An analysis of mutual assistance

Why should community psychology be interested in mutual assistance? Mutual assistance organizations represent not an alternative to professional care by an addition to resources in the community of a kind that makes for a more competent community (Iscoe, 1974). Mutual assistance also reflects the values of empowerment that many community psychologists accept as primary (Rappaport, 1981). For those persons who suffer with conditions that may be attributed to oppressive social environments, there is no alternative to collective political and social action to produce change. The developing mutual assistance movement provides an unparalleled opportunity to enhance our understanding of the meaning and significance of social support and the conditions under which people change. Those of us in the field have every reason to embrace this movement for it is truly in keeping with the vision of community psychology.     

Catholic Social Teaching,Economic Inequality,and American Society

The essay begins with an explanation of the underlying theological vision that supports Catholic social teaching's commitment to the centrality of the common good and the role of solidarity as both a virtue and a norm. The vision of humanity as one family and the church as a sacrament of unity is the foundation for a communitarian ethic that prizes inclusion, participation, and relative equality in the quest for a truly just society. An array of social science studies is then employed to show that economic inequality “bleeds” into other realms of public life to undermine fundamental commitments of American society, namely, equal opportunity and political democracy. The essay concludes that an understanding of Catholic social teaching promotes a critical perspective that is deeply at odds with ongoing trends in the U.S. economy.     

The Phenomenological Film Collective: Introducing a cinematic‐phenomenological research method for social advocacy filmmaking

This paper introduces the vision for the Phenomenological Film Collective ( pfcollective.com ), a research and filmmaking group which utilizes phenomenological research in the service of social advocacy filmmaking. I outline the theoretical and methodological underpinnings of developing a “cinematic‐phenomenological research method” for PFCollective in order to illuminate lived experiences of sociocultural oppression for public viewership via cinematography. The roots of cinematic phenomenology are situated within the theoretical framework of liberation psychology, which calls on psychologists to pursue research that can facilitate consciousness‐raising and social justice across society. The paper provides a methodological overview of existential‐hermeneutic phenomenological research and discusses how its research findings can be disseminated to the widespread public in artistic formats. I demonstrate how filmmaking is an appropriate aesthetic language through which to disseminate phenomenological research about lived experiences of oppression, grounding this proposition in phenomenological philosophy and liberation psychology. I outline the procedural steps for conducting cinematic‐phenomenological research to produce phenomenological films about oppressive sociocultural phenomena. The paper concludes with suggestions for academic disciplines to become more interdisciplinary in our collective pursuit for social advocacy and change.     

History Matters: Effects of Culture‐specific Symbols on Political Attitudes and Intergroup Relations

A theory of the historical anchoring and mobilization of political attitudes is proposed, arguing that culture‐specific symbols, configured by historical charters, are an important resource in defining nationhood and legitimizing public opinion in a way that makes some political attitudes difficult to change. Five studies in New Zealand and Taiwan using diverse methods converged to show that historical events with “charter status” have an additive effect in explaining variance in political attitudes regarding biculturalism in New Zealand and independence in Taiwan even after controlling for the effects of Social Dominance Orientation, Right‐Wing Authoritarianism, relevant social identities, and collective guilt. Field and lab experiments showed that the impact of historical symbols did not depend on the mobilization of social identity (e.g., increasing mean scores and indirect effects), but the historical anchoring of political attitudes in representations was resistant to change. Manipulations of the salience of historical events changed levels of social identification, but did not change mean levels of support for New Zealand biculturalism or Taiwanese independence. Even an intense and immersive pretest/posttest design taking high school students on a national museum tour failed to change attitudes towards biculturalism in New Zealand.     

Bridging the Social and the Symbolic: Toward a Feminist Politics of Sexual Difference

By clarifying the psychoanalytic notion of sexual difference (and contrasting it with a feminist analysis of gender as social reality), I argue that the symbolic dimension of psychical life cannot be discarded in developing political accounts of identity formation and the status of women in the public sphere. I discuss various bridges between social reality and symbolic structure, bridges such as body, language, law, and family. I conclude that feminist attention must be redirected to the unconscious since the political cannot be localized in, or segregated to, the sphere of social reality; sexual difference is an indispensable concept for a feminist politics.     

Theological Reconstruction in China: Ecumenical Accompaniment in the Self‐Theologizing Effort in Theological Education

In 2007 Protestants in China celebrated the 200th anniversary of their journey of faith. The continuing concern of Chinese Christian theological educators is to rejuvenate Christianity in China by critically adapting to the contemporary socialist order and the best religio‐cultural tradition of Chinese society. Chinese Christians have been challenged by the socialist order of society particularly because of the political and social changes that have taken place in China since the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949 and the changes brought about within Chinese society. With the end of the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976) and the change of political atmosphere in 1978 there has been once again an opening for public Christian activities within the confines of certain state regulations. This change has provided scope for pursuing the reconstruction in China of Christianity initiated in the 1950s under the Three Self Patriotic Movement (TSPM). Besides the revival of TSPM, the Chinese leaders have set up another instrument, the China Christian Council (CCC) especially to cater to the surging pastoral and congregational needs. This article briefly surveys the development of the vision of reconstructing Christianity through “theological reconstruction” and the need for ecumenical accompaniment.     

实践智慧在二十一世纪(下)

这是一篇文章的第二部分,这篇文章概述了一个词汇表,从而发展出一个建设性的prudence(实践智慧)概念,以用来应对政治行动者以及社会理论所面临的那些问题。明智(审慎)的行为要求规范的、计虑的和施行的(实践智慧)这些形态的相互协调。这一部分将考察,这些要求如何可能在行为者、观众和后现代思想之中形成一个有机的结合。实践智慧可以通过节状自我、公共商讨以及对prudence历史上的教育学和哲学诸阶段的详尽论述来得到理解。     

The Problem of Behaviour Change: From Social Norms to an Ingroup Focus

Social norms are of increasing interest to public policy experts and those conducting behaviour change interventions (e.g. safe driving, recycling). While there is agreement that social norms play a central role in explaining behaviour, such consensus is lacking when it comes to explaining the process through which this occurs. Economics, social marketing and political science focus on individual self‐interest and goal satisfaction and social (dis)approval. In contrast social psychology also incorporates collective interests through its analysis of social identity and ingroup processes. To fully understand behaviour change, it is argued that greater engagement is needed with the links between shifts in social identity, and ingroup norms. As definitions of who “we” are shift, so too does what “we” do. Implications for behaviour change interventions are discussed.     

Fostering Marginalized Youths’ Political Participation: Longitudinal Roles of Parental Political Socialization and Youth Sociopolitical Development

This study examines the roles of parental political socialization and the moral commitment to change social inequalities in predicting marginalized youths' (defined here as lower-SES youth of color) political participation. These issues are examined by applying structural equation modeling to a longitudinal panel of youth. Because tests of measurement invariance suggested racial/ethnic heterogeneity, the structural model was fit separately for three racial/ethnic groups. For each group, parental political socialization: discussion predicted youths' commitment to produce social change and for two groups, longitudinally predicted political participation. This study contributes to the literature by examining civic/political participation among disparate racial/ethnic groups, addresses an open scholarly question (whether youths' commitment to create social change predicts their "traditional" participation), and emphasizes parents' role in fostering marginalized youths' civic and political participation.     

Bringing the mosque home and talking politics: women, domestic space, and the state in the Ferghana Valley (Uzbekistan)

In this article I argue that domestic space has to be theorized as an important center of religious practice and socio-political activism. Born-again and devout Muslim women in the Ferghana Valley (Uzbekistan) use domestic space as an important sacred place for religious observance and socialization equal to the mosques. This sacred place has a special meaning for born-again and devout Muslims as it carries a promise of personal and social change. In the context of religious and political persecution by the Uzbek state, domestic space is experienced as a politically safe place and as a critically important site of socio-political criticism and activism, as some intimate in-house discussions about religious, political, and social oppression take a form of public protest on the streets.     

Sociopolitical development

This paper examines theories and concepts relevant to sociopolitical development (SPD). As an emerging theory, SPD expands on empowerment and similar ideas related to social change and activism in community psychology—oppression, liberation, critical consciousness, and culture among them. SPD is the process by which individuals acquire the knowledge, analytical skills, emotional faculties, and the capacity for action in political and social systems necessary to interpret and resist oppression. Equally as important is a vision of liberation that is an alternative to oppressive conditions. All of these concepts have been underemphasized in the social change literature of U.S. community psychology. In our view, sociopolitical development is vital to human development and the creation of a just society. As part of identifying and illustrating concepts and processes relevant to SPD theory, we will draw from the words of young African American activists who were interviewed as part of a research study.     

Conflict, Identity, and Tolerance: Israel in the Al-Aqsa Intifada

This paper explores the impact of the Al-Aqsa Intifada on tolerance orientations of the Israeli Jewish public. We rely upon five surveys carried out between January 2000 and June 2002 to study in a real-life setting the amount and nature of change in political tolerance due to the conflict and the mechanisms behind it. Building on theory and research on intergroup relations in social psychology and political tolerance in political science, we focus upon threat and ingroup identification as the two primary factors in the social psychological processes resulting from conflict and leading to intolerance. We set the trends and explore mediation and interaction processes in the impact of this round of conflict on political tolerance.     

On the Limits of Rights and Representation

This essay explores the degree to which public reason can sustain political liberalism's commitment to justice and pluralism without attending to the role of what Jeffrey Stout calls “cultural inheritance” in shaping and justifying political commitments. At issue is whether public reason is the best resource for guiding conversations on political matters that are enmeshed in religious commitments and moral beliefs. Unless public reason can account for cultural inheritance, and foster a deliberative context in which political actors might grapple with the relationship between overlapping political claims and comprehensive doctrines, public reason will remain narrow and inadequate in a contemporary world where epistemic diversity is increasingly at odds with political liberalism's normative model of social cooperation and public deliberation.     

A primer for advancing psychology in the public-sector

Psychologists working in the public sector should, in addition to providing direct services, advocate for systems change. Although many consumers treated in the public sector face a constellation of severe life problems, working to improve the system of care is more difficult than providing treatment. Improving the quality of life of consumers of publicly funded mental health services requires that psychologists become advocates. Four prerequisites to systems change, plus coalition building, legislative advocacy, the work of state psychological associations, and forming alliances between psychologists and nonpsychological community organizations such as Rotary International, are described. In conclusion, 12 orienting ideas are listed for psychologists who want to advocate for social, institutional, and political change.     

School Counseling in Lebanon: Past,Present, and Future

This article examines the status of school counseling in Lebanon. An overview that points out some weakness in the educational system, such as high dropout and repetition rates, is presented. Calls for counseling have been voiced partly because of the psychological consequences of social change, such as political instability in Lebanon. A sample of school counselors in public and private schools were surveyed. Private school counselors reported fewer stressors and more rewards than did their counterparts in public schools.     

The Social Representations of the Bali Climate Conference in the French and German Media

Climate change is a major current affair for which recent United Nations climate conferences aim to build consensus and develop international solutions. The objective of this article is to compare, through the theoretical lens of social representations, the way in which French and German media, specifically newspapers, represent the Bali climate conference. We use the triangulation of data analysis to take both the pragmatic and the semantic aspects of media discourse into account. Results show that German media adopt both a local and a global vision of climate change and of the conference. Religious metaphors highlight a moral dimension of the conference, suggesting anchoring in human and political categories. In contrast, in French media, we identify that conflicts between countries render the stakes of climate change concrete by war metaphors. The French discourses examined are shown to be organised through the anchoring of political and financial categories. Results are discussed in relation to the history of green movements in the two countries and in relation to practical implications. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Public Art and Dewey's Democratic Experience: The Case of John Adams's On the Transmigration of Souls

The aesthetic and political sides of public art have recently been examined from different theoretical vantage points. Pragmatist accounts, however, have been largely absent from the discussion. This article develops a theory of public art on some central ideas of John Dewey's aesthetics and social philosophy. From a pragmatist perspective, the best cases of public art turn out to have high social significance, for they are means of promoting the sense of community, which Dewey saw as foundational for well‐functioning democracies. The Deweyan account of public art developed in this article is set against theories that explain its social value by public artworks’ ability to disrupt people's everyday routines and beliefs, as well as by the political alertness they often raise. Diana Boros's recent treatment of what she calls “visionary public art” serves as the main specimen of this approach. The Deweyan understanding of public art is illuminated and defended with the help of a reading of John Adams's On the Transmigration of Souls—a piece composed in memory of the victims of 9/11—that highlights its capacity to generate such communal experiences that have a fundamental role in Dewey's theory of democracy.     

Does the Medium still Matter? The Influence of Gender and Political Connectedness on Contacting U.S. Public Officials Online and Offline

This study employs a secondary analysis of U.S. nationally representative data from the Pew Internet 2008 civic engagement survey (N?=?2251) to examine the degree to which contacting public officials both online and offline is explained by the variables of gender and political connectedness. We find that while women are somewhat less likely to contact public officials through direct means, such as emailing or writing a letter, they are more likely to sign petitions, offline and especially online. Gender gaps in direct forms of contact are smaller in the online context than the offline context. We additionally find that that gender moderates the relationship between political connectedness developed via social networking sites and contacting public officials, such that women gain even further advantage in signing online petitions, but also gain further disadvantage in writing a letter/calling public officials and signing offline petitions. Finally, we find that political connectedness, achieved via social networking sites and offline contexts, is related to contacting public officials through both online and traditional means, suggesting a blurring of offline and online worlds.     

Wahhabi ideology of social control versus a new publicness in Saudi Arabia

To understand Saudi Arabian Wahhabi theology, it needs to be contextualized. This article explores the discussion about music in Saudi Arabia in order to illuminate the political theory of the social of Wahhabi theology and the ongoing transformation of Saudi publicness. Since Wahhabism has singled out music as one of the abominations of society to be avoided by the believer, the changing soundscapes of the kingdom as music becomes a more common public presence has becomes a hot topic of discussion. By looking at the common Wahhabi stand on music and comparing it with both new practices and a new discourse represented by the scholar al-Kalbani, it becomes clear how a plurality of opinions challenge established Wahhabi agendas in a new publicness. This, in its turn, makes it relevant to investigate the logic of the political vision of the social that the official Wahhabi scholars have. I argue that this Wahhabi theology needs to be understood in the framework of its view on the human psyche and in relation to its concept of sin. I further argue that a renegotiation of positions is taking place, since negative judgments about music are not internalized in the population to the extent scholars might wish for or envisage.     

市场经济社会中的个人权利与公共伦理

在市场经济社会中,由于个人权利的充分张扬,私人利益和公共伦理之间显示出深刻的矛盾。早期经济自由主义者将这一矛盾的解决归于市场过程,黑格尔主义则寄望于国家权力。二者都忽视了公共交往在伦理建构中的作用。公共领域中的公共交往所形成的公共伦理,是市场经济社会在自身发展中产生出来的理性力量。它克服了市场交换原则和政治强制原则的局限性,为这一矛盾不断的解决提供了动力。