Hello All

 

This message has 3 functions (they are the headings in bold).

 

Update on developments regarding the day.

 

Back in 2006 I sent out a set of questions, to which a number of people responded (many thanks to them). I had asked for responses before Christmas (in case there was a need to book an outside speaker).

 

Since then I have looked at the responses and summarised them. I have shared this material with another member of the WMIds group. We have discussed the material and the practical organisation of the day in a WMids Group Meeting.

 

The upshot is that there was not a clear majority in favour of an outside speaker but that there was a view that there should be at least one speaker to get us started.

 

All this led us to the conclusion that we would suggest that members of the network provide an introduction to this day.

 

We will be sending out flyers describing a “Community Psychology Practice Development Day”, which people can use to help their workplaces understand the relevance of the event.

 

As mentioned before, the cost will be about £20.

 

If people can give us an idea of their intention to come or otherwise, that would be very helpful (so far, Gareth and Annie lead the way). These responses may help us to reduce the cost.

 

You can email me directly [log in to unmask]

 

 

 

Reminder to anybody who has been wanting to come but has forgotten to put it in their diary.

 

Get your finger out.

 

 

Prompt to the list to do some pre-debate to lead us in to the event.

 

In order to arrive on the day with the best chance possible of achieving something worthwhile a number of people suggested starting off debate in advance. There was also support for some structure to the day.

 

Here is some information to get us started.

 

Some important themes emerged from the material people sent in, I mention a couple of them here:

 

• for some people there is a belief that war and torture can be understood separately, while for others they are part of the same thing “globalisation”. This was reflected in a question raised by Mark Burton, “how do we conceptualise the broad structuring of oppression?”. Understanding our answers to this question will help us understand the kinds of practical outputs we want to come up with at the end of such a day.

 

• there is a related question for some of us of how these issues relate to our work and, consequently, in what capacity we would be attending the day? Psychologist or citizen?

 

 

Mark had also mentioned a possible approach to the structure of the day in one of his emails. I asked him to describe it, which he did.

 

Here it is:

 

“I didn't have a specific model in mind but thought that as people will

 be together it would be worth actually trying to get a product from their

 presence and involvement.  So a structure might involve an introductory

 presentation that had the structure of presenting key issues, and then

 groups would work to fill in a template producing a consensus statement

 that could then be circulated around the network and possibly agreed or

 published.

 So if for example the overall topic was:

 "Alternatives to neo-liberalisation"

 A talk could briefly sketch out what neo-liberal formulae and policies

 look like, and 5 key points of criticism.

 Then the group could work through the following:

 1)  How is neo-liberalisation impacting on the following:

 -vulnerable people in UK and abroad

 - communities in UK and abroad

 - health and welfare systems

 2)  What are the current trends, most worrying developments, in these

 areas?

 3)  What resistance is there to this?

 - what are its strengths and weaknesses

 4)  How might community and other critical psychologists work on this?

 - within psychology

 - in interdisciplinary contexts

 - as citizens

 

 This isn't meant to prescribe what it would look like but give a kind of

 worked example.

 

 I think the Work Tables could simply work through these - and it would

 Be worth having separate topics on different tables, probably relating to

 some kind of general scene setting.  they could probably function as

 leaderless groups,, but it might be worth having a couple of floaters

 who could help get groups unstuck, watch time, etc.

 

 I've used something like this in other areas and it gets a lot of

 valuable material from what might otherwise just be a fell-good (or probably feel

 awful!) day.”

 

 

Cheers

 

Carl