Abstract
The thesis of this paper is that the most important and interesting aspects of community life are by their very nature paradoxical; and that our task as researchers, scholars, and professionals should be to “unpack” and influence contemporary resolutions of paradox. Within this general theme I will argue that in order to do so we will need to be more a social movement than a profession, regain our sense of urgency, and avoid the tendency to become “one-sided.” I will suggest that the paradoxical issue which demands our attention in the foreseeable future is a conflict between “rights” and “needs” models for viewing people in trouble.
Presidential address, Division 27, Community Psychology, 88th Annual Meeting of the American Psychological Association, Montreal, Canada, September 3,1980. Originally published in the American Journal of Community Psychology, 9(1) (1981): pp. 1-25.
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Rappaport, J. (2002). In Praise of Paradox: A Social Policy of Empowerment over Prevention. In: Revenson, T.A., et al. A Quarter Century of Community Psychology. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-8646-7_8
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