SIMM Panel: Social and Community Music Projects and their Possible ‘Impacts’

If community music projects are to have genuine value, we need to challenge outmoded and romanticized narratives, many of which are rooted in paternalistic assumptions from the past.

Presenter Dr. Roger Mantie will pose provocative questions about how we understand the social impact of music and what underlying assumptions shape our interpretations of concepts like agency, transformation, and responsibility. Posing these difficult questions can lead to more realistic, evidence-based and beneficial initiatives that respond to community needs in a wide range of social, economic and cultural contexts.

A more grounded approach frees music educators from well-intentioned but often utopian notions that portray music as a panacea, something that “saves” or “redeems” so-called “endangered souls.”

This session invites us to strive for initiatives founded on a more nuanced, context-sensitive, and ethically grounded understanding of what music can (and cannot) do in the face of social inequality, oppression, displacement and human suffering.