La Psicología Social Comunitaria en América Latina: ¿Consolidación o crisis?

Abstract

How has Latin American Community Social Psychology (CSP) contributed to the accomplishment of the goals, values and characteristics that marked its birth? Have its developments been consistent with these orientations? Do they remain? Which have been its accomplishments and the relevance of the fundaments for achieving them?. This article addresses these questions, based on previous critical reviews on part of Latin American psychosocial community production. We confront CSP’s discourse regarding the field’s aspirations, with contributions derived from the discipline’s action, exemplified with reviews’ results. This dialogue between discourse and action was organized based on CSP’s double commitment: academic and social. In the first one we consider theoretical and methodological contributions, while for the second one we centre on its stakeholders, contexts, processes and achievements. For both cases we discuss the scope of the results and their impact for the fulfillment of CSP’s purposes, characteristics and values. The reflections and questions formulated throughout the text, as well as the generated conclusions, lead us to ask about the implications of the results, and whether these may be interpreted as indicators of the discipline’s consolidation or its crisis.