Community psychology in South Africa: origins, developments, and manifestations

Abstract

This article represents a South African contribution to the growing international body of knowledge on histories of community psychology. We trace the early antecedents of social-community psychology interventions and describe the social forces and academic influences that provided the impetus for the emergence and development of community psychology in South Africa. We then draw on various sources, including undocumented small histories of organized groups and individuals, to present on account of the emergence, development, and focus of community psychology in South Africa. We also very briefly describe community-focused work in other selected African countries. In the penultimate section, we take a critical look at the notions of "community" embedded in community psychology practice in South Africa, and then by way of conclusion, we describe the trajectory of community psychology and speculate about its future in the country.Despite the increasing levels of plurality and diversity in the global manifestations of community psychology theory and practice, the African scholarly and academic voice remains marginal within international knowledge creation agencies and in publications that enjoy a global research reputation (Seedat & MacKenzie, 2008;Seedat, MacKenzie, & Stevens, 2004). It would be naïve to suggest that the gap is simply a mark of malicious intent or inadvertent omission on the part of the discipline's leadership, reviewers, and editors to exclude African and other-than-White voices from such publications and knowledge production. A more nuanced reading would locate and

Some basic questions about (a) decolonizing Africa(n)-centred psychology considered

“…Indeed, at the 1965 Boston Conference on the Education of Psychologists for Community Mental Health , held in Swampscott, Massachusetts, community psychology was officially launched in the United States as a proactive, prevention, and strengths-oriented means of making available psychological services to disenfranchised populations (Viola & Glantsman, 2017). However, this conception of community psychology was fundamentally conservative, and ignored the far more radical, and, at times, decolonizing, iterations of community psychology that were taking place around the world, such as in Latin America (see Montero, 1996) and, later, in SA (see Seedat & Lazarus, 2011). For our purposes then, it is important that distinctions are made between what Africa(n)-centred psychology aims to do and how it hopes to achieve its objectives in relation to community psychology in SA.…”

“…Community psychology in SA emerged in the 1980s as progressive psychologists felt that mainstream Euro-American-centric psychology was not responding to the political and social needs of the majority of the country’s population suffering under the brutality of the apartheid system (Seedat et al, 1988; Seedat & Lazarus, 2011). Community psychology in SA has entrenched itself as an institutionalized sub-discipline that focuses its attention on societal challenges, including poverty and violence faced by people within and beyond marginalized communities (Fourie, Segalo, & Terre Blanche, 2010; Ngonyama Ka Sigogo & Modipa, 2004).…”

Who's Left Out and Who's Still on the Margins? Social Exclusion in Community Psychology Journals

“…In recognition of these global tensions, some scholars have advocated for a greater recognition of the contributions of the range of international scholarship in community psychology and for distancing this from U.S.-based community psychology (Bishop, Sonn, Drew, & Contos, 2002;Fryer, 2008;Seedat & Lazarus, 2011). These represent significant forms of resistance and contestation about how power and knowledge are enacted and constituted in the field globally.…”

The case for collation to inform debate and transform practice in decolonising Psychology

“…At the same time, many scholars and practitioners have grappled with what it may mean to practice a ‘different’ type of Psychology. Possibly, the most established of these forms is Community Psychology, the origins of which, certainly in its social justice form, can be traced to multiple concerns regarding the practice of Psychology in the 1970s and 1980s Apartheid South Africa (Seedat & Lazarus, 2011; Yen, 2008). What is broadly referred to as Critical Psychology has emerged as a close second (Painter, Terre Blanche, & Henderson, 2006).…”