COUV ACTES - Psychologie communautaire

Community Psychology: Common Values, Diverse Practices• To reframe participation as a strategy for professional HP practice (rather than an ideology)• To guide participatory practice within HPMethodA comprehensive literature search in eight databases was carried out to identify relevant publications. Tworesearchers independently screened 2228 retrieved abstracts. For 168 potential relevant publications full-textpapers were ordered and assessed (again double-rated). Finally, 11 papers were included in the synthesis.ResultsCompared to previous reviews (Labonte 1997, Zakus/Lysack 1998, Rifkin et al. 2000, White 2000, Morgan 2001,WHO 2002), which brought to light rather simple models to conceptualize participation, this study identified a newstrand of theoretically inspired debates. Social science theories are applied in eleven papers to understandprocess and communicative qualities of participatory interventions and to stimulate new forms of participatorypractice. A subset of the arguments elaborated in these papers is presented in the following section aspreliminary results.Participation as a communicative strategyTo answer the question why participation could be seen as a strategy to guide professional HP practice acommunicative argument could be deviated from the literature. Successful communication (Baecker 2007) needsto attract its receiver by redundancy (s/he must be able to set it in relationship with something alreadyexperienced) and variety (it must make a difference to the already known and thereby surprise (Bateson 1972,317p)) at the same time. Participation might be a mechanism to ensure both of those requirements.The culture-centred approach to participation as formulated by Dutta/Basnyat (2008) is up-taking culture asconstitutive for the understanding of health meanings. Therefore, the voice of the community is seen as essentialto define health needs, and should be considered in the process of designing HP interventions. The aim of thisapproach is to ensure that HP programmes are responsive to community needs by including communities inprogram development.In the context of reflexive modernity, characterized by rapid social change whose direction is not totallypredictable, participation is seen as an innovative strategy for HP to manage uncertainty (Potvin 2007).Participation implies the involvement of a multiplicity of perspectives and generates knowledge from the localcontexts of communities. For Potvin participation is a necessity to ensure that HP continues to be a relevantinstitution in modernity, because it supports the adaptation of programs to social change.Participation as an empowering strategyAnother argument which one can derivate from the theoretical literature on participation is concerned withempowerment. Two papers (Campbell/ Jovchelovitch 2000 and Ramella/ De La Cruz 2000) draw on the criticalpedagogy of Paulo Freire. It aims to generate conditions for disadvantaged people to problematise everyday life75