According to media reports, 2016 was the 25th anniversary of the birth of the Internet, although a case can be made for birthdates as early as 1989. Email discussion lists were one of the early uses of the Internet
, and the second half of the 1990s saw the creation of a large ecopsychology group moderated by the late Claudia Robinson. A number of participants discovered that her moderation was somewhat immoderate and left her list to create a new, smaller, but more inclusive ecopsychology discussion list. Several members of the list attended the “For the Love of Nature” conference in Scotland, co-organized by a member of that small list, Brendan Hill of the Centre for Human Ecology.
The list had a diverse membership from around the (mostly English-speaking) world with members in the US, Canada, the UK, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Belgium, and France. There was a consensus on the list that there was a need for enhanced communication beyond our small email list and occasional conferences. We had an extended discussion of our next step: Should we create an academic association with a peer-reviewed journal or should we have a very loose organization with a website and a more open magazine format? Informality and the magazine carried the day.
We called ourselves the International Community for Ecopsychology (ICE) and created the first versions of this website www.ecopsychology.org and our internet magazine Gatherings. All the work was performed by volunteers and all expenses (registration and hosting fees) were covered by donations from the members of ICE. By consensus we agreed not to carry commercial advertisements, charge for directory listings, or sell anything.
The first edition of Gatherings appeared in late 1999. The internet was still in its childhood and information was difficult to find. Google had only been online for a year and Wikipedia was still two years in the future. The response to our effort was large and positive and there was no question that we were filling an important need: Our directory soon had more than 100 listings from 25 different countries and our articles were being widely cited.
But as the Internet reaches 25 and ICE approaches 17, times are changing. The field of ecopsychology now has academic journals, there are several national and international organizations, numerous web sites, and active discussions on Facebook and probably elsewhere. As the ecopsychology community has changed, so has our ecology: Climate change and other global issues have made environmentalism and environmental issues much more prominent and critical than they were, while ecotherapy and nature healing have become almost mainstream.
What is the continuing role for www.ecopsychology.org? Where do we go from here? It would be great to read comments from our readers, supporters, current and former members, and maybe even future members of ICE.
I believe that the International Community for Ecopsychology (ICE) still has a lot to offer as a central hub for like-minded practitioners and researchers. A quick google search does bring up the website on the first page so perhaps we could provide more material on the website to educate any interested person about ecopsychology. Keep up the great work!
Hi guys, after so long. Good to see this documented for posterity (and flattered by the name check John!) and that Gatherings – and your enthusiasm – endures (wasn’t aware Claudia Robinson was no longer with us).
I’ve not been outwardly active in the field since finishing my PhD over a decade ago (though I dip in occasionally and am glad to see the sort of journals that I advocated for coming into being), but feel guilty about not having published more from that as there are some tentative theoretical advances that were and are worth sharing (e.g. how certain developmental and personality factors relate to ecological motivation).
I suppose if there’s one thing I don’t see enough of now, it’s the ‘forces of good’ (e.g. the big NGOs, intergovernmentals) sharing a coherent, systemic and ecopsychologically-founded understanding of pro-environmental social change. They may have this in private but in the public realm so much seems to be done in a piecemeal fashion, instead of working coherently together to a shared agenda. And boy in these days do we need a progressive renaissance…
It’s so good to hear from you Brendan!!
Thanks for this succinct history of ecopsychology communication and ICE on the internet, John. Hard to believe ICE is almost 17! I’m hopeful that ICE will continue to provide ways for ecopsychology and ecotherapy folks around the world to communicate – perhaps in new forms? Perhaps our Gatherings editor and tech maven Amy Lenzo can advise us as to what the “next new thing” will make possible. Maybe some sort of online conferencing, videos etc.? An enhanced world-wide directory of ecopsychologists and ecotherapists, which doesn’t appear to exist elsewhere? Courses, trainings, online conferences?
At the Canadian Ecopsychology Network we’re starting a new “live” and video series of interviews with ecopsychology luminaries from around the world that we’re calling “Ecopsychology Voices.” People from anywhere can also attend our regular monthly CEN meetings live or can watch a video of the meeting later at their convenience. We’re using the Zoom platform, which so far is working well.
One interesting model is the Depth Psychology Alliance. Check them out online and on Facebook to see the interesting ways they’re connecting up everyone around the world interested in depth psychology and the work of Carl Jung.
Looking forward to hearing others’ ideas…
🙂 I’ve been advocating regular “real time” conversation among the larger Ecopsychology community for years now, and we even talked about hosting an online “conference” at one point, an idea I’m still excited by.
I have no doubt that we are still relevant – to me, what is needed in this era of rampant busy-ness is taking the time for what is most important, what is really important to each of us. For me (and many of us) that includes engaging in this work. Bringing our willing hands and hearts and eyes to projects like you’ve described with “Ecology Voices” – where can we see these interviews? I’d love to post them on Gatherings, with a link back to you and what you’re doing, of course!
(Thank you John, for stimulating us to reflect on what we really care about, and the value of the kind of open exploration of Ecopsychology that we at ICE have always pursued – integrating disciplines and fields – e.g. academia, practice, theory, feeling, art, activism, spirituality, etc..)
Hi Amy,
The “Ecopsychology Voices” video project of the Canadian Ecopsychology Network will start in Jan. 2017. We’ll keep you posted – it would be great to link.
Linda