The SMU Department of Clinical Psychology is launching a Public Lecture series under the auspices of Sedibeng discourses on Epistemic Justice Discourses 

This online workshop covers various aspects of the Health Profession Council of South Africa’s Board of Psychology Examination for Educational Psychologists. Intern Educational Psychologists will get a general idea of what the oral board exam may entail, as well as the types of questions that could be asked. Attendees will also be advised on the practical application of ethics and law to psychology through practical application to two case studies. 

What is our heritage in a fractured society?

As we celebrate Heritage Day on the 24 September 2021, some important questions encourage thoughtful reflection. Given the recent politically motivated, hunger induced or impunity driven upheavals in our country, a discomfort with who we are as a people and as a nation; requires an urgent diagnosis, and more importantly, a treatment plan that includes curative and preventive interventions.

The diagnosis is clear. We have failed to embrace our diversity, the richness of our difference, while happily remaining unaccountable for our abominable apartheid past, and its toxic legacy 27 years later. The enduring socioeconomic inequality, structural violence and racist apartheid poison that festers in the hearts of South Africans, does not augur well for a healthy society and engendering well-being. A social and psychological remedy is needed. This urgent intervention requires agency, fearlessness, unity of purpose and a collective solidarity drawing on shared wisdom.

Our heritage is one of care, compassion and solidarity with the oppressed and marginalised. An adherence to social justice values, and a reclamation of the psyche that boldly claims forbidden spaces for thinking and social action in service of humanity. It is more than the trivialisation of our collective heritage, more than the ‘mix masala’ of our ethnicity or social backgrounds. And certainly more than that of a pathetically branded ‘heritage braai’, that denudes the connectedness and wisdom of our African birthright.

As PsySSA past president, Prof Saths Cooper recently remarked: South Africa can work, if we craft a viable, inclusive way forward that embraces people’s concerns. If we seriously wish to attend to this precarious situation with all its dramatic elements of conspiracy, intrigue, murder and organised chaos, then it’s time to raise our voices, not merely against, but for that change that we crave’.

Change demands action. Frederick Douglass, the freed slave and abolitionist reminds us of that change when he said that ‘power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will’.

Let us demand more from our society, its corroded leadership and of ourselves. Our voices belong in the struggles for dignity, decency and humanity. Let that be our heritage.

Author:

Mr Umesh Bawa – PsySSA Executive Member 

Decoloniality and Epistemic Justice in Contemporary Community Psychology Examines the ways in which decolonial theory influences knowledge production, praxis and epistemic justice in global contemporary iterations of community psychology

This book examines the ways in which decolonial theory has gained traction and influenced knowledge production, praxis and epistemic justice in various contemporary iterations of community psychology across the globe. With a notable Southern focus (although not exclusively so), the volume critically interrogates the biases in Western modernist thought in relation to community psychology, and to illuminate and consolidate current epistemic alternatives that contribute to the possibilities of emancipatory futures within community psychology. To this end, the volume includes contributions from community psychology theory and praxis across the globe that speak to standpoint approaches (e.g. critical race studies, queer theory, indigenous epistemologies) in which the experiences of the majority of the global population are more accurately reflected, address key social issues such as the on-going racialization of the globe, gender, class, poverty, xenophobia, sexuality, violence, diasporas, migrancy, environmental degradation, and transnationalism/globalisation, and embrace forms of knowledge production that involve the co-construction of new knowledges across the traditional binary of knowledge producers and consumers. This book is an engaging resource for scholars, researchers, practitioners, activists and advanced postgraduate students who are currently working within community psychology and cognate sub-disciplines within psychology more broadly. A secondary readership is those working in development studies, political science, community development and broader cognate disciplines within the social sciences, arts, and humanities.

PsySSA Congratulates the Authors on the release of their book!

Each year the International Day of Peace is observed around the world on 21 September. The UN General Assembly has declared this as a day devoted to strengthening the ideals of peace, through observing 24 hours of non-violence and cease-fire

Executive Committee Members of the Community and Social Psychology (CaSP) Division of PsySSA, Dené Du Rand (University of South Africa) and Curwyn Mapaling (North-West University) reflect on the International Day of Peace as psychologists, academics, and human beings.

2021 Theme: Recovering better for an equitable and sustainable world

The consequences of conflict are overarching and often the result of exclusion, social injustice and inequality. In times of violent conflict, an appropriate peacebuilding response is often needed for “recovering better for an equitable and sustainable world” as this year’s theme promotes. Following the recent civil unrest in the country, the International Day of Peace holds particular significance for us this year.
Peace psychology provides us with a conceptual framework to deal with the psychology of conflict and violence by developing theories and praxes that prevent violence, conflict and addresses the psychosocial impact that they may have on society. This conceptual framework gives us psychological theories, methods and methodologies to re-imagine a world and space in which we honour and respect each other through the act of peacebuilding.

Shahnaaz Suffla, Nick Malherbe and Mohamed Seedat in their book chapter entitled “Recovering the Everyday Within and for Decolonial Peacebuilding Through Politico-Affective Space” invite us to reflect on the psychology of violence and ways of promoting peace or peacebuilding. From their chapter, it is evident that the liberal peace is still very much entrapped in the patterns of coloniality. In essence this means it is not addressing the impact of violence and conflict on marginalised/subaltern communities but instead it is perpetuating these unjust wars. Conversely, they introduce us to decolonial peacebuilding which includes a decolonised and deimperialised world in which everyone can co-exist and a pluriversal humanity is possible.

Peace psychology constitutes of four pillars: research, education, practice and advocacy. The general understanding of the word peace translates into freedom from disturbance. When one understands peace from a peace psychology perspective it is important to note that it is not merely the absence of direct violence or war but also the absence of structural and cultural violence. The authors take us down a very painful historical path when they reflect on social location, especially the historical context of slavery, colonialism and apartheid that characterises the South African context. The traumatic legacy of these oppressive systems is still evident in contemporary South Africa through coloniality and can be seen in the high rates of psychosocial problems. We are reminded that there are still social inequalities in South Africa and thus we are not yet an ethical and/or peaceful society. It is known that people all across the world have diverse and meaningful ways of celebrating this day. Some of these ways include observing a moment of silence at 12:00 in their respective countries and as a result we have what they call a “Peace Wave” taking place across the globe, others chant and dance, others share their cultural cuisines in the spirit of peace and have interfaith and intercultural exchanges.

Regardless of how we choose to celebrate the day, what is important is that we celebrate it in a way that is congruent with who we are. For too long have marginalised groups been told what to think, what to do and how to be. Let us allow ourselves to do things differently this year.

Author:

Executive Committee Members of the Community and Social Psychology (CaSP) Division of PsySSA, Dené Du Rand (University of South Africa) and Curwyn Mapaling (North-West University)