all,

I thought I would chip into this really interesting discussion about criticality and community; since the CP conference the tension between the two has been buzzing about the front of my brain a bit.

I guess that (for the moment ;-) I do in fact see 'criticality' as one value amongst many others in community psychology - it seems to me that there are different ways to be critical, which are more or less useful at different times and in different contexts.

The kind of criticality that is "marked by a tendency to find and call attention to errors and flaws" might be useful in some contexts, whereas "careful evaluation and judgement" might be appropriate in others.

Criticality (in some of its forms in some contexts) will potentially conflict with other values that might be at home in community psychology* and to argue that criticality itself is something other than a competing value (what would it then be like, 'a given', rule that must not be questioned?) might in itself oppress / subjugate conflicting values.

Values (beliefs of a person or social group in which they have an emotional investment?), whenever they are not explicit, will inevitably be implicit in any organisation, movement, or social group.  Contesting, challenging, and even celebrating values is part of the process of making them explicit and ensuring that community psychology remains vibrant and reflective.  We need to be critical about criticality too.  But we need to stand for something, have beliefs, and that we need emotional investment in our work.

It will always be very difficult to say which values are be 'ideologically oppressive' and in what circumstances, as a consequence I am worried that reifying criticality is in itself risky, missing the key point that there are different types of criticality and, importantly, different ways of being critical. There are times when critical judgement might have to be suspended until we have listened and understood clearly what other people are saying, and indeed times when simply listening (relatively!) non-judgementally (or non-critically) with an open heart might have a place.

Clearly we have a responsibility to think critically, but community psychology and critical psychology are not the same, and I am not troubled by the idea that community psychology might actually stand for things, ways of working, values that sit alongside criticality but are not dominated by it in every context.  We are capable of being reflexive and thinking critically about our own values without needing to abandon beliefs and values entirely!

It is not ok to simply say - "it is always good to be critical".  Perhaps there are forms of criticality that can themselves be silencing, cruel, a form of subjugation?

A tuppence worth at least,

Grant

(*I don't want to suggest values for CP in this wee email ;-) but I do think that warmth, sensitivity, good-spirit, kindness, friendliness, inclusiveness, encouragement etc, all values which I am sympathetic to more or less, are all potentially in tension with SOME types of criticality and I think it is risky to neglect those tensions or be careless about the damage criticality can do to community.)



-----Original Message-----
From: The UK Community Psychology Discussion List [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of David Fryer
Sent: 09 October 2008 09:49
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [COMMUNITYPSYCHUK] CCP? Really?

I am not convinced that the critical perspective is just one amongst many "community psychology's values" and I am not convinced talk of values is helpful in relation to community psychology (as opposed to in relation to community psychologists). It can lead to values being problematically  'prioritised' when they are apparently 'in conflict' and acritical decisions about which value(s) to privilege are made. If I were to think in terms of community psychologists' values, for me a critical dimension would be essential to every value worth holding - I would not want community psychologists to practice, think or speak  in accordance with any so-called 'value' which was ideologically oppressive, for example and when two values were apparently in 'conflict' I would expect decisions about how to proceed to require critical reflection: asking whose interests would be served in what ways by any particular way of acting, thinking, talking, theorising i.e. about how it would relate to oppression.
David


________________________________________
From: The UK Community Psychology Discussion List [[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Rebekah Pratt [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 08 October 2008 09:55
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [COMMUNITYPSYCHUK] CCP? Really?

Hi there,

I think any confussion is mostly a matter of context really!  In Aus/NZ
(where I trained as a community psycholgist myself) there is a clear
distinction between clincial and community psych, both in teaching and
practice.  In the US people often undertake joint community AND clinical
training.  Here in the UK, as you know, the group of us called community
psychologists is mostly made up of people who practice clinically and that
influences what CP means here.  As for that word critical, and critical
community psychology... it is turning into a bit of a bugbear of mine to be
honest!

As a community  psychologist I try to build on a sense of a values based
community psychology, of which being critical is PART of.  I think we could
reposition the 'critical' perspective to being one of CP's values (as
opposed to being part of a blanket label), one that exists along a range of
tensions with the many other values.  I think the idea of 'critical
community psych' has diffused some of the core identify of community
psychology in the UK (and maybe opened up a debating ground where we try to
narrow down our range of persepctives as opposed to broadening our debates
to consider a greater variety of positions)  I think it is time to find talk
about how we can be critical as one of our many values, and bring back other
values into focus (collaboration, diversity, context, practice/praxis) that
foster respectful interactions which might just make space for growing
knowledge rather than narrowing it down into one dominant view.  Any
anyway... isn't the invention of a new discipline, 'CCP' a sort of
patriarchial academic exercise that is more about owning knowledge that
building knowledge?

As critical views are gaining ground I feel we are loosing space to be able
to talk about our practice as community psychologists through being
constantly positioned as critically problematic.  For me, my practice is
mostly in a research setting, for many of our colleagues it is in clinical
settings, but there are unlimited ways in which to practice as a community
psychologist.  My practice is imperfect, infused with all the tensions of
having a values based view of community psych (including being critical,
which exists in tension with other values that are just as important to me)
and tries to make space for 'doing better' rather than rest in a state in
inaction waiting for what is considered critically worthwhile.   I was at a
workshop a few months ago where the speaker said, in response to the way
community interventions often fail to address material distress (one of our
major concerns), 'don't let the great become the enemy of the good'.  I
think I would like to see a more participative space open up that lets us
talk about that idea.

My point of view is probably some strange hybrid of my Aotearoa/New Zealand
roots and how I've been influenced by being in the UK for a pretty long
time!  But I think I would welcome some discussion on where that concept of
critical fits with us!

Rebekah

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