Professor Julian Manley

Experience, background and philosophy

My work is all rooted in the psychosocial, with a special emphasis on social dreaming and associated research methods. I have also been very focussed on climate psychology and relationality. These areas of interest have included cooperatives and cooperation, socially engaged arts, community wealth building and decolonisation. The roots of this work lie in my studies in Group Relations and Society at the University of the West of England, where I discovered group relations and became a staff member for many years and, of course, social dreaming. In the case of the latter, I have introduced innovative ways of understanding social dreaming through an investigation of the philosophy of Deleuze and Guattari. I have also been one of the designers of the research method known as the 'visual matrix'. Before becoming an academic, I was a secondary school teacher and then an organisational consultant. I am currently an active member of various organisations associated to my work, such as the Preston Cooperative Education Centre, the Centre for Social Dreaming, and the Climate Psychology Alliance. I am currently founder Director of the arts hub ArtAffect Studios and Gallery Ltd, that aims to provide arts, crafts and creative services to my local community. My working time is shared between the University of Lancashire and ArtAffect.