Stirling University was chosen as the venue of the 1999 meeting of the European Network of Community Psychology (ENCP) on the 26ยฑ27 August. Members of ENCP aim to promote Community Psychology in Europe through research, publication, teaching and methodological development and to provide reliable information on pressing social questions whilst raising fundamental issues and critical questions. The annual ENCP meeting has previously been held in Lisbon, Vienna and Munich. Delegates travelled to Scotland this summer from Austria, England, Germany, Italy, Norway, Portugal and Spain.
At the Stirling meeting, delegates debated the future expansion of the network; developing contacts with US, Australian and other international equivalent groups; development of the ENCP web site; possible links with the Journal of Community and Applied Social Psychology; and decided to explore the potential for a European Masters in Community Psychology.
Delegates also engaged in detailed planning of the III European Conference on Community Psychology, entitled Community action, empowerment and health promotion, to be held 11ยฑ 13 September 2000, in Bergen, Norway.
The meeting also included debates on core theoretical, methodological and empirical issues in Community Psychology, stimulated by three inputs. Firstly, members of the Alloa based REACHOUT mental health expressive arts project ran a demonstration participatory workshop which included examples of their work in video, music and poetry. Following a detailed debate comparing REACHOUT favourably with similar projects in Germany, the Netherlands and Italy, this was commended by the Network members as an outstanding community psychological contribution to mental health promotion through personal growth, mutual support and public education about mental health issues.
Secondly, delegates watched and debated At the Sharp End of the Knife'. This ยฎlm was produced and directed by Barbara Orton, for BBC World, RVU and ETV and received its premiere at the 1999 Edinburgh International Film Festival. The ยฎlm was conceived by, and features, Cathy McCormack, a community activist from Easterhouse. In it she travels from the Glasgow of New Labour' to the township heartlands of South Africa to meet community activists building the post-apartheid New Africa'. In the ยฎlm Mrs McCormack draws comparisons between pressing community psychological issues in areas of the UK and in South Africa and asks the viewer to think about a War Without Bullets' being waged against socially excluded, poor and unemployed people by their own country's establishments. Cathy McCormack attended a special screening during the ENCP meeting at Stirling and led a very lively subsequent debate. Mrs McCormack has no formal training in psychology, but her work and her ยฎlm in particular were commended as major contributions to tackling socially caused mental health problems, i.e. as contributions to community psychology.
Thirdly, delegates from Austria described their ongoing Agenda 21 research on socially sustainable community development in Vienna with members of ENCP oering constructive methodological critique and suggestions for development.