2024
Montevideo – Uruguay
2024

Montevideo – Uruguay

ICCP2024 Montevideo – Uruguay

2022
Naples – Italy
2022

Naples – Italy

COMMUNITY RE-GENERATION. BONDS AND BRIDGES AMONG PEOPLE AND ENVIRONMENTS This conference will deal with Community Regeneration and the role of environments and social bonds in shaping hopes and opportunities for the well-being for all people. Community Regeneration will be discussed thoroughly, by rendering it as a process and as a strategy that aims to transform and renovate spaces, buildings and services. Nowadays, Community Psychology as a global academic field and practical challenge has a large task to improve social and environmental justice and individual and collective well-being. A sense of community, social trust and conviviality could be potentially useful boosters

2020
Melbourne – Australia
2020

Melbourne – Australia

Fostering and sustaining solidarities Online November 11-13, 2020 ICCP 2020 built on previous conferences and was based in Melbourne and the broader Asia-Pacific region. This location was originally and continues to be home to many Aboriginal communities. The conference sought to celebrate and interrogate the ways solidarities are fostered and sustained within community contexts, across borders and boundaries, digital and non-digital spaces, and through process of knowledge production. Due to COVID restrictions around the world this was the first fully online ICCP Conference # of total participants # of countries Proportion of nationals to foreigners VIII Melbourne 363 25 38% Australia

2018
Santiago – Chile
2018

Santiago – Chile

The community in motion The central theme of the conference emphasized the exchange and debate on the participation and organizational power of current communities in the generation of spaces for coexistence, solidarity and integration that promote respect for diversity, and change, both in their structure as well as its dynamics and contents. In this framework, the approach to Community Psychology is proposed from an analytical perspective of concepts, practices, techniques, experiences and knowledge related to the extensive field of “the community”, its transformation and the value of its impact on the social coexistence, inclusion and community and social well-being. Conference

2016
Durban – Sth Africa
2016

Durban – Sth Africa

Global dialogues on critical knowledges, liberation and community The 6th International Conference on Community Psychology (ICCP2016) was held at the Durban International Convention Centre, South Africa on 27-30 May. This is the first time this conference has been held on the African continent. The conference theme, Global Dialogues on Critical Knowledges, Liberation and Community, encouraged a safe space to critique the assumptions and far-reaching influences underlying the dominant knowledge economy in community psychology, considered to be largely shaped by imperialism, colonialism, neo-colonialism, globalisation, ethnocentricism and racism.   Conference # of total participants # of countries Proportion of nationals to foreigners

2014
Fortaleza – Brasil
2014

Fortaleza – Brasil

Community Psychology in the current world: challenges, limits and practices. It aimed to create spaces for questioning and reflection on the paths of Community Psychology in recent years. Knowing that the global, social, economic, environmental and politics transformations have deeply affected its theorizing and praxis, the conference had the main purpose of analyzing the Community Psychology in the current world today from its limits, challenges and practices.   Conference # of total participants # of countries Proportion of nationals to foreigners V Fortaleza 946 24 81% Brasil 19% from other countries   Fortaleza 2014 photos

2012
Barcelona – Spain
2012

Barcelona – Spain

Rethinking Community Action in the new century 21-23 June, 2012 The IV international conference of community psychology is organised by the university of Barcelona in collaboration with the autonomous university of Barcelona. It continued the undertaking of previous international conferences of forging shared agendas and effective answers to the social problems and aspirations there’s a new century from an approach that fosters human development by means of social participation and synergic action that, by transcending diversity and plurality of positions, allows corporation for facing existing challenges. Conference # of total participants # of countries Proportion of nationals to foreigners IV Barcelona

2010
Puebla – Mexico
2010

Puebla – Mexico

Community Approaches to Contemporary Social Problems June 3 – 5, 2010 Puebla, Mexico The Third Conference celebrated in June 2010 at Universidad Iberoamericana in Puebla, Mexico, focused on “Community Approaches to Contemporary Social Problems”. It addressed the scientific and professional status of Community Psychology as an international endeavor from the perspective of the historical and sociocultural context of present day social concerns and as a multidisciplinary “linking science” able to afford an original and needed contribution to deal with them.   Conference # of total participants # of countries Proportion of nationals to foreigners III Puebla 695 34 37% Mexico

2008
Lisbon – Portugal
2008

Lisbon – Portugal

Building participative, empowering & diverse communities Visioning Community Psychology in a worldwide perspective Lisboa, 4-6 June, 2008 The II International Conference on Community Psychology in 2008 has had as main aim to contribute towards the advancement of an international movement inspired in the principles and values of community psychology. The presence of delegates from 36 different countries and the support of international organizations such as SCRA (Society for the Community Research and Action), ECPA (European Community Psychology Association), and the Community Psychology Colleges of the Iberoamerican and Australian Psychology Association, was for us an honor, and also we have had representatives from national associations from New Zealand,

2006
San Juan – Puerto Rico
2006

San Juan – Puerto Rico

First International Conference Community Psychology: Shared Agendas in Diversity From June 8 to 10, 2006, the First International Conference was held of Community Psychology: Shared Agendas in Diversity, whose headquarters was the University of Puerto Rico, R o Piedras Campus in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Representatives from more than thirty countries of the world.  “This conference, which underwent almost three years of planning, utilized hundreds of volunteers, and in which almost 200 people participated, represented a struggle against institutional mills, bureaucracy, and colonialism. We will never forget the powerful image that was engraved in the minds of those of us

Historical notes of International community psychology conferences

By Irma Serrano-García

Community psychology is a young discipline. However, as disciplines go, it has developed rapidly. This may be due to different factors including a group of very active pioneers, its widespread initiation in different parts of the globe and the availability of the internet as a means of communication and sharing. I venture to say that International Community Psychology Conferences (ICCP’s) have also played a significant role in the discipline’s growth, its values, its theories and practice.

International Community Psychology Conferences began 14 and a half years ago. Similar to the start of many community efforts, they were initiated by a group of friends that had a good idea which was picked up by a group of enthusiastic, hardworking community psychologists who gave it life in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The conferences have various characteristics which represent values and concepts of community psychology.

Participation and diversity are at the forefront. These conferences are not housed in any particular organization. This was decided purposefully. The initial organizers wanted the conferences to respond to the interest, resources and energy of community psychologist. They did not know if there would be more than one conference; so they refrained from naming it the “First” ICCP. It has been fascinating to see how the event has literally taken on a life of its own. We have had 8 conferences so far in Puerto Rico, Portugal, México, Spain, Brasil, South Africa, Chile and Melbourne (virtually). There are two confirmed sites for the next two conferences: Italy and Uruguay. An average of 611 participants, representing an average of 34 countries, have attended these conferences. Hopefully, with the possibility of hosting virtual or hybrid events the conferences can reach other corners of the world including Asia which there has not been an ICCP yet.  There has also been diversity in attendees since in addition to psychologists, students, practitioners, activists, indigenous peoples and colleagues from other disciplines attend the conferences.

Capacity building is another focus of the conferences which have contributed to it in many ways. Most conferences have had diverse and rich pre-conferences with skill building as well as practice based workshops. Chile organized pre-conferences in three cities in the North, Center and South of the country and Melbourne hosted two thought provoking webinars months ahead to the conference itself.

A recent content analysis of the first seven conferences has shown that the content of the conferences has included the historical, ethical and critical examination of multiple theories and concepts such as empowerment, violence, poverty, sense of community, and public policy (Serrano-García & Torres López, 2020). Burgeoning areas also include critical and liberation psychology, decoloniality, sustainability, racialized and gender oppression and issues related to the pandemic and climate change. The conferences have also included rich work related to diverse research efforts particularly participatory action research and qualitative methods. There have been numerous examples of creative and action-oriented interventions as well as work by community psychologists from within government organizations and non-governmental entities.  The incorporation of the arts in community psychology practice and research has been present but was highlighted in Melbourne with sessions that included film, caricatures, poetry, drawing, theatre among others.

Books and special issues of journals have been born at these events. There is already a call out for a special issue related to this conference. These publications are listed at the end of this introduction. The proliferation of publications that have started to accept articles in various languages such as the Global Journal of Community Psychology Practice (https://www.gjcpp.org/en/) or entities that have translations on their websites, like the Community Tool Box (https://ctb.ku.edu/en), are influenced by contacts made in the conferences.

Various community psychology organizations around the world have been enriched as a result of ICCP’s. The Society for Community Research and Action in the U.S. has seen more participants from other countries in its Biennial meetings as a result of its participation and collaboration with ICCPs. Recently, the European Community Psychology Association and SCRA have developed the New Bank for Community Ideas and Solutions, a global collaboration designed to promote community building and strengthen community life. The Community Psychology Commission of the Interamerican Society of Psychology (ISP) meets now, not only in ISP Congresses, but at the conferences. These collaborations were facilitated by links developed in ICCP’s as was the birth of the Latin American Network for Education and Training in Community Psychology.

Solidarities have also been fostered not only by our professional endeavors but by our cultural and informal exchange. The variety and richness of cultural experiences in all forms of art including dance and music, exhibits, and film are just one of the many ways in which we share who we are as nations, as a collective and as individuals.

Last but not least, conferences have contributed towards creating a community of community psychologist. Participants have common interest and needs, and many before or after attending ICCP’s feel a sense of belonging to a community. The time we spend talking at lunch, on a park bench, over a glass of wine or more recently in a Zoom session, also nurture our solidarity by creating and maintaining personal and affective links that lead to collaboration and critical examination of our beliefs and ideas. Many new friendships that have arisen in these events and continue when the conferences are over.

Finally, we are a community that takes action in the face of poverty, homelessness, violence, illness, exploitation, and oppression. We need to strengthen this further, by developing more active ways to network and develop shared projects that will persist, by developing ways to maintain our exchange alive between conferences and by finding other ways to facilitate empowering the vulnerable to promote well-being, equity and social justice in our countries and around the world.