2

Analysis, context and action:

An introduction to community
psychology
Anthony Naidoo, Norman Duncan, Vera Roos, Jace Pillay and Brett Bowman

AN INTRODUCTION TO COMMUNIT Y PSYCHOLOGY

The term community psychology represents a comparatively recent addition to
the general vocabulary of psychology and the social sciences in South Africa. Its
formulation is self-evidently complex, even counter-intuitive. The term is a compound
of two popular and ubiquitous constructs, namely community and psychology,
each having multiple meanings and ways of being interpreted and defined.
Psychology has historically been underpinned by a scientific search for explanations
of individual behaviour within a variety of contexts. Invariably, the individual is
centred as a target for enquiry and intervention. Community-based studies, however,
foreground communities as their primary focus and always consider individuals and
individual psychology in context. Community psychology is therefore a challenging
discipline, which in some ways represents a revolutionary way of thinking about
human life.

As community psychology represents an organic combination of disciplines attuned

to different social contexts, it is likely to be conceptualised differently, not only by
various groups in the same community, and by different communities in the same
country, but also in different countries and across different periods of time in the
same country (historical contexts). Bateson’s (1972) assertion that it is context that
provides the framework for constructing meaning is helpful in understanding the
multiple meanings and connotations of community psychology.
10 community psychology: analysis, context and action

Communities are typically construed as being geographically located areas or

neighbourhoods such as Delmas, Diepkloof, Delft, or De Doorns. However, communities
can also be social groups having similar common identifying boundaries, such as the
student community on a campus, immigrants, the gay community, the aged, youth-at-
risk, tuberculosis patients, vegetarians and marathon runners. People sharing similar or
common values, beliefs, practices and cultures also constitute communities. Examples
here are religious groups (Anglican, Muslim, Jewish and Hindus, for example), cultural
groups (for example, Afrikaners, Rastafarians, motorbike club members and isiZulu
speakers) and groups sharing common practices and values (for example, psychologists,
sangomas and teachers).

In the South African context, the term community is also not neutral because of
deep ideological and historical connotations that derive from embedded apartheid
language and practices. Hence, in South Africa, community is often construed in terms
of essentialist ideas of ‘race’ differences in which the identified ‘us’ is differentiated
from the othered ‘them’. This may also conjure up illusory notions of homogeneous or
unified communities, at the expense of the concerns of marginalised groupings within
such communities, as Yen asserts in his chapter.

For many South African students, ‘community’ refers only to poor, black townships,
or informal settlements needing some form of upliftment. Hence, they frequently
conceptualise community psychology as a sub-discipline concerned with providing
psychological help only to the ‘disadvantaged’. This conceptualisation obviously
further entrenches an othering process in which there is the notion of traditional
private psychology, on the one hand, and community psychology for disadvantaged
communities, on the other.

While community psychology as a substantive sub-discipline in psychology first emerged

in the 1960s in North America, it was still a relatively unfamiliar field of psychology to
many students in South Africa at the turn of this century. Currently, most South African
universities offer specialised training in counselling, clinical, educational and industrial
psychology. Some even offer modules or courses in community psychology. However,
few offer post-graduate programmes or specialisation in community psychology in
South Africa (Naidoo, Shabalala & Bawa, 2003; Wingenfield & Newbrough, 2000).
Paradoxically, it is the inability, neglect or disregard of mainstream psychology to
adequately address the burgeoning psychosocial needs of marginalised communities
and groups that has undoubtedly given rise to the emergence of community psychology
(see Swart in this volume). This emergence is also seen to reflect a reaction to traditional
psychology’s preoccupation with mainstream individual-oriented, North American and
European models of conceptualising and understanding human behaviour.
 2 analysis, context and action: An introduction to community psychology 11

Box 2.1 To rescue or to prevent?

A young woman was taking a stroll by a river swollen by recent rains. As she was
walking, her attention was drawn to an elderly man in the middle of the river who
was in obvious difficulty. She jumped into the water without hesitation, swam out,
grabbed him, and pulled him to the safety of the bank. As she was recovering, a girl
floated past, flailing her arms and yelling for help. Again the young woman dived
into the river and rescued the girl in the same brave way she had done with the old
man. To the young woman’s chagrin and to the amazement of a small crowd that
was gathering on the banks of the river, a third person, a middle-aged woman, came
floundering by in the water also in dire straits. For the third time, the young woman
was the brave rescuer bringing the grateful victim to safety.

Exhausted, she then started walking upstream. As she passed a group of bystanders,
one of them asked her, ‘Aren’t you going to wait to rescue others who may fall in
the river and need you?’ ‘No,’ replied the young woman, ‘I’m going further up the
river to find out why these people are falling in and to see if I can prevent this from
happening.’

Dalton, Elias & Wandersman, cited in Naidoo, Shabalala & Bawa, 2003

In the story in box 2.1, the need to understand the context within which prevailing needs
are articulated becomes more apparent as more individuals in difficulty come floating
down the river. This requires the intervener to consider other options of addressing
the problem. Acknowledging the need to rescue individuals in difficulty, she changes
tactics and proceeds to go up the river to explore the broader context, changing to
a prevention mode of intervening. This shift from a remedial to a prevention strategy
may involve interventions and strategies of other kinds as well (as discussed later),
but it clearly signifies a shift in the way in which the problem is conceptualised, what
intervention is used and how available resources are harnessed in the intervention.
The heroine’s response reflects the paradigmatic shift that characterises community
psychology. Community psychology moves beyond individual psychological difficulties,
not only in thinking about higher levels of causation (sometimes referred to as the
upstream factors) and influence but also in endeavouring to bring about changes at
these levels (Orford, 1992). Julian Rappaport (1977, 1981), one of the pioneers in
the development of community psychology, cautioned that when we intervene at
an inappropriate level we run the risk of neglecting the most important causes of a
problem. A contextual analysis of the problem may lead to a different understanding
of it, and perhaps a different, more informed and effective level of intervention.
12 community psychology: analysis, context and action

The story in box 2.1 illustrates several tenets central to community psychology that will
be presented in this book: that it is more important to focus on people’s environment
than merely on their symptoms; that multi-level approaches to understanding the
problem are beneficial; that multi-faceted interventions are better than those that
are based on ‘single-service’ interventions; and that prevention is more efficient and
effective than remediation (Naidoo et al., 2003).

Figure 2.1 presents a helpful conceptualisation of community psychology theory and

intervention. All behaviour must be evaluated ecologically. An individual’s behaviour is
impacted on by internal factors as well as by her immediate or proximal environment,
or micro-context. Broader macro-contextual factors also exert influence on her
behaviour. Traditional psychology has been more preoccupied with individual-level
factors, with an emphasis on diagnosing and treating the psychological difficulties and
dysfunctions of individuals – hence the focus on illness and treatment. Community
psychology argues that individual behaviour must be interpreted in context, against
both the micro and broader macro influences that impact on the individual.

In community psychology, the focus is on prevention and on promoting health

and wellness, as well as addressing possible structural and historical conditions
that impede these objectives for individuals, groups, organisations and communities.
In pursuing these goals, the community psychologist may use a range of
interventions and skills. In addition to focusing on prevention, interventions may
seek to foster development in target groups through engaging in consultation
with relevant role-players and stakeholders to develop a campaign to get the
local authorities to address a particular need. Advocacy may be needed to raise
more focused awareness on the particular need in the community through strategic
lobbying or by organising a signed petition or a march to the relevant local official.
Several interventions at different levels may therefore be necessary to address a specific
community need. Moreover, working within a community psychology framework
implies working with a different set of values, skills, roles and goals – that is, a
broader understanding of the application of psychology than is the case in mainstream
psychology.

DEFINITION OF COMMUNIT Y PSYCHOLOGY

The preceding discussion provides the contours for our working definition of
community psychology as an emerging branch of applied psychology concerned
with understanding people in the context of their communities, using a variety of
interventions (including prevention, health promotion and social action), to facilitate
change and improved mental health and social conditions for individuals, groups,
organisations and communities.
 Micro context Macro context

Individual psychology Community psychology

Illness Wellness

Treatment Prevention Health promotion

Hospitalisation Tertiary Secondary Primary Development Consultation Advocacy Activism

intervention intervention intervention

Examples
- Inpatient care - Rehabilitation - Medication - Pyscho- - Life skills - Role players - Community campaigns
- Medication - Medication - Support group education - Psycho- - Stakeholders - Lobbying
- Psychotherapy - Psychotherapy - Life skills education - Policy development
- Health - Participatory
education action research
2 analysis, context and action: An introduction to community psychology

Figure 2.1 Psychological intervention continuum

(Adapted from Naidoo, Van Wyk & Carolissen, 2004)
13
14 community psychology: analysis, context and action

Throughout this book, each of the seemingly neat components of this definition will
be elaborated and interrogated.

In the remainder of this chapter, we develop a map by which to navigate the rest of
this textbook, which we hope will be useful to the reader.

SECTION 1: ANALYSIS
In the first section of this book, the field of community psychology is set in an
historical, ethical and paradigmatic context to provide an overview of the discipline.
Specifically, the chapters in this section explore the historical roots and derivations
of community psychology in different national spaces that shape the sub-discipline’s
development, its contemporary trends and emphases, and the defining values,
principles and conceptual tools characterising its focus, as well as the attendant roles
required of its practitioners in various contexts. Every field requires a map for itself,
a picture that shows the lie of the land, the road that has already been travelled,
interesting destinations, and the ways to get there from different points in time and
space (Rappaport & Seidman, 2000). The chapters in this section all constitute parts
of just such a map.

While community psychology can be defined and articulated in a variety of ways, its
major concerns, emphases and objectives are most clearly discerned in relation to its
historical roots. The first two chapters provide the historical contexts for the emergence
and development of community psychology internationally as well as in South Africa.
In chapter 3, Garth Stevens describes the precursors and current forms of community
psychology praxis internationally, delineating its diverse developmental trajectories
in the United States of America, Latin America, Australia, New Zealand, Europe, Asia
and South Africa. Chapter 3 does well to signal the importance of understanding the
dynamic relationship between community psychology and the various social contexts
out of which it emerged, resulting in multiple histories, forms and possibilities within
community psychology across the globe. In chapter 4, the social and political context
of community psychology’s history and development in South Africa is presented,
together with its conceptual roots and location within the overall discipline of South
African psychology. The author, Jeffrey Yen, also provides a critical historical account
of the uses of the loaded term community in South African psychology.

Community psychology is explicitly and self-consciously value-based in its orientation.

This is reflected in the problems considered legitimate for its study, in asking questions
about the ‘what’, ‘how’ and ‘why’ of individual and social change and in creating
interventions aimed at securing social justice and other egalitarian ideals. Sandy
Lazarus’s chapter 5 discusses the seminal values and assumptions that characterise
 2 analysis, context and action: An introduction to community psychology 15

Photo: Gill Haiden

In many ways the school environment becomes ‘a little culture by itself’, as Erikson (1963)
puts it

the landscape of community psychology, how these have developed in psychology in

South Africa, and how these values can inform psychological practice.

Having firmly described the origins and foundational values of community psychology,
the next three chapters in this section focus on understanding and intervening in
communities from very different analytical and practice frameworks. In chapter 6,
Rashid Ahmed and Shahnaaz Suffla critically review the mental health model as a
community psychology intervention. They argue that the absence of critical social
theory in the conceptualisation of prevention in the model is a major limitation that
grounds the model in mainstream, rather than critical, thought and practice. The
possibilities for reconceptualising the place of the mental health model in community-
based practice are convincingly captured in the chapter’s case study.

Continuing along the section’s mapped trajectory, Maretha Visser’s chapter 7 provides
an exposition of social ecological theory as a basis to conceptualise the different
levels of continuous interaction in a community and the value of using an ecological
framework to make sense of them. A case study is used to illustrate the application of
this theoretical model in a community intervention.

In chapter 8, the last one in this section, Gerhard Viljoen, Annalie Pistorius and Linda
Blokland take up the challenge registered by Ahmed and Suffla in chapter 6 and
engage directly with the readers in a process of critical reflection on alternative ways
16 community psychology: analysis, context and action

of thinking about conceptualising and practising community participation. They also

invite the readers to identify and assess their personal values in relation to community
work. Furthermore, they challenge the readers to actively negotiate their roles in
co-constructing a genuinely critical community psychology. This concluding chapter
points to new ways of understanding and practising the sub-discipline through
sketching and interrogating uncharted critical paths.

SECTION 2: CONTEX T
Community psychology acknowledges that people will inevitably be influenced
by the cultural, political and social contexts in which they are located, and also that
people have the capacity to influence these contexts (Dalton, Elias & Wandersman,
2007; Jorgenson & Nafstad, 2004). Cognisant of the profoundly constricting
influence that certain contexts can have on individual and community development
and well-being, the second section of this book explores some of the key contexts
and issues that community psychologists often confront when working with
communities in South Africa. This section also examines the circumstances of the
country’s most vulnerable groups and explores the role of community psychology in
facilitating fundamental changes in the adverse living conditions that define their
daily lives.

Co-authored by Clinton van der Walt and Brett Bowman, chapter 9 – the first chapter
in section 2 – examines the effects of rites of passage as an important contextual
factor to consider when working in communities. In this chapter, rites of passage
are viewed as communication mechanisms through which societies, cultures and
communities interpret and enact life transitions. Van der Walt and Bowman emphasise
the importance of appreciating the contextual specificity of intergenerational rites
of passage and the role of these rites in enabling people to find and consolidate
their roles within their communities. Informed by a critical psychology perspective
that is wary of romanticising harmful practices that are protected from critique by
taking recourse to history, culture and convention, this chapter also emphasises the
importance of intervening and possibly disrupting practices that serve to marginalise
and oppress specific community members.

Moving from a consideration of unquestioned ‘inherited’ contextual constraints,

chapters 10 to 13 describe and examine a set of contemporary obstacles to optimal
individual and community functioning and development. Chapter 10, co-authored by
Tokozile Mayekiso and Mthetho Tshemese, explores the deleterious impacts of poverty
on individuals and communities in South Africa. By providing an historical account
of the racialisation of poverty in South Africa, the authors demonstrate that race and
poverty share an intimate history in this country and that only the implementation of
 2 analysis, context and action: An introduction to community psychology 17

multi-dimensional interventions that engage this history will successfully counter the
effects of poverty in South Africa.

In chapter 11, Norman Duncan, Brett Bowman, Garth Stevens and Andile Mdikana
explore the impact of ‘race’ on child health as an index of the development and
well-being of South African children currently. While the chapter provides compelling
evidence to show how trends in child health in South Africa were racialised during
the previous apartheid order and how ‘race’ continues to profoundly influence child
health, it also cautions against focusing only on ‘race’ when considering interventions
to deracialise child health trends. Specifically, the chapter argues for the disaggregation
of ‘race’ as a condition for developing effective interventions aimed at reversing
current racialised trends in child health and improving the health of South African
children more generally.

In chapter 12, Tanya Swart provides a critical discussion of various forms of

violence as both instruments and effects of power. Her discussion encompasses an
interrogation of the role of power in the broad terrains of sexual violence, intimate
partner violence, violence against children and collective violence. Given the epidemic
proportions that violence assumes in South African communities and particularly
in marginalised communities, this chapter makes for vital reading for students of
community psychology as well as trained community psychologists in this country.
In the latter part of this chapter, Swart presents various intervention approaches that
could be employed in challenging the power structures that yield violence, so as to
prevent its debilitating effects on individuals and communities.

Like violence, the HIV and Aids pandemic poses an enormous threat to the stability
and well-being of South African communities, particularly marginalised communities.
Co-authored by Clinton van der Walt, Brett Bowman, Janice Frank and Malose
Langa, chapter 13 provides an in-depth discussion of the HIV and Aids pandemic
in South Africa. More specifically, and in keeping with this section’s examination of
the contextual influences on community development and well-being, the chapter
explores some of the key contextual enablers of the HIV/Aids pandemic, including
past apartheid practices, poverty, gender inequality and the stigmatisation of HIV and
Aids. Of critical importance to the objectives of this textbook, the final section of the
chapter provides a presentation of the role that community psychology can play in the
management of the pandemic.

The next three chapters in section 2 of this book explore some of the numerous
obstacles faced by communities ‘vulnerabalised’ by various contextual factors in
South Africa. Chapter 14, by Janice Frank, Mthetho Tshemese and Tokozile Mayekiso,
examines some of the many challenges faced by the homeless in South Africa. Using
an appropriately broad definition of homelessness, Frank and her co-authors examine
18 community psychology: analysis, context and action

the challenges routinely faced by two categories of homeless people, namely street
children and those forced to find shelter in the many informal settlements populating
the South African landscape. Supplementing the contents of chapter 7, the authors
of this chapter employ an ecological perspective to examine both the various causes
of homelessness and possible interventions that can be implemented to address this
deeply disturbing and ever-growing phenomenon.

In chapter 15, S’busiso Ntshangase, Norman Duncan and Vera Roos explore some
of the many challenges facing older people in South Africa, particularly those from
lower-income communities. One of the central arguments of this chapter is that many
of the difficulties currently faced by most older persons in South Africa are strongly
rooted in the history of apartheid. To illustrate this argument, Ntshangase and his co-
writers provide a detailed exposé of the socio-demographic trends characterising South
Africa’s elderly population. Furthermore, the chapter provides a broad discussion of
the ways in which community psychology can help to optimise the functioning and
ongoing development of the elderly in South Africa, as well as the communities in
which they are located.

In the penultimate chapter in this section, Malose Langa writes about former
combatants as a vulnerable community in South Africa. In the first instance, chapter
16 examines the invidious position of this group in contemporary South Africa. Of
particular value is this chapter’s critical engagement with processes of scapegoating
and stigmatisation. While the discussion of these processes aids enormously in allowing
for a fuller picture of the reality of former combatants to emerge in this chapter, it is
also invaluable for understanding aspects of the reality of the other vulnerable groups
dealt with in section 2, including people with HIV and Aids, the homeless, black
children and the poor. Furthermore, through its critical engagement with the notion
of community reconciliation, this chapter adds substantially to the list of critical
community interventions presented in the book.

While admittedly somewhat diverse in terms of focus, the chapters in section 2 that
have been discussed thus far nonetheless cohere around at least three critical themes
that warrant brief consideration here.

The first thematic thread that runs through chapters 9 to 16 is that apartheid’s
damaging effects on individuals and communities are still abundantly evident in
South African society. While this message certainly is not new, it is nonetheless
worth emphasising. Too frequently nowadays we are confronted by the exasperated
injunctions of those who would prefer to forget about the evils of South Africa’s past,
insisting rather that people should ‘get on with their lives and stop fixating on the
past, because apartheid no longer exists’. Now, while people’s quest for the comforts
of social amnesia is understandable, it is certainly not a useful stance to take in
 2 analysis, context and action: An introduction to community psychology 19

community psychology. As all the chapters in this section reveal, apartheid through
its ongoing effects continues to exert its relentless hold on the poor and many other
marginalised communities in South Africa. This leads to the second theme around
which these chapters cohere, namely that, if community psychology in South Africa
is to be effective, it will have to focus not merely on understanding current – and the
most obvious or readily observable – causes of people’s problems in living. As Nelson
and Prilleltensky (2004) correctly observe, to be effective, community psychology has
to be prepared very frequently to unmask and deal with the ‘causes of the causes’
of people’s problems, including the historical determinants of current causes of
people’s problems, such as the effects of past apartheid policies and practices on
the current manifestations of poverty, HIV/Aids and so forth. A third theme around
which chapters 9 to 16 coalesce relates to the fact that all these chapters focus on
the difficulties in living experienced by marginalised communities. In this sense, they
give substance to community psychology’s abiding commitment to serve those most
in need. In our opinion, this section makes for essential reading for students training
to be community psychologists in South Africa, as it is aimed at sensitising them to
the realities of communities and community problems of the type that they are most
likely to work with.

While it is short sighted to deny the harsh realities confronting many South African
communities, or simplistically to reconstruct the difficulties that they face as
‘challenges’ that will bring their resilience to the fore, Vera Roos and Michael Temane,
in chapter 17 – the final chapter in this section – argue that it is equally short sighted
and simplistic to pathologise marginalised communities simply because they are poor
or located in rural areas, for example. They argue that, while it is important for
community psychology to unmask the impediments to communities’ well-being, it is
equally important to study communities’ competencies; and this is what this chapter
attempts to do – it attempts to argue for a focus on the capacity and resources that
the marginalised have at their disposal to deal with some of the obstacles to their
well-being.

In the final analysis, therefore, while this section avoids shying away from the realities
of many people in South Africa, it also attempts to avoid creating the impression that
change initiated by communities themselves is not possible.

SECTION 3: ACTION
Community change from within and without is the central organising focus of section
3. Effective community changes may be activated through a range of direct and
indirect activities. Specifically, the chapters in section 3 of the book concentrate on
interrogating and altering the types of psychological knowledge and practice produced
20 community psychology: analysis, context and action

in South Africa by advancing a particular community psychology agenda on mental

health interventions, teaching, learning and research. The facilitation of learning and
research in community psychology and in communities is of paramount importance in
the South African context if it is to make a positive impact on the lives of the majority.
It has been indicated by several writers that community psychology demands a shift
from psychological intervention on a one-to-one basis towards a more collective
approach to enhancing the psychological well-being of individuals and communities
(Pretorius-Heuchert & Ahmed, 2001; Pillay, 2003). Furthermore, apartheid’s legacy
compels us to review the ways in which teaching, learning, research and other
interventions in community psychology need to be conducted in a democratic South
Africa. Many of our thoughts around community engagement and critical knowledge
production and dissemination have been influenced by the writings of Paulo Freire
(1998, 2000, 2001), whose philosophical tenets resonate in the contributions of many
of the authors of the chapters in this section.

In chapter 18, Martyn van der Merwe and Helen Dunbar-Krige advocate a teacher–
learner model that encourages equal and inclusive contributions by all course
participants, embraces the transformative potential of connecting sound theoretical
knowledge to lived experience, and grounds practice in the full range of diverse South
African community contexts.

Building on this call for a genuine commitment to teaching and learning in context,
chapter 19, by Boitumelo Diale and Elzette Fritz, highlights a respect for indigenous
knowledge systems as an intrinsic part of community psychology teaching, learning and
practice. Often, Diale and Fritz argue, psychologists do not adequately acknowledge
the value of indigenous – as opposed to imposed – knowledge systems in bringing
about socially valued and consensual change in communities. Consequently, they
encourage community psychologists to understand such knowledge systems within a
broad asset-based framework.

Tapping the intrinsic healing philosophies of communities towards ensuring

community health is the focus of chapter 20 by Johan Kruger, Stan Lifschitz
and Lesiba Baloyi. Providing a detailed exploration of African cosmology in
relation to health and sickness, the authors insist that the mainstream therapeutic
practices of the community psychologist cannot be implemented without critically
examining the broader understandings of healing in the communities in which they
work.

The importance of registering an asset-based approach to community change is echoed

in chapter 21 by Gert van der Westhuizen, who discusses various perspectives on
community learning and how such learning could be facilitated. Through a systematic
exploration of many possible modes of learning and understanding, he convincingly
 2 analysis, context and action: An introduction to community psychology 21

argues that facilitating transformational learning should form part and parcel of the
community psychologist’s social justice agenda.

A commitment to social justice as part of the broad mandate of South African

post-graduate psychology training is one of the key points of departure in
chapter 22. In this chapter, Jace Pillay argues that the training of community
psychologists should strike a balance between theory and practice, should be
contextual, ecosystemic, cross cultural and generic, should focus on relevant social
issues, and should involve all those stakeholders in the community who are able to
contribute to the learning experiences of students. The general thrust of this argument
is taken further in the next chapter by Anthony Pillay and Molelekoa Kometsi.

Following a candid analysis of the state of South Africa’s mental health services, Pillay
and Kometsi argue in chapter 23 that the lack of mental health service delivery in
non-urban areas is tantamount to oppression. The authors argue that the training of
students in these areas is both challenging and rewarding. The challenges lie in the
lack of facilities and impoverished environments, as well as the need to develop or
adapt training models to suit the context. The rewards are numerous, not least the
provision of mental health services to under-served communities and the skilling and
empowerment of students.

Harnessing appropriate community-based skills towards community health is

further examined by Ronél Ferreira in chapter 24, in which she discusses the value
of concentrated community strategies to address the challenges posed by the HIV
and Aids pandemic. The asset-based approach to community interventions, as a key
component in addressing HIV and Aids, is also discussed in detail. Examples are also
provided of broad community-based interventions aimed at empowering vulnerable
communities.

The guiding ethical framework within which community psychologists should conduct
research and implement interventions is the overarching focus of chapter 25 by Vera
Roos, Maretha Visser, Annalie Pistorius and Matshepo Nefale. The authors assert
that ethics are relevant to the dynamic relationship between the community and the
community psychologist, and they highlight and explain the concepts of ethics in
the context of community psychology. The chapter also provides a discussion on the
importance of a set of values underpinning ethical community engagement, as well
as the informed consent of individuals and communities for the purpose of ethically
informed community research and interventions.

Community psychologists are also ethically bound to the development of interventions

that can be evaluated for effectiveness. The unquestionably important role of
programme evaluation in the resources repertoire of community psychologists is
22 community psychology: analysis, context and action

thoroughly discussed by Charles Potter, Ray Basson and Hermanean Laauwen in

chapter 26. The chapter begins by defining programme evaluation and then highlights
its role as an integral part of social research. Furthermore, it identifies a number
of different approaches to conducting programme evaluations within different
community contexts.

The book concludes with chapter 27, in which Tanya Swart and Brett Bowman focus
on activating action through research in community psychology. The authors argue
that the community psychology researcher should, in line with the general guiding
ethos of community psychology, value transparency, participation and methodological
pluralism in the service of research for, by, and within communities. The last section
of the chapter provides a range of change-orientated research strategies and also
includes an example of the way in which community-based research contributed to
positive reforms in gun control legislation in South Africa.

BY WAY OF CONCLUSION
We hope that this first chapter will serve as a sufficiently detailed map by which you
can navigate the remaining chapters in this book, as well as the field of community
psychology more broadly. We have to caution, though, that this book of necessity
traces only the broad contours of a terrain that has only relatively recently become the
focus of writing and debate in South African psychology. Indeed, as a measure of the
‘newness’ of the sub-discipline of community psychology, only three other textbooks
on community psychology have been published in South Africa to date, namely those
edited by Seedat, Duncan and Lazarus (2001), Franchi and Duncan (2003) and Visser
(2007). Thus, our map reflects many gaps that we hope will be filled by future books
in this very promising domain of knowledge and practice.

REFERENCES
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Dalton, J. H., Elias, M. J. & Wandersman, A. (2007). Community psychology: Linking
individuals and communities (2nd edition). Belmont, CA: Thomson/Wadsworth.
Franchi, V. & Duncan, N. (Eds.). (2003). Prevention and intervention practice in post-
apartheid South Africa. New York: Haworth Press
Freire, P. (1998). Pedagogy of the heart. New York: Continuum.
Freire, P. (2000). Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York: Continuum.
Freire, P. (2001). Pedagogy of freedom. New York: Rowman & Littlefield.
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(Ed.), Introduction to psychology (pp. 423–456). Cape Town: UCT Press.
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Nelson, G. & Prilleltensky, I. (Eds.). (2004). Community Psychology: In pursuit of well-
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