First call for papers

This international conference will be a forum to discuss ways of changing the world through varieties of action research, and to critically reflect on how psychology needs to change to be up to the task. There will be keynote talks, individual papers, symposia and workshops. The conference will encompass theories, methods and examples of action research. Plenary sessions with guest speakers will focus on issues of conscientization, education, inclusion campaigns, feminist research, mental health intervention and radical therapeutic activities. The conference will be held in Bolton, and be followed by a day with open workshops in Bolton or nearby Manchester on Saturday 11th July as part of the annual conference and networks festival of Psychology Politics Resistance.

Invited speakers and workshop coordinators

• Erica Burman (Discourse Unit, MMU, UK)
• Ron Coleman (ACT/CIC, Widnes, UK)
• Ole Dreier (Aarhus/Copenhagen, Denmark)
• Lenora Fulani (East Side Institute, New York, United States)
• Eugenie Georgaca (Aristotle University, Thessaloniki, Greece)
• Carolyn Kagan (Community, Work and Family, MMU, UK)
• Ruth Merttens (IMPACT project, Education, Plymouth, UK)
• Maritza Montero (Institute of Psychology, Caracas, Venezuela)
• Mike Oliver (University of Sheffield, UK)
• Mike Smith (ACT/CIC, Widnes, UK)
• Sara Vataja (VAK, Helsinki, Finland)
• Joe Whittaker (Action Research Centre for Inclusion, Bolton Institute, UK)

Call for papers, symposia, workshops, posters

To apply to present at the conference, abstracts for papers (100 words) or for symposia (100 words per proposed paper and 100 words symposium outline) or for workshops (200 words) for this first call should be sent by 20th December 1997. Participants will be notified by 20th January 1998. Please include a cover page including details of author(s), address, phone and fax numbers and email address (if you have one). You can send proposals by mail, fax or email. Abstracts of all successful submissions will be published and available at the conference.

Submissions, Booking Forms, and Further Details:

Registration and accommodation details will be available soon. Contact us now to be sent the 2nd call for papers (with a 28th February submissions deadline and 28th March notification date) which will include these details. Contact: Ian Parker, Discourse Unit, Psychology, Bolton Institute, Bolton BL3 5AB UK, Telephone: (+44) (0) 1204 528851 extension 3150, Fax: (+44) (0) 1204 399074, Email: < I.A.Parker@Bolton.ac.uk>

Bolton

Bolton, founded as Bolton-le-Moors by Flemish weavers in the 13th century, is technically the largest town in Britain and has a population of just over 250,000 people, about the same size as Iceland. It was a centre of Puritanism and supported parliament during the English Civil War, and was also a centre of the Industrial Revolution and birthplace of the 'spinning mule'. It was the focus of the 1930s Mass-Observation studies, and dubbed 'Worktown'. William Lever, founder of Unilever, was born here and worked as a grocer and was a town mayor, and the Reebok trainer company also started here. It was voted best shopping centre in Lancashire by one magazine, is where Joe Wickes from EastEnders is from, was the place where the first National Lottery winner lived, and the first theologically-literate aubergine was discovered here. It has a sizeable Irish community and indigenous Catholic population dating from before the Civil War, and a Gujurati community. It is on the edge of the West Pennine Moors and is 16 minutes train ride from Manchester.

Bolton Institute

Bolton Institute is part of the University sector in Britain, and as well as the Discourse Unit it is the site for the interdisciplinary Discourse Network and the Action Research Centre for Inclusive Education. There is a well-established postgraduate programme (including the modular MSc Psychology, as a taught course or by research, and supervision of students studying at MPhil and PhD level. An MSc Critical Psychology (by distance learning or campus based, as a taught course or by research) is scheduled to start in October 1998. Contact us for details.

Discourse Unit

The conference is organised by the Discourse Unit (centre for qualitative and theoretical research on the reproduction and transformation of language, subjectivity and practice). This teaching and research centre supports a variety of qualitative and theoretical research projects contributing to the development of discourse theory in psychology, with the term 'discourse' used primarily in its critical foucauldian and hermeneutic senses to include inquiries influenced by feminism and psychoanalysis. The centre functions: (i) as a teaching resource base for qualitative and feminist work; (ii) as a support unit for the (re)production of radical academic theory; and (iii) as a networking centre for the development of critical perspectives in psychology. Contact us for details of regular Critical Psychology and Human Sciences Seminars.

Psychology Politics Resistance (PPR)

PPR is a network of people - both psychologists and non-psychologists - who are prepared to oppose the abusive uses of psychology. PPR was successfully founded as a network in 1994. There are already many organizations that challenge varieties of oppression in psychology services, whether psychology is being used in educational, occupational, nursing, social work, clinical, psychiatric, psychotherapeutic or community work. PPR does not aim to replace organizations that already exist, and one of our tasks is to gather together a resource database of people and organizations. The next annual meeting of PPR will be a Networks Festival on July 11th 1998 in Bolton or Manchester which will bring together as many groups as possible who work in and against psychology, and will stimulate the development of activist groups to organize against oppression in psychology. We plan to make the day an open space for the bringing together and sharing of ideas and practical work, with posters, information stalls, music, bookstalls and workshops. We hope that action research conference delegates will stay around -- move out of the academic conference arena into somewhere in the real world where action is taking place -- and come along to participate in this event. Further details of the Networks Festival will be available nearer the time. Contact us to be kept in touch about this.

Back to Tom Farsides' Home Page

Back to main conference page