Hi Annie,
I agree with your point about the dangers of matching 'clever experts' to
newcomers would be problematic. For me, the main issue with this would be
the potential for blatant reproduction of the type of social mediated
communications we have been seeing on the list itself. Whilst the exchanges
have been increasingly interesting, there have been times I have felt I'm
reading messages from a lot of men about a lot of other men (the second lot
generally being more historic and even cleverer experts). I think the
dangers of mentoring would be we reinforce this public representation of
dominant group dominance in community psychology.
In particular Annie's email refers to the revelation of mentoring and
support by David's email. Whilst you didn't say it explicitly Annie (and
please note I find your emails overwhelmingly supportive and encouraging), I
read your email to saying David acts as an off list mentor. The only thing
that is actually revealed by this is how we assume who the expert is in the
exchanges, how we decide who is the mentored and who is the mentor. The
answer just happens to not actually be that straightforward in this
particular instance, but it made a clear point about how easy it is to
understand who our clever experts are through conventions of gender, status,
age etc. I think this conveniently served to highlight the dangers of going
down a mentor model path.
As a group we could do with paying careful attention to how this dominance
becomes replicated on our list discussions, reflected in our assumptions
about our colleagues (both those who speak up on the list and those who do
not) at our conferences and in the authoring of our conceptual frameworks.
Just to connect back to where we started from, I would like to see a careful
commitment to continuing to represent the diversity of our network at the
next conference.
Best wishes,
Rebekah
Ps By the way .. I'm finding mentoring David both challenging and
rewarding..
-----Original Message-----
From: The UK Community Psychology Discussion List
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Annie Mitchell
Sent: 08 December 2005 10:45
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [COMMUNITYPSYCHUK] Escaping the Critique
Hi Diane,
Mutual mentoring/ induction is a nice idea. Though I'd want it not to
simply be a process whereby the "clever experts" induct the newcomers. We
all have differing expertises and identities we bring to our exchanges and
it would be good to share those around, value them and encourage one another
to make inputs from our differing expertises..For example your experience of
the barriers you have overcome should be just as valuable to this list as
others' experiences of grappling with philosophical issues.
I believe we need to bring our differing perspectives together in as equal
way as we can - to make sense and take action.
I'm sure some sort of mentoring in any case goes on behind the scenes of
this list - for example as was revealed through David F's inadvertent
posting of background communication; my comments about the linked
conversations we had at the southwest network meetings, individual emails
that go back and forth between colleagues who have relationships outside of
this list etc. But the value of a mentor approach could be that we make
connections across our usual sub-groups.
Anyway, I'd be up for a bit of partnering / mentoring someone whose
experiences were complementary to mine: so here are some of my identities.
I'm white, female, middle aged, long-term single parent but now living in a
shared family situation, from a north england comprehensive school
background, clinical psychologist working at present in psychology
department in an old style university and also in a general hospital
offering clinical/community service, with an interest in participatory
research. I've occasionally used mental health and complementary health
services to support me in managing my distress. And I'd like to do more
about ecological issues. And i like singing and taking part in drama.
BUT I'm aware that this list has recently taken up more of my/ our time
than it usually does - as it has been so fascinating. We'd have to be
realistic about how much time we could devote to this.
Annie
--On 08 December 2005 10:54 +0800 Diane Costello <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:
>
>
> Thank you David for clarifying the cultural gap I was experiencing.
> As a relative novice to ontological discourse and having overcome the
> barriers posed by poverty, single parenting, ethnic minority status,
> sexism, disability [just to name a few] -- these discussions have
> awaken me to the rules implicit in claiming a voice.
>
>
>
> I have been advantaged by these discussions and while I feel
> overwhelmed and perhaps a little intimidated it has been an intoxicating
experience.
>
>
>
> May I be bold enough to suggest as an initiation process - whereby
> those who want an easier transition to the field of CP- be assigned a
> mentor on the list to encourage greater contributions from those who
> may feel excluded for whatever reason.
>
>
>
> Sincere cheers
>
>
>
> Diane
>
>
>
> ------------------------
>
>
>
> Diane Costello Assoc MAPS
>
> Lecturer
>
> School of Behavioural Science
>
> College of Arts & Sciences
>
> The University of Notre Dame Australia
>
> 19 Mouat Street (PO Box 1225)
>
> Fremantle, Western Australia 6959
>
> Tel: +61 8 9433 0867
>
> Fax: +61 8 9433 0210
>
> Email: [log in to unmask]
>
> Internet: www.nd.edu.au
>
> CRICOS code: 01032F
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> __________________________________________________
>
> From: The UK Community Psychology Discussion List
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of David Fryer
> Sent: Thursday, 8 December 2005 8:33 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: [COMMUNITYPSYCHUK] Escaping the Critique
>
>
>
>
> Dear All,
>
>
>
> Here are a few personal reflections on recent interesting material
> posted to the list.
>
>
>
> I have found that Paul and Mike importantly use humour to draw my
> attention back to reflection what I want of the list in relation to
> community psychology (COMMUNITYPSYCHUK - The discussion list for
> community psychology in the UK)?
>
>
>
> I do want a forum in which we can read and write about and debate
> critical community psychology (CCP for short) at a sophisticated level
> but that is not enough for me - I also want a forum in which CCP is
> practiced, that in which our actions are in line with the values and
> assumptions of CCP.
>
>
>
> For me it is central to CCP that it is committed to challenging and
> contesting excluding, depowering and disabling practices and unjust
> and damaging hierarchies. It is also central to CCP that it is
> committed to challenging and contesting individualism and
> psychologism. I am not, and do not want to be interpreted as, imputing
> disreputable intentions or motives to individual list members in
> offering critical refection on what it seems to me to be happening in
> our list discussion. However my concern is that we, collectively, are
> reproducing and maintaining within the list oppressive power relations
> outside the list. That is not surprising of course. When we
> participate in the list, those of us who 'enjoy' them cannot
> individually cast off the privileges and powers that come with being
> male in a sexist society, affluent in a materially grossly unequal
> society, dominant ethnic group members in a racist society,
> disproportionately enabled in a disablist society, educationally
> successful in a meritocratic society etc. Nevertheless, whatever the
> good intentions and motives and difficulty of doing otherwise, I fear
> that our discussion (including my own inputs) sometimes excludes,
> depowers and disables others on the list and recreates external socially
structured hierarchies of power and powerless in the list.
>
>
>
> On the other hand I think that some of the issues we need to address
> to become effective require concepts which ignore or redraw conceptual
> and ideological boundaries so I am also grateful for inputs by Grant,
> Mark and others. Difficulties in understanding, in my view, are caused
> not only by the nature of what one is trying to understand but also by
> what one brings with one with which to do the understanding. Immersion
> in positivist realist (per)versions of science militates against
> coming to understand other notions of what counts as knowledge and
> other assumptions about 'what there is'? I think that those believing
> in 'modernism' confronted with post-modernism are in some ways in a
> comparable position to those who believed the earth was flat
> confronted with those who argued the world was round(ish). Our
> difficulties in understanding radical ideas are to some extent because
> we have been educated not to be able to do so. Our educational
> practices create ideological illiteracy?
>
>
>
> So I do think we also need challenges to and support in discussion
> about complex for-us, for-now-inaccessible issues using unfamiliar
> terms and constructions. A challenge to us all on this community
> psychology list, it seems to me, is how to do this without excluding,
> depowering and disabling others on the list and recreating and
> maintaining external hierarchies of power and powerless in our list
> 'community'. Any ideas how?
>
>
>
> David
>
>
>
> __________________________________________________
>
> From: The UK Community Psychology Discussion List on behalf of Michael
> ridley-Dash
> Sent: Wed 07/12/2005 20:45
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: [COMMUNITYPSYCHUK] Escaping the Critique
>
>
>
> Coming from the Frankfurter school of thought I take Bockwurst's 'The
> adapted transdimensional exploration of the inner discoursals cavities'
> as the really seminal work. In it he argues that the 'Sausage-world'
> or as he coins it 'the integral meat-encompassed reality of being' is
> being infiltrated by the stodgy maize of imperial capitalism. I find
> this work to be best enjoyed whilst studying fluctuations in the
> housing market, perhaps accompanyed by the sound of the late-great
> opulent marxist John Lennon's 'Imagine' played on a Kazoo.
>
>
>
> __________________________________________________
>
> Yahoo! Cars NEW - sell your car and browse thousands of new and used
> cars online search now
>
> __________________________________________________
>
> ___________________________________
>
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> COMMUNITYPSYCHUK - The discussion list for community psychology in the
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> [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
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> [log in to unmask]
Annie Mitchell
Lecturer in Psychology,
Clinical Director, Doctorate in Clinical and Community Psychology,
School of Psychology,
Washington Singer Building,
University of Exeter,
Exeter,
EX4 4QG
Phone 01392 264621 or
Liz Mears, Programme Administrator 01392 403184
___________________________________
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