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Literature Review

Here is a list, and summary/notes, of all of the literature I read to prepare for this project. This page is mainly just a place to add my thoughts and lessons learned from these pieces. If there is something you have come across that is relevant to my project, visit the "Contact Me" page and let me know- I'd love to hear about it!

Gutierrez, L., Gant, L. M., & Brady, S. (2018). Using Arts and Culture for Community

Development in the USA. in Gary Craig et. al (eds). Community Organizing Against Racism: Race, ethnicity and community development. Chicago, Ill: Policy Press. pp. 257-276.

  • Methods should be grounded in cultural contexts and contribute to community practice that bridges difference

  • Arts-based community development is complementary to empowerment theories and practices

  • These community organizing strategies should eventually transition from ownership by the practitioners to the community themselves

  • “By considering the ABCD approach to community development, along with a strong emphasis on respecting, appreciating, and highlighting diversity in the arts and culture, it is possible for community development professionals to promote the empowerment of community members, identify local assets that could play major roles in efforts and build bridges with and from diverse sectors of the community” (p. 272).

McLean, H. E. (2014). Cracks in the creative city: The contradictions of community arts practice. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 38(6), 2156-2173.

  • "Artists engaging in social practice arts can become complicit in naturalizing colonial gentrification processes"(p. 2156)

  • Community-engaged and participatory arts can be used to create social inclusion and partnerships

    • These arts should not be solely about fun and and exploration without talking about displacement and poverty

  • In the case examined in this article, the authors say that for the Luminato festival in Toronto, Canada, the festival and its participants were seen as "saviours healing the neighbourhood with civically-engaged culture" (p. 2168)

  • More artists should approach their works as acts of radical social praxis such as embracing conflict and discomfort as part of artistic civic engagement

Shields, T. P. (1999). Community-based development: Asset-based and community participation. Journal of the American Planning Association, 65(3), 341-342.

  • Asset-based community development should be a compass rather than a model

  • Steps of community building: Mapping, building partnerships, mobilizing assets, convening a representative group, and leveraging outside resources (p. 341)

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Photo credit: https://tradevistas.org/bible-chairman-maos-quotations-trade-agreements-can-promote-global-book-publishing/

Kim, H. C. (2017). A challenge to the social work profession? The rise of socially engaged art and a call to radical social work. Social Work, 62(4), 305-312.

  • "Socially-engaged art... stimulates social imagination and envisions social change through public participation balancing between activism, art, and real life and ultimately aims for social justice" (p. 306)

  • A problem is that socially-engaged art is temporary and event-based

Nissen, L. B. (2019). Art and social work: History and collaborative possibilities for interdisciplinary synergy. Research of Social Work Practice, 29(6), 698-707.

  • "The social worker as a performing artist, has the talent and will move beyond the constraints of method and technique and respond imaginatively and creatively" (p. 699)

  • Social work has shifted from creative expressions and strategies due to pressure to be more of a science than an art

  • We should be asking, why are the arts not viewed and utilized as a central set of resources and skills for social workers?

Minkler, M. (2012). Community organizing and community building for health and welfare: Using the arts and the internet as tools for community organizing and community building. Rutgers University Press, 3, 265-268.

  • "The arts are seen as promoting organizing for health and welfare through a wide variety of often interrelated means, including getting people involved, facilitating assessment, promoting healing and community building, and offering culturally sensitive approaches to addressing health disparities" (p. 266)

Stein, C. H. & Faigin, D. A. (2015). Community-based arts initiatives: Exploring the science of the arts. American Journal of Community Psychology, 55, 70-73.

  • This article is asking, what can community psychology offer community-based arts initiatives?

  • "Community-based arts initiatives can be justified and evaluated in ways that reinforce dominate cultural stereotypes and perpetuate existing definitions of social problems" (p. 72)

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