The Oxford Handbook of Community Music

Brydie-Leigh Bartleet (ed.), Lee Higgins (ed.)

https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190219505.001.0001
Published: 2018 Online ISBN: 9780190219529 Print ISBN: 9780190219505

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PART FRONT MATTER

Part front matter for Part III Politics

Published: February 2018

Subject: Music
Series: Oxford Handbooks
Collection: Oxford Handbooks Online

More Music: Baybeat Streetband parade for the West End Lantern Festival, United Kingdom (photography
courtesy of More Music)

More Music: Baybeat Streetband parade for the West End Lantern Festival, United Kingdom (photography courtesy of More
Music)

THE third section of the handbook explores some of the politics and policies in uencing community music,
and the ways in which community music is in uencing politics and policies, particularly in the area of social
change. In the opening chapter in this section, Kim Dunphy analyses theories about how social change can
be e ected through participation in the arts. Speci cally, she focuses on three broad types of change
processes in her chapter: social/civic action, community cultural development and the therapeutic
paradigm. Dunphy then examines these approaches in relation to broader theories of participation and
p. 300 social development theory in order to explore a meta-theory about factors that lead to change through
arts participation. Kathryn Deane’s chapter then looks at the trajectory of community music in the United
Kingdom over the last half-century, suggesting that government policies, rather than politics, have been
the driver for much community music work, and arguing that the practice adapts well to frequent changes
in policies. Speci cally, her chapter argues that the practice’s instrumentality and focus on its participants,
are key ingredients in helping community music to continue to thrive. Quirijn Lennert van den Hoogen and
Evert Bisschop Boele’s chapter provides a scheme of the basic tensions inherent to community music in the
cultural policy elds that can form the basis for ‘negotiations’ between actors. Their grid is applied to the
practice of community music in an e ort to provide insight into the intricacies of cultural policies regarding
this particular form of music as well as into the practicalities of the practice of community musicians
working in a eld in which cultural policymaking plays an often-vital role. Marissa Silverman and David
Elliott’s chapter then continues this conversation and raises questions about the intersections between
community music and citizenship and poses the fundamental question: ‘Artistic citizenship for what?’ In
their chapter, they aim to provide community musicians/facilitators with a theoretical framework for
thinking about and acting in relation to the ethical natures, potentials, and pragmatic realities of artistic
citizenship for human ourishing through music and the other arts.
Building on earlier chapters, David Lines then outlines di erent concepts and positions on ethics as they
apply to community music. As he argues in his chapter, the changing nature and diversity of communities
means that community music facilitators need to have the necessary conceptual tools to consider the
possible ethical consequences and directions of their community music actions. Lines advocates for a
critical, research-based questioning approach, so that the situational demands of di erent community
contexts are taken into account. He concludes with a simple framework that could usefully be applied to the
critical questioning of the ethics of community music (What? When? Why? How? Who? Where?) in order to
help community musicians and cultural workers negotiate their way through complex decision-making and
creative practice in their work. Patrick Schmidt’s chapter adds another layer to this section, by arguing that

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community oriented work should be approached both as a contributor to, and consumer of, policy thinking
and analysis. In particular, his chapter suggests that in order to achieve greater engagement with policy,
individuals and organizations must focus on how to develop a framing disposition, that is, the individual or
organizational wherewithal to generate opportunities and put innovative projects to practice. James Bau
Graves’s chapter concludes this section with a necessary and critical voice to the discussions, examining the
exclusionary history of North America and its trajectory in community arts, and o ering the concept and
practice of cultural democracy as an alternative.