About the Conference

The Psychology of Global Crises: State Surveillance, Solidarity and Everyday Life

May 20–30, 2020 at The American University of Paris (This is a virtual conference. Participate from wherever you are.) 

The current global Covid-19 crisis is unprecedented in many ways. Yet, ‘crisis’ as a phenomenon is everything but new. In the past years, we have been in the middle of the so-called ‘refugee crisis,’ the European sovereign debt crisis, the subprime mortgage crisis and the 2007-2008 global financial crisis. Some attest to a more general crisis of liberal democracy, an eventual crisis of capitalism, or a ‘population change crisis.’ Climate change is typically identified as a central factor in the emergence of future global crises. Beyond economically driven crises, we experience crises on the social and cultural levels: the Occupy movement, #MeToo, Black Lives Matter, Cambridge Analytica, the global surveillance disclosures, etc. On a smaller scale, we witness crises of various academic disciplines, famous among them perhaps the replication crisis in psychology. Some go further and argue that the social sciences are in a state of perpetual crisis at least since the beginnings of the 20th century. Last not least, psychologists identify and treat crises on an individual level: loss of workplace, loneliness, depression. Every crisis phenomenon maps its territory and calls for its experts and expert discourses, measures and publicly communicated courses of action.

Sparked by current developments, the theme of this conference is ‘crisis’ in all its varieties. Who is speaking to the current crisis and with what advice? Which voices are heard? What can the social sciences contribute to understand crises, the current global situation and expectations for the future? How can we critically examine the concept of ‘crisis.’ Who defines a situation as a crisis? Who benefits from and who is negatively affected by crises? How do crises change local communities? How do they affect the individual agency and the relationship of citizens to one another?

In times of crisis, let us come together in the virtual world and discuss the phenomena at hand.

Supported by AMICAL

AMICAL is an international consortium of 30 American‐modeled institutions in 22 different countries. It is a cooperative organization for advancing learning, teaching and research through the collaborative development of library, technology and curricular resources at member institutions. AMICAL’s membership is composed almost entirely of non‐profit US‐accredited colleges and universities, following American models in their curricular organization and their staff’s professional environment, but located in Europe, Central and Southern Asia, the Middle East and Africa. Their liberal arts educational missions and pedagogy distinguish them from local institutions, and their staff and faculty are generally well connected with colleagues from international scholarly and professional communities. They are often seen as leading or innovative institutions in their respective countries.

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Supported by the International Society for Theoretical Psychology

The International Society for Theoretical Psychology (ISTP) is an international forum for theoretical, meta-theoretical and philosophical discussions in psychology, with a focus on contemporary psychological debates. Founded in the early 1980s, its objective is to stimulate theoretical arguments and innovations, to foster integration across areas and traditions of research, and to promote interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary approaches to psychological questions. It aims to serve as the stage for the discussion of new theoretical ideas and conceptual frameworks, for the critical engagement of different theoretical approaches, and for discussions concerning the relation of theoretical psychology to other disciplines, to the history of psychology and to the philosophy of knowledge. Conferences are held biennially, and since its first, founding conference in Plymouth (England), ISTP conferences have been held in the West, e.g., Worcester (USA) and Bierville (France), the east, e.g., Nanjing (China), the north, e.g., Banff (Canada) and Berlin (Germany), and the south, e.g., Cape Town (South Africa) and Santiago (Chile), with the next conference being in Tokyo (Japan) in 2017. The interests of the ISTP span sub-areas of psychology. It has members whose primary interests pertain to cognitive, social, feminist, postcolonial, developmental, clinical, perceptual, biological and evolutionary psychology. The ISTP has about 200 paying members, spread across six continents. While currently the majority of its members are located in Europe and North America, one of the Society’s aspirations is to further widen its global representation and membership. Full members automatically receive Theory & Psychology. The journal's editorial policy converges with the objectives of ISTP.

Find out more about the International Society for Theoretical Psychology