This volume aims at further articulating and developing the cultural
psychological interest in community. It focuses on the processes through
which individuals constitute communities and the processes that restrain
or enable moving forward with others. This interest is necessary
especially now that the world is on the move. Economic crises, political
crises and ecological crises have led to reinforced migration patterns,
a rise in authoritarianism and xenophobia, and have become a threat to
the survival of the world as we know it, particularly to minorities and
indigenous communities. At the same time, we are witnessing the birth of
new networks, dialogues and actions, generated by people within, between
and among communities. Therefore, this volume collects interdisciplinary
theoretical, empirical and applied contributions enabling engagement
with communities in cultural psychology. This involves both reflections
on meaning-making processes and projections on how they feed into social
transformation, in exchange with community psychology, anthropology and
sociology.
People vitally depend on community to effectively negotiate or resist in
complex intercultural or intergroup settings. In the wake of human
rights violations or to prevent further damage to the environment a
community is needed to undertake action. From feminist movements and
disability activism to the otherwise marginalized: how do people
constitute communities? How do they resist as a community? How can
cultural psychology contribute not only to understand meaning-making
processes, but also connect them to processes of social transformation?
Migration, moving through and connecting to different communities can
affect meaning making in significant ways. People consider themselves as
members of one or another community, but they also increasingly enter
into new settings of social practice with new means for action. How
might creative meaning-making build bridges between communities? How
might new community arise in between or with others? How can cultural
psychology deal with intercultural processes without reifying different
cultures?
These are the central questions that the, mostly emerging, scholars from
many corners of the world address in this book. Their research addresses
different institutional settings that are resisted and transformed from
within, in dialogue with others. From social work, NGOs and municipal
activity to university talent mobility and art projects for youth. Other
settings are newly inhabited, from the public square and the social
media to a foreign city and neighborhood church. Thus, more communities
appear on the map of cultural psychology.
