Dr Julian Manley

Julian is Professor of Social Innovation in the PACT Institute. He is Co-Director of the Centre for Citizenship and Community. Externally, he is a Director of the Centre for Social Dreaming (CSD) and on the Executive Committee of the Climate Psychology Alliance (CPA). He is a Scholar of the British Psychoanalytic Council, Visiting Research Fellow at the University of the West of England and Senior Research Associate at the University of Johannesburg.

Julian Manley's overall interests are in multi-disciplinary and trans-disciplinary approaches to psychosocial studies and in encouraging a more ‘holistic’, inter-subjective approach to thinking and understanding that embraces thought and feeling, intellectual and experiential, theory and practice. He has many years of experience in the field of psychosocial studies, and a background in group relations in the Tavistock tradition.

He has published widely in the field of Social Dreaming, having recently published two books on the subject, including the monograph Social Dreaming, Associative Thinking and Intensities of Affect (Palgrave Macmillan 2018). The book is the first extended academic account of social dreaming and makes the case for considering social dreaming within a Deleuzian paradigm. As part of his work around Social Dreaming, Julian has helped to develop the Visual Matrix method and published several articles that demonstrate the use of visual images and free association in groups in ways that are similar to social dreaming.

Julian’s research explores human relations, and the psychodynamics of relations in groups and society at many levels, very often with a focus on complexity and groups and social situations that are hard to engage with. His work encompasses social issues that defy simple explanations such as race issues, and attitudes towards climate change. His work on human relations encompasses the study of co-operatives and co-operative principles and values, the subject of recent publications.

He is the former Chair and founding Director of the Preston Co-operative Development Network that promotes the development of co-operative principles and values, which forms part of an on-going action research project into the validity and possibilities of learning from co-operative structures in a post-Brexit or even a post-growth society. He is a founder member and Director of the Preston Co-operative Education Centre and is recognised as one of the instigators of the Preston Model. He has been invited to speak at numerous public events and conferences on the Preston Model and the question of co-operatives, locally, nationally and internationally. His research and contribution to the field has been highlighted in national and international press and media, ranging from Europe to North America and Japan.