Premium
Diversity Challenges in Community Research and Action: The Story of a Special Issue of AJCP
Author(s) -
Bond Meg A.,
Harrell Shelly P.
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
american journal of community psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.113
H-Index - 112
eISSN - 1573-2770
pISSN - 0091-0562
DOI - 10.1007/s10464-006-9013-z
Subject(s) - diversity (politics) , context (archaeology) , sexual orientation , action (physics) , sociology , narrative , ethnic group , health psychology , community psychology , politics , race (biology) , cultural diversity , social psychology , psychology , gender studies , epistemology , political science , anthropology , public health , law , medicine , paleontology , linguistics , philosophy , physics , nursing , quantum mechanics , biology
Community research and action often involve managing difficult diversity‐related dilemmas. However, the literature on diversity tends to focus on success stories that tie up very complex issues into neatly‐packaged case studies or lists of specific recommendations. This article introduces a special issue of the American Journal of Community Psychology that was rooted in the belief that it is within the stories of the challenges that the complexity of the political, historical, social, and psychological dynamics of diversity are most evident. The special issue includes 22 detailed narratives of dilemmas related to multiple dimensions of diversity including race, ethnicity, gender, class, sexual orientation, disability, and religion. We asked contributing authors to divide their papers into three primary subsections: (1) context, (2) Challenge and Response, and (3) Reflections. We do the same in telling the story of how this edited collection evolved.