Critiques of health behaviour change programs

Abstract: Critics have raised concerns about health behaviour change programs in the global South. However, there has been very little reflection about what those critiques are critical of and, in particular, what psychology has come to mean within those critiques. The aim of this paper was threefold: to describe existing critiques of behaviour change programs, to reflect on how psychology has been written into those critiques, and to determine what theoretical resources critiques overlook. The paper identifies four types of critiques (efficacy, sociological, ethical and governance), argues that critiques tend be psychologized and miss important insights from resources related to discourse, gender, knowledge production and resistance. It is hoped that this paper will stimulate further debate about the role of psychology in behaviour change interventions in the global South

Class, resistance, and the psychologization of development in South Africa

This paper focuses on the psychologization of development in South Africa, one of the most unequal countries in the world, through a critical analysis of a discussion on a national radio programme about the meaning of Mandela Day. We demonstrate how speakers draw on common sense notions of race, class, and party politics that (re)produce subject positions from within a rights-based interpretive repertoire that emphasizes structural reform and class resistance, and an agency interpretive repertoire that emphasizes individualism, responsibility, and volunteerism. We further demonstrate how the agency subject position serves to stifle and resist the rights subject position by drawing on common sense 'psychological truths' about what it means to be a good citizen

Towards a ‘just’ conservation psychology

Climate change and biodiversity loss are serious concerns for environmental researchers and conservationists. However, the impact of climate change and biodiversity loss disproportionately affects low-income communities, indigenous groups, and people of colour. Conservation initiatives, however, sometimes perpetuate historical injustices of marginalised people. We argue that environmental justice may be effectively merged with conservation psychology to promote a just conservation psychology. We discuss a case study of a South African community impacted by conservation-related environmental injustices under apartheid. We discuss the role of capacity building in a community-based conservation initiative that promotes justice, human wellbeing, and conservation goals

Psychology, environment and climate change: foregrounding justice (part one)

We are living through unprecedented global heating,environmental pollution, chemical toxicity, biodiversityloss, extractivism, environmental militarisation, exclusionof marginalised people in decision-making processes,violence directed at environmental defenders and limitsto public engagement, to name a few issues (IPCC, 2022,Menton & Le Billon, 2021, Noyes et al., 2009, Sealey-Huggins,2018). While psychologists are paying increasing attentionto environmental degradation and climate change (Bailey,Pool & James, 2021, Wainwright and Mitchell, 2021), thediscipline has been somewhat slow to address the politicaland structural dimensions that underpin those issues.Importantly, mainstream psychological scholarship hasneglected marginalised people who are disproportionatelyaffected and underrepresented in environmental andclimate scholarship and practice

Psychology, environment and climate change: foregrounding justice (part two)

The world is experiencing unprecedented heating, extreme weather patterns, natural disasters, pollution, biodiversity loss, and environmental destruction with disproportionate impacts on marginalised peoples’ physical and mental health. Environmental and climate justice is increasingly used to frame research, practice and praxis. For example, activists on the margins are increasingly demanding that their voices are heard despite extreme levels of physical and epistemic violence. Countries in the global South are demanding reparations for the disproportionate harm caused by industrialised nations. For the first time, the latest IPCC report acknowledged the impacts of colonisation on climate change. However, much work needs to be done.  With planetary health at a tipping point, it is crucial for all sectors and disciplines to urgently mobilise to acknowledge disproportionate impacts and reverse environmental degradation and climate change

Reimagining African Women Youth Climate Activism: The Case of Vanessa Nakate

African women youth climate activists are marginalised in mainstream climate activism. There is very little scholarly work done on this group, specifically on how their agency is deployed in the context of extreme undermining. Based on a case study of the activism of Vanessa Nakate, this paper analyses online interviews, media reports and social media interactions. The text was analysed thematically. The paper identifies three social binds (location, gender, and youth) that limit her activism. Importantly, the findings show how she deploys context-dependent agency to overcome those binds. The paper offers practical and theoretical insights for the study of African women climate activism. I argue that understanding and developing personal and political agency is essential for the sustainability of African women youth climate activism

Politics and Activism in the Water and Sanitation Wars in South Africa

This paper focuses on the ways in which activism is undermined in the water and sanitation wars in South Africa. The paper extends previous work that has focused on the politics of water and sanitation in South Africa and is based on an analysis of talk between activists and stakeholders in a television debate. It attempts to make two arguments. First, activists who disrupt powerful discourses of active citizenship struggle to highlight water and sanitation injustices without their actions being individualised and party politicised. Second, in an attempt to claim a space for new social movements, activists paradoxically draw on common sense accounts of race, class, geography, dignity and democracy that may limit activism. The implications for water and sanitation activism and future research are discussed

Behavioural Change, Indoor Air Pollution and Child Respiratory Health in Developing Countries: A Review

Indoor air pollution caused by the indoor burning of solid biomass fuels has been associated with Acute Respiratory Infections such as pneumonia amongst children of less than five years of age. Behavioural change interventions have been identified as a potential strategy to reduce child indoor air pollution exposure, yet very little is known about the impact of behavioural change interventions to reduce indoor air pollution. Even less is known about how behaviour change theory has been incorporated into indoor air pollution behaviour change interventions. A review of published studies spanning 1983–2013 suggests that behavioural change strategies have the potential to reduce indoor air pollution exposure by 20%–98% in laboratory settings and 31%–94% in field settings. However, the evidence is: (1) based on studies that are methodologically weak; and (2) have little or no underlying theory. The paper concludes with a call for more rigorous studies to evaluate the role of behavioural change strategies (with or without improved technologies) to reduce indoor air pollution exposure in developing countries as well as interventions that draw more strongly on existing behavioural change theory and practice