CALL FOR PAPERS: “Social Ecological Approaches to Community Health Research and Action”

[Shannon Gwin Mitchell]

CALL FOR PAPERS

“Social Ecological Approaches to Community Health Research and Action”

A Special Issue of the American Journal of Community Psychology
and Presentations at the 2009 Biennial Conference of the Society for Community Research and Action
(Division 27 of the American Psychological Association)

Guest Editors:
David Lounsbury, PhD, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY
Shannon Gwin Mitchell, PhD, Friends Research Institute, Inc., Baltimore, MD

There is a growing recognition in many of the social science disciplines that our research methods
are ill-equipped to capture and make sense of the dynamic complexity and full contextual reality that
characterizes our contemporary circumstance. As a community of scientists, we must continue to test
new ways of working together, new ways of fostering collaborative investigation. This need is selfevident
to those who see that many of the problems we now face developed as unanticipated outcomes
of our own past actions. We need research strategies that move us beyond our distinct disciplines
or areas of specialization so that we can more clearly see “the big picture” and create and
deliver systemic interventions.

For research in community health, a social ecological approach can address this need. A social ecological
approach, by our definition, requires us to examine an issue from multiple disciplines (e.g., political,
social, anthropological, historical, economic, etc.) and multiple levels (e.g., persons, families,
communities, etc.). Studies that embrace multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary or transdisciplinary
research efforts are often complementary of the social ecological approach. Health research that
identifies underlying processes that can explain how to effectively promote health and wellbeing
within diverse communities is of particular interest.

In a special issue of the American Journal of Community Psychology (AJCP), we seek to highlight
the work of community health researchers and practitioners who have applied a social ecological
framework. We invite community health researchers and practitioners to submit full articles for a special
issue of the AJCP. Those selected will also be invited to present their research at the 2009 Biennial
Conference of the Society for Community Research and Action, to be held at Montclair State
University in Montclair, New Jersey, USA, in June 2009.

Please send submissions via e-mail to Guest Editor Shannon Gwin Mitchell at
[e-mail] no later than 7/01/2008.

All works must be original and previously unpublished. Manuscript preparation instructions for authors
can be found on the AJCP website:
http://www.springer.com/psychology/community+&+environmental+psychology/journal/10464