Decoloniality and community-psychology practice in Puerto Rico: autonomous organising (autogestión) and self-determination

Abstract

Psychology, as a diverse social practice, must take a stance regarding the colonial world-system that legitimises the hegemonic production of knowledge. Decolonising community psychology requires the transformation of its practices to face cultural and institutional systems that reproduce inequality in colonial contexts as well as the validating of indigenous knowledge. Reflecting on an intervention in response to the devastation of Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico, this paper highlights the importance of a community psychological practice that promotes the search for self-determination and autonomous organising or autogestión. Following the notion that community psychologists should be social change agents whose professional activity constitutes a political act, our proposal is to stress decoloniality as a pedagogical practice, incorporating its principles to everyday interactions with diverse people, groups, organisations and communities. Self-determination refers to the ability for people, groups, neighbourhoods and communities to recognise the demands of their contexts and respond in ways that potentiate control over their own lives simultaneously with the search and action for collective well-being. Autonomous organising aims at individual and collective empowerment, to demand from official institutions and agents what their rights are, when they need it, by organising contestant responses to the systematic injustices and the abandonment of colonial instances.

Keywords:

• Community psychology
• decoloniality
• self-determination
• autonomous organising
• hurricane maria

Acknowledgements

I want to acknowledge the excellent work the following graduate students did in the Valle Hill community and in the conceptualisation of this article: Diana Betancur, Ishi Maldonado, Orlando Maldonado, Sergio Marichal, Miriam Morales, Joselyn Rosado, Vaneishka Vélez.

I am very thankful to Aurora Santiago Ortiz and Mario Rodriguez Cancel for their support and collaboration in the submission of the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Brusi and Godreau (2019) have documented how the government of Puerto Rico has been dismantling public education by defunding and/or closing schools.