Craig,

Your post may considered to be hilarious if it was, indeed, witty in 'the nicest possible way'.  By all means object, have a different opinion. Unfortunately, your intentionally rude response may do more to stifle debate and learning.  I dont find that funny, at all.

Elaine 
-original message-
Subject: Re: Sponsorship of Community Psychology
From: "CRAIG NEWNES" <[log in to unmask]>
Date: 23/10/2010 11:17 pm

Fred, This is hilarious. Why on earth should anyone employ community 
psychologists? So far I have seen nothing that Comm Psychs do that isn't a mix 
of sociology/poltics and direct action that is surpased by trade unionists, 
local people getting together and setting up a creche etc, etc. Is it time to 
get off the pedestal before you fall?
PS I do hope you find this rude - it's meant to be, in the nicest possible way. 
Don't quote Polly Toynbee, it gives the game away.
Craig




________________________________
From: Frederic Stansfield <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Saturday, 23 October, 2010 17:51:09
Subject: [COMMUNITYPSYCHUK] Sponsorship of Community Psychology


There has been some recent discussion about the role of the BPS in Community 
Psychology. I want to come at this concern from a different angle.

Who should own Community Psychology, both in the sense of who should pay for 
Community Psychology and in terms of who should direct what Community Psychology 
does?

I have a simplistic, but I believe correct, answer to this question. The 
community should own Community Psychology.

Now comes the problem for British community psychologists. In a democracy, the 
community should be governed by local councils. They ought to be elected, and 
councillors should determine the local taxes needed to perform their functions. 
But, as we all know, in Britain this does not happen. Local Government has been 
subverted by national government to become mere deliverers of essential 
services, to which they are constrained by inadequate funding. Most of local 
councils' funding comes as grans from Westminster, and there is little choice 
about local funding, so that Council Tax becomes in effect part of the very 
heavy tax burden placed on poor and middle income people by the state (it is a 
regressive tax in relation to the rich as there is a maximum Council Tax band).

Local government in the United Kingdom compares very unfavourably with that in 
other democracies, for instance France, within a couple of hours journey time of 
where I am writing this message. For instance, I used to play bridge and was 
involved in a couple of day exchange trips to Northern French towns. It was 
embarrassing that the French clubs had nice premises, supported by local 
authority grants, whilst our clubs could only offer hospitality in an old 
people's centre. 


Clearly this is very topical because of the Chancellor's "Cuts" statement last 
week, which is going to reduce the money available to English local government 
by about a quarter. And this is something to which we need to react as Community 
Psychologists.

In an ideal world, local authorities would employ community psychologists (as 
separate sections, please not as adjuncts to social work). If every local 
authority employed just a couple of community psychologists, it would be the 
basis of a sub-profession (presumably there would then be a Division of 
Community Psychology). About a thousand much needed jobs would be created for 
psychology graduates. But much more importantly community psychologists could 
provide needed support for individual and group empowerment within a democratic 
framework. This would both improve well-being and address costly social problems 
from the grassroots, as opposed to the social control perspective with which 
social work, for instance, has become irretrievably contaminated. However, 
little if any of this has been financed in recent years, and it certainly will 
not be after recent Government decisions.

So, how else will community psychology happen? I see three directions.

Firstly, Community Psychology could be funded by charity. This is probably the 
most acceptable path. But the money is very limited - and there are lots of 
other demands upon it. In addition, in an unequal society charity moves decision 
making away from the community to funders. perhaps more seriously, many 
charities have become subordinated to central government through the provision 
of grants so that they can provide services instead of democratic local 
government. We have recently been discussing the status of charities in relation 
to Community Psychology, and we need to develop these thoughts further.

Secondly, community psychology can happen through university projects, including 
"research". Having studied Organisational Behaviour as part of an M.Sc. in 
Occupational Psychology, I think that this reflects a position that universities 
are reaching the stage of becoming "over-mature" organisations. All 
organisations seek first of all to survive, and universities are doing so by 
moving into activities that should really be done by applied psychologists 
employed in and by the community. Incidentally, but importantly, they are 
serving themselves, and protecting academic careers, by educating more students 
than can possibly get relevant jobs. And please don't think I mean university 
administrators here. There are lots of academics who w

___________________________________
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]) or Grant Jeffrey ([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