Community Cultural Development for Social Change: Developing Critical Praxis

Abstract

A growing number of writers in community psychology have called for re-claiming the radical impetus that inspired the development of the field. In this article we describe a program of work facilitated by a community cultural development agency that uses community arts practice to create, promote and improve opportunities for participation, network development, and empowerment in rural Western Australian communities. The program of work we describe in this article sits within a broader systematic effort aimed at social change in a specific geographic region of Western Australia, and reflects a particular commitment to challenging the continuing social exclusion of Aboriginal people in postcolonizing Australia. Informed by writing within community and liberation psychologies, we discuss three community arts projects and highlight the key concepts of participation, power/empowerment and situated knowing in our examination of community cultural development as participatory methodology. We emphasize the iterative and generative nature of arts practice and argue that community cultural development practice is often aimed at both instrumental as well as transformative outcomes. We suggest that the transformative dimensions require a critical theoretical lens to help explicate the operations of power and coloniality in the micro settings of community practice.

Construction of an intercultural preventive strategy of alcohol use in rural Mapuche communities: A community‐based participatory research

“…The strengthening of cultural vitality then appears, from an intracultural perspective (Aparicio Gervás and Delgado Burgos, 2011), as a priority in a preventive strategy. This is in the perspective of what is highlighted by Australian, African and Latin American community psychology to strengthen the communities' own personal, sociocommunity and cultural resources to increase development and collective well‐being (Seedat, Suffla, & Christie, 2017; Sonn & Quayle, 2014).…”

Music Workshops as Social Aesthetic Contributions to Cultivating Community Sensibilities

“…In this paper, we have considered the role of music workshops in shifting sensibilities and building a sense of community and solidarity in different Brazilian settings. As was noted by Sonn and Quayle (2014, p. 22), such arts-based endeavors center community participation and involve learning new skills, having fun, healing by sharing stories, and dealing with social issues . Our social aesthetics orientation offers a deeper understanding of how the use of arts in community praxis can facilitate the cultivation of positive relationships and a mutual sense of community.…”

“…Finally, the main conclusions emerging from the workshops point out the relevance of social aesthetics and sensibilities to community and critical social psychologies engaged in the current turn to the arts (Chamberlain et al, 2018; Leavy, 2020; Seedat et al, 2017; Sonn & Baker, 2015; Sonn & Quayle, 2014; Stein & Faigin, 2015). First of all, aesthetic experiences are central to the human condition, particularly in situating people within specific employment/social environments.…”

“…Community psychologists have recently drawn insights from the arts, in general, and social aesthetic elements, more specifically, to inform practical engagements with marginalized communities and to inform the cultivation of togetherness and advocacy work (Daher & Haz, 2011; Faigin & Stein, 2010; Madiyaningrum & Sonn, 2011; Stein & Faigin, 2015). In reflecting on community arts and social change, Sonn and Quayle (2014) propose that it is not the end artistic product that is the most important element of these engagements. Rather, it is the engagements between community psychologists, arts practitioners, and community members in dialog and the joint production of artworks, which is of central importance not only to arts-based practice but also efforts to theorize such work.…”

Psychology education and the neoliberal episteme in Australia

“…While the accreditation and regulatory systems in Australia make this difficult, interdisciplinary and collaborative work within and between universities is being fostered through both formal (e.g., conferences, special issues, journals, and workshops) and informal (e.g., social media and social spaces outside institutions) avenues. There is also currently one postgraduate course in community psychology offered in Australia that offers some examples of work from a broad range of epistemic and methodological positions and highlights a number of interdisciplinary relationships (e.g., decoloniality and critical praxis: Sonn & Quayle, 2013, 2014; displacement, migration, and identity: Sonn et al, 2017; everyday multiculturalism and local geographies: Oke et al, 2016).…”