Visioning a true “International Community Psychology” Reflections on the 2^nd International Conference on Community Psychology

Abstract

The 1st International Conference on Community Psychology in Puerto Rico in 2006 was a monumental work for the community psychologists all over the world. In 2008, the second conference was held in Lisbon, Portugal, on the theme of “Building Participative, Empowering & Diverse Communities: Visioning Community Psychology in a Worldwide Perspective.” More than 400 community psychologists around the world got together at the conference, and discussed the mutual understanding and international collaboration in research and practice in community psychology in the context of globalising and diverse community. The conference, however, revealed that, although the community psychologists at the conference supposed to be under a “Big Tent” and spoke the “same language” as community psychologists, their research and practice were very much indigenous in their own local settings, and still far away from the mutual understanding and collaboration. The conference was concluded that continuous debases were still necessary and important to share the real “Big Tent” with the “same language.”