An analytic device for exploring the relationship between micro- and macro-outcomes in community music

Abstract

This article considers how community music practitioners can conceptualize and describe the dynamic relationship between micro- and macro-outcomes in their work. Building on Bartleet’s framework for social impact in community music, we consider how the small- to large-scale outcomes in community music practices exist in deeply interrelated ways. As this article is in a Special Issue on practitioner perspectives, we offer insights from a four-year Australian project that explored the role community music practice can play in creating greater social equity. We share the analytic device we used in this project – a Möbius strip – to explore how community music can simultaneously work at both individual and collective levels to create greater social equity. Drawing on insights from our project’s case studies, we highlight how the personal, relational, community, structural, spiritual and cultural dimensions of community music all operate in a dynamic and continuous relationality. We hope the insights shared in this article will inspire further critical thought from other community music practitioners and scholars seeking to reflect upon and articulate the outcomes and social impact of their work in more nuanced ways.

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