Newsletter zur Konferenz und Stellungnahme der ECPA zum Krieg in Gaza
Am 23.-25 Juli 2025 fand die Conference der European Community Psychology Association (ECPA) 2025 in Lissabon statt. Monika Bobzien und Wolfgang Stark u.a. waren als Mitglieder der GGFP aktiv vor Ort mit Workshops und Roundtable-Diskussionen vertreten. Im Folgenden wird der Newsletter und die Stellungnahme vom 28.07.25 (inkl. der Links) der ECPA wiedergegeben:
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| ECPA 2025 Conference: Building Community Strength in Uncertain Times…it’s a wrap! |
| Our four-day collective journey is over, but we leave Lisbon inspired, connected, and ready to keep up with our work, together building more radical futures! In the opening session, chaired by ECPA’s President Francesca Esposito, we remembered and honored Community Psychology’s legacy. Our amazing keynote speaker, Dr. Samah Jabr, led us on a grounding reflexion on Palestine and the role of psychologists in addressing colonial violence. In the following days we had many thought-provoking plenaries, working groups, workshops and a poster session, which engaged us in powerful conversations on deinstitutionalisation, community diversity and inclusion, climate justice,creative expression, mobility, border violence, participatory approaches, resistance, digital methodologies, change in universities and how to navigate uncertain times in solidarity and resistance. Wolfgang Stark chaired an important roundtable on how to address the rise of authoritarianism, which will certainly inspire much-needed follow-up conversations and collaborations. Our field visits were important moments of shared experiences, memories and stories of resistance, which sparked us with hope for more brilliant common futures. We closed our beautiful journey with a session called „Envisioning Radical Futures“ where we heard Iolanda Évora, Zaida Morais de Freitas, and Moshood Olanrewaju share inspiring reflexions and new imaginaries of resistance, community collaboration and epistemic justice. 👏Bruna Zani was awarded the ECPA Lifetime Career Award — a well-deserved recognition for her outstanding contributions to community psychology 💐 – We will soon send out a dedicated note to all our ECPA 2025 awardees! 🎓 The host city for ECPA 2027 was also announced — The next conference will be organized together with our colleagues and friends in… Barcelona! A heartfelt thank you to all participants for co-creating this space and working with us to strengthen our community of communities 💜 Special thanks to our wonderful colleagues at Ispa – Instituto Universitário for being such generous hosts, to SCRA: Society for Community Research and Action for their support, and to our partners at SIPCO Società Italiana di Psicologia di Comunità and Sociedade Portuguesa de Psicologia Comunitária. We invite you to contact us at ecpa.psychassociation@gmail.comwith any suggestions of events, opportunities or papers to include in future newsletters, and don’t forget to follow us on LinkedIn, BlueSky, or Facebook. We appreciate you for being part of our community! We wish you a restful summer break and promise to come back in September with fresh proposals and renewed energy to continue our collective journey! |
| ECPA statement on the war in Gaza |
| On July 23, the ECPA board published a new statement on the war in Gaza. As community psychologists, we cannot stand silent as we watch the genocide continuing to unfold, exposing the moral failures of our international community, and particularly of Western governments. As recently highlighted by Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967: “While political leaders and governments shirk their obligations, far too many corporate entities have profited from Israel’s economy of illegal occupation, apartheid and now, genocide.” The Palestinian people have the right to a future and their land; they cannot suffer blatant violations of their human rights and their dignity any longer. Humanitarian aid agencies and solidarity groups must be allowed to enter Gaza and work in safety and security. As European community psychologists, we call for full respect for the Palestinian people’s human, civil, and political rights, as well as their right to peace and self-determination. |