Critical Social Theory and Practice in Community Psychology: What We Think about What We Do, and Why

1
Critical Social Theory and Practice in Community
PsychologyWhat We Think about What We Do, and
Why It Matters

• Tod Sloan, Ph.D.
• Graduate School of Education and Counseling
• Lewis Clark College

2
Overview

• Theory and practice in community psychology (my
  impressions)
• Links between critical social theory and critical
  psychology
• A framework for understanding power and
  ideological processes in modernity
• Implications for community research and action

3
Theory and Practice in Community Psychology

• Example of community development project at high
  school in low-income neighborhood
• Goal Positive youth development and adult
  well-being
• Assignment Come to an agreement on a core
  feature for a logic model or theory of change
  for this project

4
Critical Social Theory

• Engaged theory, analyzing resistance to social
  transformation for social justice, and
  possibilities for change (e.g. Sandoval)
• Problem elitist jargon
• Problem gap between theory and practice
• Examples Foucault, Habermas, Butler

5
(No Transcript)
6
Guiding assumptions

• Systems of social control in modernity become
  more subtle -- through expert knowledge,
  administrative systems, propaganda, etc
• Power relations are heavily mediated by patterns
  of discourse, and articulated through class,
  gender, ethnicity, etc
• Forms of resistance are always present in
  material and symbolic forms

7
Critical Psychology vs. Scientific Psychology

• Where is it? (even in North America!)
• What does it do?
• Challenges technical control of the psyche
  (objectifying attitude, prediction and control)
  i.e., see psychology and psy-complex as part of
  the problem
• Corrects for the individualistic bias of
  scientific psychology, but also privileges
  subjectivity
• Fosters critical consciousness and
  de-ideologization through dialogue practices
• Solidarity participation, democracy, and radical
  citizenship to achieve social justice

8
De-ideologization?

• Ideology means
• A system of ideas and practices that sustain
  social relations characterized by domination and
  oppression.
• Or, simply, getting people to think and do things
  that are not in their interest
• For example sexism, consumerism, racism

9
Questions that need answers as we try to think
about what we do

• What is at the core of the problem of modern
  society?
• What accounts for loss of meaning, alienation,
  psychopathology?
• What can we do about it?
• Jürgen Habermas has some answers.

10
Essential Concept SystemIncludes all action
related to physical survival through exploitation
and control of things Characterized by
instrumental rationalityapplied to achieve goals
of the market and the state Aims at
effectiveness, efficiency, productivity,
comfortExamples Agriculture,
manufacturing, advertising, corrections, social
work, modern medicine
11
Essential Concept Lifeworld

• Sphere of symbolically-mediated communication
  about aesthetic, expressive and ethical concerns
• Processes aim at interpersonal
  understandingSpace for debate, revision of
  tradition, consensus
• Examples
• Teens arguing with parents about ground
  rulesSharing feelings with a friend
• Reading a novel
• Town hall visioning sessions for citizens

12
Relation between System and Lifeworld

• Claims stemming from each can be balanced if all
  claims can be heard and taken into account
• Both are necessary
• getting things done
• and
• understanding each other

13
System versus lifeworld

• With the rise of industrialism, system is
  decoupled from lifeworld (due to urbanization,
  division of labor, bureaucracy)
• Modernity begins when system interests
  (efficiency, growth, wealth accumulation) begin
  to override the interests of the lifeworld
• Key hypothesis This disrupts the social
  reproduction of the lifeworld

14
Reproduction of the Lifeworld?

• Lifeworld is sustained by the transmission and
  regeneration of foundations for culture, social
  norms, and personal identity, i.e.,
  enculturation, social integration, and
  socialization all of which are complex symbolic
  and interactive processes.

15
Healthy Reproduction of the Lifeworld

• Enculturation gtgt Transmission of cultural values,
  meanings, languages
• Social Integration gtgt Shared norms and effective
  sanctions for destructive deviance
• Socialization gtgt Sense of identity, individual
  purpose, and emotional well-being

16
Disruption of lifeworld reproduction processes by
intrusion of systemic forces can lead to

• Cultural crisis of meaning and values
• Social anomie and crime, loss of sense of
  community, corruption
• Personal psychopathology, substance abuse,
  suicide, identity confusion, alienation

17
Beware the Colonization of the Lifeworld

• The System (government and business) respond to
  economic and psychosocial crises through
  instrumental programs that aim to stimulate
  system growth and to fix behavior problems.
• But these measures cannot directly reconstitute
  disrupted lifeworld processes.

18
Examples of Lifeworld Colonization

• Lifestyle advertising subverts interest in
  cultural activities that are not idealized by
  media, e.g. classical music, family dinner
• An old marginalized low-income neighborhood
  leveled to make room for a freeway
• Financial cost-benefit analysis used to justify
  elimination of arts programs
• Indigenous children sent to colonizers schools

19
Common Features of Colonization, whether
Geopolitical or Ideological

• Subjective and interpersonal concerns of subjects
  are neglected or silenced
• Action in a given place is coordinated by
  interests alien to the participants
• Objectifying and dehumanizing attitude toward
  subjected individuals or collectives

20
Psychosocial Effects

• Erosion of community and social capital
• Competitive individualism
• Narcissism, anxiety, depression
• Privatization, isolation, loneliness
• Splitting of thought, feeling, and action --
  desymbolization

21
What is the Role of Critical Community Psychology
in Response to the Colonization of the Lifeworld?

• Why not
• Sustain the lifeworld against the systemic power-
  and control-seeking of the state and the
  corporation?

22
Decolonization, anyone?

• Restoration of balance between system and
  lifeworld interests
• Aesthetic, ethical, and expressive forms of
  communication and action considered valid along
  with practical interests
• Critical self-reflection, dialogue, deep
  democracy, re-symbolization but how?

23
Critical Community Psychology?

• Understand and address the personal or
  psychological as a confluence of
  life-historical, sociocultural, and ideological
  processes
• Participatory action research to foster
  reflection and social engagement in the boundary
  spaces where colonizing system forces impinge on
  the lifeworld (see Kemmis, Handbook of Action
  Research)
• In these spaces, open up processes of
  de-ideologization and re-symbolization
• Follow through by devoting significant effort to
  altering the institutional, sociocultural, and
  policy dimensions of sources of suffering, as
  informed by work with individuals and groups

24
De-ideologization and resymbolization, again

• Study hand-out on Ideology and Intersubjectivity
• Brainstorm on what is already happening and how
  we can build on it

25
Bottom Line Decolonization

• Critical Self-Reflection
• Intersubjectivity through Dialogue
• Fully-inclusive Participation
• Deep Democracy
• And sometimes, stopping business as usual