Uncle Critical Wants You!

The following email has been circulated recently, and I hope they don't mind me posting it here. It is about the 2007 European Congress of Psychology, to be held in Prague, and the possibility of organising some Critical Psychology symposia there. Ian Parker doesn't want to fight the battle all on his own, you see, or be stuck without any friends to drink the undeniably tasty Czech beers with. If Parker's loneliness does not inspire you to go, or you don't drink beer, Prague is at least a fascinating and beautiful city. Consider it!

(For those reading the email below and who are unfamiliar with Critical Psychology, a short disclaimer: you might get the impression that 'critical' here means whining about how terrible, boring, and expensive the conference will be, how we will not get enough time to speak and won't be heard in any case, but that if it will further the Cause, we will be the least and spend some fine summer days in Prague... We promise there is more to being critical in psychology than this, although probably nothing that is quite as much fun.)

Critical Psychology: Lessons for Critical Psychology in Europe from around the world. The tenth European Congress of Psychology will be in Prague from 3 to 6 July 2007.

This will most likely be a grotesque large psychology conference, and they will probably charge the earth for the privilege of listening to the latest 'discoveries'. Those who do decide to speak at the conference will probably be allotted a few small amount of time. It is unclear exactly how
terrible the event will be, but there are first details on http://www.ecp2007.com/intro.htm

However, this could also be a space for a critical intervention. Ian Parker has been invited to speak at the conference, and would now like to ensure some friendly faces are there. So he wants to organise a symposia or two on ''Critical Psychology: Lessons for Critical Psychology in Europe from around the world'. (The organisation of this might be with the editors of the special ARCP issue on critical psychology around the world, depending on whether they will be attending the conference.) The ECP organisers have promised to put this title in their list of symposia in the second announcement for the conference which they are currently preparing for their website. It would be great if we could get together people who contributed to the Annual Review of Critical Psychology 5 on critical psychology around the world. So, if you think you may be interested in coming to Prague and being involved, look at the congress website, think about the logistics (high price, boring conference, interesting city, summer holiday etc), and email Ian (at I.A.Parker@mmu.ac.uk) and tell him if you will be coming along. The deadline for the submission of abstracts is November, but Ian wants to get the abstracts sorted out by September.