Language and Context

A little reading this week has clarified a couple of areas needing further outlining.

The first is language. The language of Community Music Therapy, is very different to the language of Community Cultural Development. This reflects the origins of these different fields. Community Music Therapy has grown from allied health and medical influences, and Community Cultural Development from community arts and participation.

 The American sign language alphabet is different to the Australian sign language alphabet

Sourced from google images

The second is context. In reading about the development of Community Music Therapy, it has become apparent to me that context is very important. The development of this field as described in the literature is very much described from a European perspective. In short, Music Therapy is an allied health profession and as such has been allied with medical models.It has grown away from this influence to some degree, but still mostly relies on robust evidence based evaluation to prove its worth.

Community Cultural Development is influenced by political contexts which again differ according to country.  It has explored some different evaluation techniques such as practice based research and product as evidence. I am really keen to get into this as I hope to describe practice based research in a way that is understood to adhere to robust evidence based evaluation.

Sourced from google images

When I embarked on this journey, I thought it would be fairly easy to find and point out the similarities and differences in the two fields. I now think a little differently. Beginning to look at the journeys of development towards becoming a recognised field has been an interesting exercise, and as I continue to explore this, I expect to find that language and context are very important in the ways I describe my work. I will need to make sure that the language is inclusive of both fields and that the context is clear when I am describing what I have found.

Plenty of food for thought in moving ahead with my discoveries.

I attended the arts and community researchers network meeting on Monday. It was great to meet with others doing researching in this area, and have a chance to discuss some of these ideas. The next one is Thurs 17th June, and I will be presenting some of my work so far. I am excited by this opportunity.