There has been a growing interest in the role of arts and cultural practice in tackling perennial forms of social exclusion, marginalization, and oppression. Researchers and educators from different disciplines have been collaborating with community-based agencies and community groups to forge new ways to challenge these forms of exclusion. This volume discusses how various social actors, work in interdisciplinary and cross-institutional ways to push an agenda that privileges those individuals and groups, who experience and live at the front line of social inequality, discrimination, racism and oppression. For instance, what new understandings are generated through creative, interdisciplinary, action oriented work, and the implications for social action and transformation? How are community pedagogies constructed and communicated through arts-based research, contemporary and innovative mediums such as creative performances, arts, technologies, mixed-cultural practices and social media and networking? This collection of articles, blurs the lines between cultural practice and knowledge production, with the process and products coming in the forms of theories, creative methodologies, and a range of arts. Together these act as powerful pedagogical tools for engaging in social justice and transformative work. The contributions further highlight the multifaceted and diverse ways of creating and disseminating knowledge, and the attempts to decenter text-based ways of communicating in hopes of sharing collaborative knowledge beyond the academy and engaging the 'public'. This volume was originally published as a special issue of the International Journal of Inclusive Education.

This book examines the ways in which decolonial theory has gained traction and influenced knowledge production, praxis and epistemic justice in various contemporary iterations of community psychology across the globe. With a notable Southern focus (although not exclusively so), the volume critically interrogates the biases in Western modernist thought in relation to community psychology, and to illuminate and consolidate current epistemic alternatives that contribute to the possibilities of emancipatory futures within community psychology. To this end, the volume includes contributions from community psychology theory and praxis across the globe that speak to standpoint approaches (e.g. critical race studies, queer theory, indigenous epistemologies) in which the experiences of the majority of the global population are more accurately reflected, address key social issues such as the on-going racialization of the globe, gender, class, poverty, xenophobia, sexuality, violence, diasporas, migrancy, environmental degradation, and transnationalism/globalisation, and embrace forms of knowledge production that involve the co-construction of new knowledges across the traditional binary of knowledge producers and consumers. This book is an engaging resource for scholars, researchers, practitioners, activists and advanced postgraduate students who are currently working within community psychology and cognate sub-disciplines within psychology more broadly. A secondary readership is those working in development studies, political science, community development and broader cognate disciplines within the social sciences, arts, and humanities.

In this book, the authors have explored a series of different types of communities - moving from the basic idea of those based at a specific location all the way to virtual communities of the internet. A key feature of this book is the research focus that emphasizes the theory-driven analyses and the diversity of contexts in which sense of community is applied. The book will be of great interest to those concerned with understanding various forms of community and how communities can be mobilized to achieve wellbeing.

Since the mid-1980s, the psychology of liberation movement has been a catalyst for collective and individual change in communities throughout Latin America, and beyond; and recent political developments are making its powerful, transformative ideas more relevant than ever before. Psychology of Liberation: Theory and Applications updates the activist frameworks developed by Ignacio Martin-Baro and Paulo Freire with compelling stories from the frontlines of conflict in the developing and developed worlds, as social science and psychological practice are allied with struggles for peace, justice, and equality.

In these chapters, liberation is presented as both an ongoing process and a core dimension of wellbeing, entailing the reconstruction of social identity and the transformation of all parties involved, both oppressed and oppressors. It also expands the social consciousness of professionals, bringing more profound meaning to practice and enhancing related areas such as peace psychology, as shown in articles such as these:

• Philippines: the role of liberation movements in the transition to democracy.
• Venezuela: liberation psychology as a therapeutic intervention with street youth.
• South Africa: the movement for representational knowledge.
• Muslim world: religion, the state, and the gendering of human rights.
• Ireland: linking personal and political development.
• Australia: addressing issues of racism, identity, and immigration.
• Colombia: building cultures of peace from the devastation of war.

Psychology of Liberation demonstrates the commitment to overcome social injustices and oppression. The book is a critical resource for social and community psychologists as well as policy analysts. It can also be used as a text for graduate courses in psychology, sociology, social work and community studies.

Since the mid-1980s, the psychology of liberation movement has been a catalyst for collective and individual change in communities throughout Latin America, and beyond; and recent political developments are making its powerful, transformative ideas more relevant than ever before. Psychology of Liberation: Theory and Applications updates the activist frameworks developed by Ignacio Martin-Baro and Paulo Freire with compelling stories from the frontlines of conflict in the developing and developed worlds, as social science and psychological practice are allied with struggles for peace, justice, and equality.

In these chapters, liberation is presented as both an ongoing process and a core dimension of wellbeing, entailing the reconstruction of social identity and the transformation of all parties involved, both oppressed and oppressors. It also expands the social consciousness of professionals, bringing more profound meaning to practice and enhancing related areas such as peace psychology, as shown in articles such as these:

• Philippines: the role of liberation movements in the transition to democracy.
• Venezuela: liberation psychology as a therapeutic intervention with street youth.
• South Africa: the movement for representational knowledge.
• Muslim world: religion, the state, and the gendering of human rights.
• Ireland: linking personal and political development.
• Australia: addressing issues of racism, identity, and immigration.
• Colombia: building cultures of peace from the devastation of war.

Psychology of Liberation demonstrates the commitment to overcome social injustices and oppression. The book is a critical resource for social and community psychologists as well as policy analysts. It can also be used as a text for graduate courses in psychology, sociology, social work and community studies.

Psychological sense of community provides a sense of belonging, identity, emotional connection, and wellbeing. There are many positives that result from people experiencing and perceiving a sense of community. People are better adjusted, feel supported, have connections to other people and to goals that are above and beyond their own limited areas, and have stronger levels of social support and social connectedness. A strong sense of community acts as a buffer against threats, provides a place in which to express our identities, and helps us deal with changes in our world.

In this book, the authors have explored a series of different types of communities - moving from the basic idea of those based at a specific location all the way to virtual communities of the internet. The ways in which the communities operate, positively and negatively, what people get out of them and what they have to put into them, and the notion of being members of more than one community at the one time are considered.

Sense of community is a topic that captures the attention of people from all types of backgrounds. So, contributors from fields such as community psychology, clinical areas, community development, and urban planning have added their insights and knowledge. A key feature of this book is the research focus that emphasizes the theory-driven analyses and the diversity of contexts in which sense of community is applied. This book will make a significant contribution to our understanding of life in communities and to people's sense of community. It will be of great interest to those concerned with understanding various forms of community and how communities can be mobilized to achieve wellbeing.

There has been a growing interest in the role of arts and cultural practice in tackling perennial forms of social exclusion, marginalization, and oppression. Researchers and educators from different disciplines have been collaborating with community-based agencies and community groups to forge new ways to challenge these forms of exclusion. This volume discusses how various social actors, work in interdisciplinary and cross-institutional ways to push an agenda that privileges those individuals and groups, who experience and live at the front line of social inequality, discrimination, racism and oppression. For instance, what new understandings are generated through creative, interdisciplinary, action oriented work, and the implications for social action and transformation? How are community pedagogies constructed and communicated through arts-based research, contemporary and innovative mediums such as creative performances, arts, technologies, mixed-cultural practices and social media and networking? This collection of articles, blurs the lines between cultural practice and knowledge production, with the process and products coming in the forms of theories, creative methodologies, and a range of arts. Together these act as powerful pedagogical tools for engaging in social justice and transformative work. The contributions further highlight the multifaceted and diverse ways of creating and disseminating knowledge, and the attempts to decenter text-based ways of communicating in hopes of sharing collaborative knowledge beyond the academy and engaging the 'public'. This volume was originally published as a special issue of the International Journal of Inclusive Education.

This book examines the ways in which decolonial theory has gained traction and influenced knowledge production, praxis and epistemic justice in various contemporary iterations of community psychology across the globe. With a notable Southern focus (although not exclusively so), the volume critically interrogates the biases in Western modernist thought in relation to community psychology, and to illuminate and consolidate current epistemic alternatives that contribute to the possibilities of emancipatory futures within community psychology. To this end, the volume includes contributions from community psychology theory and praxis across the globe that speak to standpoint approaches (e.g. critical race studies, queer theory, indigenous epistemologies) in which the experiences of the majority of the global population are more accurately reflected, address key social issues such as the on-going racialization of the globe, gender, class, poverty, xenophobia, sexuality, violence, diasporas, migrancy, environmental degradation, and transnationalism/globalisation, and embrace forms of knowledge production that involve the co-construction of new knowledges across the traditional binary of knowledge producers and consumers. This book is an engaging resource for scholars, researchers, practitioners, activists and advanced postgraduate students who are currently working within community psychology and cognate sub-disciplines within psychology more broadly. A secondary readership is those working in development studies, political science, community development and broader cognate disciplines within the social sciences, arts, and humanities.