The Evolution of the Community Psychology Festival

Abstract

November 2014 saw the inaugural British Psychological Society (BPS) Community Psychology Festival. The BPS Community Psychology Section Committee had a vision of an accessible, inclusive alternative to an academic conference, which materialised as a two-day event aiming to embody the values of community, social justice, and stewardship. On the strength of positive feedback and invigorated by the level of enthusiasm and desire for a follow up, the Community Psychology Festival was born as our annual flagship event. In this chapter, we suggest that such a format can transform the experiencing and sharing of new critical and community psychologies. We consider the organisational issues involved in putting on such an event and use the example of the Community Psychology Festival to illustrate how the content, venue, hierarchies, accessibility, and even catering, of such a gathering can shape the knowledges that it generates. Attention to space, place, and aesthetics seemed to create a context in which psychologists interested in the inherent therapeutic value of social action could meet like-minded individuals, including many outside their discipline, forge links between their practices, and probe the boundaries of mainstream psychology as a collective. We conclude with brief reflections on the impact the Festival has had on us as individuals and practitioner psychologists.