Psychology of Liberation

Abstract

except for brief excerpts in connection with reviews or scholarly analysis. Use in connection with any form of information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed is forbidden. The use in this publication of trade names, trademarks, service marks, and similar terms, even if they are not identified as such, is not to be taken as an expression of opinion as to whether or not they are subject to proprietary rights.Printed on acid-free paper springer.com To all those who have fought for liberation, to all those yet struggling to have it, to all those who have been partners in the pursuit, thus helping humanity.As series editor, I am delighted to see this fine book added to the Peace Psychology Book Series. The book editors, Maritza Montero and Christopher Sonn, have done a masterful job, making liberation psychology accessible to a wide audience while maintaining a scholarly focus throughout.It is fitting that liberation psychology is center stage in the Peace Psychology Book Series because peace psychologists recognize that the sustainability of peaceful discourses and actions rests upon the continuous crafting of structures and institutions that are responsive to people's desire for voice and representation in matters that affect their well-being. Hence, the social justice agenda of liberation psychology is at the core of peace psychology.The pursuit of social justice has not always been central to peace psychology. North American psychologists began to organize and identify themselves as "peace psychologists" in the 1980s during the Cold War. The Cold War featured a global power struggle and nuclear arms race between the United States and Soviet Union. A culture of fear pervaded and the problem of social justice was given short shrift in light of what seemed to be the preeminent concern of peace psychologists, namely, the prevention of nuclear war and the promotion of conflict management.With the decline of the Cold War and the perceived diminution of the nuclear threat, security concerns were no longer organized around the US-Soviet relationship. Instead, Western peace psychologists turned their attention to ethnopolitical conflicts and, more broadly, the problem of intergroup conflict worldwide. Unlike the Cold War conflict, which invited analyses at the level of elite rhetoric and actions, the complexity of ethnopolitical conflicts required geohistorical considerations that embedded violent episodes in structural and cultural conditions. Clearly, a history of structural violence, marked by oppression and exploitation, was seen as a precondition for violent episodes in many parts of the world.Besides having a concern about the roots of violent episodes, peace psychologists and liberation psychologists share the view that structural violence in itself is problematic not least because it kills people just as surely as direct episodes of violence. What differs is the means, with structural violence representing a perni...

Fortalecimiento de la Ciudadanía y Transformación Social: Área de Encuentro entre la Psicología Política y la Psicología Comunitaria

“…Para la PC, tanto en América Latina como en otros lugares del mundo, es muy importante que, al perseguir una transfor-mación en una comunidad, esta se dé a través de la participación y el compromiso de los grupos organizados y de las personas interesadas en una comunidad (e.g., Irizarry & Serrano-García, 1979;Lane & Sawaia, 1991López-Sánchez & Serrano-García, 1995;Montero, 2006a;Montero & Varas Díaz, 2007;Reich et al, 2007;Sánchez & Wiesenfeld, 1995). Esta necesidad, entonces, no nace de una teoría, aun cuando ella sea utilizada y generada también en el proceso de actuar y reflexionar para lograr los objetivos específicos (Montero, 2009). Nace de necesidades sentidas por la comunidad, además de las necesidades normativas que puedan estar relacionadas con ellas y que suelen ser introducidas desde los programas derivados de políticas públicas para las comunidades.…”

“…La teoría de la participación-compromiso desarrollada por la PC nos señala la relación directa y recíproca existente entre ambos, de tal manera que en una construcción ideal del hombre y la mujer políticos de profesión se debería pedir como perfil para ocupar cargos gubernamentales esa conjunción: la acción participativa comprometida y el compromiso de participar, es decir, de hacer para transformar. -Énfasis en la perspectiva liberadora, tanto en su concepción freiriana como en el desarrollo de la tendencia generada a partir de la obra de Martín- Baró (1986) en El Salvador, pero para América Latina, y actualmente en desarrollo en los cinco continentes (Flores Osorio, 2009;Montero, 2000Montero, , 2004Montero, , 2005Montero, , 2006bMontero, , 2007bMontero, , 2009Nelson & Prilleltensky, 2005;Watts, Griffith & Abdul-Adil, 2003).…”

“…En términos tradicionales el modelo básico de experimento participativo cualitativo (Hernández, 2004;Sapene Chapellín, 2009) corresponde parcialmente a lo que Campbell y Stanley (1970) calificaban en 1966 como pre-experimental. Tales diseños constan de una medición previa, la introducción de una variable experimental y una medición posterior.…”

“…Pero, aunque eso garantiza que las preguntas responderán a los intereses de la comunidad, sería solo instrumental y no estaría completa la participación si esas personas y muchas otras más no participasen activamente en el análisis, evaluación e interpretación de los resultados. Estas tres últimas tareas se llevan a cabo mediante la técnica de discusión crítica reflexiva (Montero, 1997) y de la problematización, que se ubica en lo que he llamado métodos para la conciencia (Montero, 2007c(Montero, , 2009). Tausig (2002) presenta otro ejemplo interesante, al usar la perspectiva de redes para examinar las interacciones entre organizaciones grupales o "poblaciones" (en términos estadísticos) de organizaciones, para detectar "grietas" en los sistemas de salud mental dirigidos a la comunidad.…”

Giving Voice to the Voiceless: Collaborative Inquiry in Poor Communities of Mexico City

“…The so called Eastern experience is the basis for the concept of liberation as a movement toward a deep social and individual conversion that leads to the structural change that is linked to the life saving action of Christ, to his death and his resurrection. Flores-Osorio (2009) considers that TL coincides with Paulo Freire (2002), seeking for the conscientization of the oppressed, while affirming the responsibility of catholic priests to build a world of freedom and dignity in solidarity.…”