Dear all,
Paul (Duckett) made a useful start in thinking about a CP Co-operative. By the way all posts on this list are archived and can be searched.
Mention has been made of SCRA in posts recently. SCRA is an acronym for Society for Community Research and Action. I contacted Mark Aber who is currently President of SCRA. Drawing on Mark Aber's very helpful reply I can clarify a few relevant points. Mark Aber gave me permission to quote his email.
Before that, as context, the American Psychological Association (APA) is a United Statesian professional organisation we may consider roughly equivalent to the BPS. It has sub-parts called Divisions. Division 27 is the Community Psychology Division. Although an APA Division is different in some ways to a BPS Section, there may be some useful comparisons to be made between APA Div 27 (Community Psychology) and the BPS Community Psychology Section
According to Mark Aber SCRA (Society for Community Research and Action) is an "independently incorporated not-for-profit organization. All members of APA's division 27 have status in SCRA, but not the other way around. While it is true that the creation of SCRA as an organization with (some) independence from APA (the limits of which have never been tested but may be as SCRA moves toward endorsing policy positions which may conflict with those of APA) -- I think it's fair to say that today one of the more important dimensions of this independence for SCRA members is that many of them (psychologists) have no interest in supporting APA as it's function as a guild for clinical psychology has come to dominate how it approaches everything it does. So, many SCRA members feel good that they don't have to contribute $ to APA in joining SCRA. SCRA also owns and operates the American Journal of Community Psychology (AJCP) independently of APA. There are some freedoms associated with that too. I am not aware of any downsides to this way of operating. As Div 27, we still have access to the various supports and services that APA provides its divisions (legal services, accounting and membership services (although the latter we prefer to handle on our own for efficiency purposes).
I would add to this that SCRA also has a regular publication ("The Community Psychologist") which is somewhere between a members' newsletter and a journal. SCRA also has an active discussion list. SCRA also makes awards and organises a Biennial Congress. The membership of SCRA is international though appears dominated by Unitd Statesians. The USA has a very large number of academic community psychologists as community psychology is much more widely taught in Universities in the USA than in the UK, so it also devotes some effort to sharing teaching resources.
I find myself in an odd position in passing on this, apparently affirmatory, information about SCRA to the UK list as I am more usually a critic in relation to SCRA because I regard it as a problematic relay of intellectual colonisation, notwithstanding the superb critical work done by some SCRA members. However the Div 27 / SCRA relationship does seem a useful model to consider as to how the BPS CP Section and UK CP Collective could be interrelated.
To spell it out: a UK CP Collective (CPC) could include all members of the BPS Section but also anyone else who shared its aims but did not want to be BPS members. The CPC could have any or no membership fee it agreed. The CCP could be the chief decision making body and could determine policy for the BPS CP Section. The BPS CP Section could in a sense be a political wing of the CCP operating within the BPS, mandating the Section to raise various issues within and attempt to influence the BPS from the inside.
Of course when the Section is 'public' those who join it will decide how to take it forward. I believe from the Society that many hundreds of people have expressed an interest in joining! Many of these may not want to join the CCP and indeed may not wish the CP Section to take a radical stand.
If we went in this (ish) sort of direction) we would collectively have 2 tasks - setting up the CCP and setting up the Section. Given the finite amount of time and energy list members have available for these matters, it seems to me the establishment of the CCP should be our priority activity as the BPS CP Section could then be accountable to it.
I am more worried about the autocratic way the Society is operating than what it is trying to require us to do. I am unhappy that the BPS meeting schedule is determining our decisions ("Without a fee members cannot be registered to join – fees are only considered once a year by the Trustees so the next opportunity will be next August") and I am unhappy that our decisions are being taken for granted ("the Member Network Services Manager has already prepared a paper for the Board of Trustees for their meeting in September with the fee as mentioned") (i.e. as mentioned by the BPS!).
I would prefer us to defer the fee decision until next August, use the time to build the CCP and ways of ensuring the Society is accountable to the wider collective and plan in detail a first year of intensive radical CP action within the BPS once the Section is live. Otherwise I fear that after 6 years of work to get a radical CP voice in the BPS we are allowing it to be taken over by the establishment on its first day
David
________________________________
From: The UK Community Psychology Discussion List [[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Annie Mitchell [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 14 August 2010 03:32
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: British Psychological Society Section
Dear all,
Following on Gavi’s point: the important reason we are working to establish a section of the BPS (we collectively having voted to do so at a national community psychology conference some years ago, after many years of debating the issues which are still being debated here and which will no doubt continue, rightly, to be debated ) is so that we can try to change the BPS from within ( as well as from without). The Society has not been more pro-active around issues of social justice is at least partly because those of us who are pre-occupied with social justice have not had our own section within the society from which to speak up and be active.
I vote £15 for graduate members ( waged); free for graduate members (unwaged) or nominal fee of £1 if we have to have one) ;
£5 student members
£15 affiliate members ( waged); free for affiliate members (unwaged )or nominal fee of £1 if we have to have one..
I ‘d be happy to accept a compromise on charges decided upon by those acting as go-betweens with the society in order to move things on - we can always change later; we are very unlikely to reach a universally acceptable consensus by debate on the list.
Parallel and complementary to the BPS development, it would be fantastic if someone had the energy to push forward for a separate UK community psychology co-operative along the lines previously suggested ( for which on one of our discussion sites there is a proposed framework – put together perhaps was it Paul or Carl – sorry - my memory is hazy on the history of our debates). I liked the points Abdullah made on this.
I also agree with Erica that change is slow: maybe we are still not ready/ maybe we do not have the capacity collectively to make the heave necessary to get the section going: and of course there would be continued heave afterwards to keep it afloat with critical activist values
Thanks Sally and others for your work on this for us!.For myself I have bowed out a bit for now; I haven’t the capacity/ resources at present to keep up the momentum needed and I’m grateful to others for moving things along
Annie
From: The UK Community Psychology Discussion List [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Gavriel Ansara
Sent: 13 August 2010 17:26
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [COMMUNITYPSYCHUK] British Psychological Society Section
Addendum: Perhaps one ethical obligation incumbent on community psychologists who do join BPS (or APA) is to actively and vocally campaign for better ethical standards and respect for human rights/social justice. There are multiple ways that these professional associations are contributing directly or indirectly to societal oppressions that are of primary importance to community psychologists. Torture is just one of several major concerns.
Gavi
On Fri, Aug 13, 2010 at 5:23 PM, Gavriel Ansara <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote:
Dear all,
I'm curious why the ethical issues some of us might have about being involved in BPS membership seem to have become less important. Unlike UKCP, neither BPS nor APA has unequivocally condemned torture, as the recent press release posted by Dr Değirmencioğlu reveals.
I would have grave ethical concerns about belonging to ANY organisation that was unable to condemn torture and human rights abuses in the strongest terms, even if membership were entirely free. At least in terms of stated policies, UKCP seems far more ethically stringent than BPS or APA in this and several other areas related to human rights and social justice.
Gavi
On Fri, Aug 13, 2010 at 5:17 PM, John Cromby <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote:
I vote £15 for waged, £5 students, £0 unwaged if we're allowed that.
J.
On 13/08/2010 16:59, Sally Zlotowitz wrote:
She didn't say but I think by late Monday afternoon would be OK (so perhaps votes in by 3.30pm).
Thanks Carl.
Have good weekends!
Sally
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席嘉力 آتش جاوید גבריאל יוסף
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PhD Candidate & Academic Tutor
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Mr Y. Gavriel Ansara, MSc with Distinction (Surrey)
席嘉力 آتش جاوید גבריאל יוסף
'Zoos are full, prisons are overflowing... my, how the world still dearly loves a cage.' -Maude
٠•●♥Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ♥●•٠·˙
PhD Candidate & Academic Tutor
University of Surrey, Department of Psychology
http://www.psy.surrey.ac.uk/index.htm
Founder & Co-Coordinator, Critical Psychology at Surrey
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=373193592940&ref=ts
Teaching Faculty, The Kerulos Ctr
http://kerulos.org/
Contributing Author, Counselling Ideologies: Queer Challenges to Heteronormativity
http://www.ashgate.com/isbn/9780754676836
Member & Co-Author, Professionals Concerned with Gender Diagnoses in the DSM
http://www.professionals.gidreform.org/
Former Founding Director & Former Founding Advocates Programme Co-Supervisor, Lifelines Rhode Island/Cuerdas de Salvamento
http://lifelinesri.org/
Speaker on Multicultural Issues, Organisation Intersex International (OII)
http://intersexualite.org/Gavi.html
___________________________________ The Community Psychology List has a new website/blog at: http://www.communitypsychology.co.uk/ There is a threaded discussion forum: http://www.communitypsychology.co.uk/cgi-bin/discus/discus.cgi There is a twitter feed: http://twitter.com/CommPsychUK To post on the website blog, forum or twitter feed, contact Grant or David at the email addresses below. David Fryer ([log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>) or Grant Jeffrey ([log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>) To unsubscribe or to change your details on this COMMUNITYPSYCHUK list, visit the website: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=COMMUNITYPSYCHUK
___________________________________ The Community Psychology List has a new website/blog at: http://www.communitypsychology.co.uk/ There is a threaded discussion forum: http://www.communitypsychology.co.uk/cgi-bin/discus/discus.cgi There is a twitter feed: http://twitter.com/CommPsychUK To post on the website blog, forum or twitter feed, contact Grant or David at the email addresses below. David Fryer ([log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>) or Grant Jeffrey ([log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>) To unsubscribe or to change your details on this COMMUNITYPSYCHUK list, visit the website: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=COMMUNITYPSYCHUK
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