Community Psychology in Action: Striving Towards Social Justice and Wellbeing in Challenging Times (Topics in Applied Psychology)

Pulling together a range of responses to local and global challenges across different community settings, this book makes the case for community psychology as a responsive tool for social justice and liberation. Using insights from both academia and professional practice, this book articulates key community psychology principles, practices and values and their role across ‘psy’ and related professions. It draws on case studies from both the global north and south to show innovative ways in which communities have collectively taken action to demonstrate resistance and resilience and describes creative psychological research methods that can be used to better understand and respond to the needs of communities. In so doing, it demonstrates the value of psychology which is both embedded within and reflective of its local community and challenges and extends our understanding of what psychology is, how it is produced and to whom it belongs. Each chapter is supported by teaching and learning activities, including reflective exercises, discussion questions, embodied activities, stakeholder assessments, case study formulations and presentations. Demonstrating how community psychology can support activities with local community members through meaningful examples of community action embedded in research, this is the ideal resource for psychology students. It may also interest professionals working in related fields, including clinical psychology, counselling psychology, health psychology, social psychology, social work and youth work.