WHEN RELEVANCE DECENTERS CRITICALITY: THE CASE OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN NATIONAL CRIME, VIOLENCE AND INJURY LEAD PROGRAMME

Following the formal demise of political apartheid in SouthAfrica in 1994, critical and community-centred psychologistshave tended to obtain relevance through alignment with thetenets of social justice and the larger democratic project. Thisarticle draws on the experiences of the Crime, Violence and...

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Main Author: Mohamed Seedat
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Universidad Nacional de Colombia 2010-11-01
Series:Revista Colombiana de Psicología
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.revistas.unal.edu.co/index.php/psicologia/article/viewFile/14014/18622
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spelling doaj-3823fb5940fe4807ac510dddb0c38f3b2020-11-24T22:41:51ZengUniversidad Nacional de ColombiaRevista Colombiana de Psicología0121-54692010-11-01192193205WHEN RELEVANCE DECENTERS CRITICALITY: THE CASE OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN NATIONAL CRIME, VIOLENCE AND INJURY LEAD PROGRAMMEMohamed SeedatFollowing the formal demise of political apartheid in SouthAfrica in 1994, critical and community-centred psychologistshave tended to obtain relevance through alignment with thetenets of social justice and the larger democratic project. Thisarticle draws on the experiences of the Crime, Violence andInjury Lead Programme (CVI) to illustrate how particularformulations of scientific and social relevance function tomarginalize criticality and critical scholarship. The authorsuggests that relevance without criticality produces forms ofintellectual activity that privilege empiricist traditions, perpetrate a binary between research and research translation, andreproduce the myth that intervention work is atheoretical.The review of the CVI serves as a reminder of the challengesinherent in enactments of critical psychology. Among themany issues that critical psychology oriented initiatives likeCVI have to contend with is the task of developing theoreticaland other resources to move between co-operation and critiquein the service of democratic development.http://www.revistas.unal.edu.co/index.php/psicologia/article/viewFile/14014/18622community psychologycriticalityrelevance
collection DOAJ
language English
format Article
sources DOAJ
author Mohamed Seedat
spellingShingle Mohamed Seedat
WHEN RELEVANCE DECENTERS CRITICALITY: THE CASE OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN NATIONAL CRIME, VIOLENCE AND INJURY LEAD PROGRAMME
Revista Colombiana de Psicología
community psychology
criticality
relevance
author_facet Mohamed Seedat
author_sort Mohamed Seedat
title WHEN RELEVANCE DECENTERS CRITICALITY: THE CASE OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN NATIONAL CRIME, VIOLENCE AND INJURY LEAD PROGRAMME
title_short WHEN RELEVANCE DECENTERS CRITICALITY: THE CASE OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN NATIONAL CRIME, VIOLENCE AND INJURY LEAD PROGRAMME
title_full WHEN RELEVANCE DECENTERS CRITICALITY: THE CASE OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN NATIONAL CRIME, VIOLENCE AND INJURY LEAD PROGRAMME
title_fullStr WHEN RELEVANCE DECENTERS CRITICALITY: THE CASE OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN NATIONAL CRIME, VIOLENCE AND INJURY LEAD PROGRAMME
title_full_unstemmed WHEN RELEVANCE DECENTERS CRITICALITY: THE CASE OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN NATIONAL CRIME, VIOLENCE AND INJURY LEAD PROGRAMME
title_sort when relevance decenters criticality: the case of the south african national crime, violence and injury lead programme
publisher Universidad Nacional de Colombia
series Revista Colombiana de Psicología
issn 0121-5469
publishDate 2010-11-01
description Following the formal demise of political apartheid in SouthAfrica in 1994, critical and community-centred psychologistshave tended to obtain relevance through alignment with thetenets of social justice and the larger democratic project. Thisarticle draws on the experiences of the Crime, Violence andInjury Lead Programme (CVI) to illustrate how particularformulations of scientific and social relevance function tomarginalize criticality and critical scholarship. The authorsuggests that relevance without criticality produces forms ofintellectual activity that privilege empiricist traditions, perpetrate a binary between research and research translation, andreproduce the myth that intervention work is atheoretical.The review of the CVI serves as a reminder of the challengesinherent in enactments of critical psychology. Among themany issues that critical psychology oriented initiatives likeCVI have to contend with is the task of developing theoreticaland other resources to move between co-operation and critiquein the service of democratic development.
topic community psychology
criticality
relevance
url http://www.revistas.unal.edu.co/index.php/psicologia/article/viewFile/14014/18622
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