Suchergebnisse

AbstractThis article presents outcomes from a critical interpretive synthesis inquiry exploring whether community music can contribute to more equitable societies. Drawing on 74 cross-disciplinary articles, we identify equity-related outcomes across three key categories: outcomes to improve the immediate wellbeing and life trajectories for individuals experiencing disadvantage; outcomes relating to the development of skills, knowledge and understandings empowering individual participants to enact positive social change within their communities; and outcomes with the potential to affect the root causes of social inequity. This review provides a solid foundation for further conceptual and theoretical development within and beyond the fields of social justice research and community music. Our findings will also be helpful for translating the creative and cultural benefits that community music practice could bring to addressing social justice issues in a wide range of complex contexts.

Abstract
Evaluation is a driving concern for arts organizations the world over, and a growing requirement from philanthropic, government, and corporate funders. There is increasing recognition of the need for evaluations of socially engaged arts programs to be appropriate for the communities, cultural contexts, participants, and stakeholders involved in their activities. This article directly addresses this need, and outlines the process of developing a bespoke framework for evaluating the social impact of a music program in the Kimberley region of far north-west Australia, a region with a majority First Nations' population. It describes the methods used to develop this evaluation framework and indicators that were grounded in community perspectives on the difference that this music program makes to community life. It situates the methods chosen within a theoretical orientation towards a capability approach and an ecological understanding of externally provided arts activities. The authors argue that this methodology offers a culturally relevant, holistic way to track and measure the direct and indirect outcomes that engagement with the arts can bring.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore the individual music research projects the authors were working on in Borroloola, Northern Territory of Australia, and the ways in which the lived and inter‐subjective concepts of sisterhood and friendship strengthened the authors' shared experiences in the field and became the foundations of their method.Design/methodology/approachThrough an auto‐ethnographic and inter‐subjective narrative approach, the authors consider how the intertwined notions of relationship as research and "friendship as method", underpinned what was being researched, how the research was enacted, and finally how the authors came to further appreciate and understand the role that music‐making plays in facilitating this process.FindingsThe authors' independent and shared experiences during this research were stark reminders that it is indeed the quality of field relationships and friendships, rather than clever theoretical ideas or fancy methodological frameworks, which ultimately determine the quality and depth of their musicological and ethnographic research.Originality/valueThis paper presents original, feminist‐based research which places concepts of sisterhood, friendship and relationships at the centre of music research practice in Australia. More specifically, this research highlights the complexities of such research practice across the boundaries of race, with and in collaboration with, Indigenous Australian women.

AbstractThe arts remain largely absent from place‐based policy, planning and programming in Australia, despite a long history of working in place‐based ways to create positive social change in communities. This systematic review aimed to address this absence, by providing a synthesis of evidence about the role that place‐based arts can play in advancing social equity and addressing social disadvantage. Findings reveal a potential for the arts to create change across individual, community and societal levels, yet empirical evidence to support this potential is weak. Stronger evaluation frameworks that can support capturing the impact of localised place‐based arts initiatives for translation into policy and practice are discussed.