Report: Community Cultural Development, Social Change, and Pathways

This report delves into the intricate relationship between community cultural development and social change, drawing on the work of scholars like Christopher C. Sonn and Amy F. Quayle, and Patricia M. Greenfield. It examines how community arts practices and cultural initiatives can foster social change, particularly within Aboriginal communities, by addressing issues of power, empowerment, and participation. The report also explores the shifting pathways of human development in response to changing socio-demographic environments, such as the transition from Gemeinschaft to Gesellschaft societies, and the influence of technology, urbanization, and immigration. The analysis focuses on the interplay between cultural practices, social structures, and individual development, providing insights into the dynamics of societal transformations and the role of community engagement in driving positive change.

Community Cultural Development for Social Change: Developing Critical Praxis by
Christopher C. Sonn and Amy F. Quayle Melbourne.
This article describes the program of work which facilitates the community cultural development
agency using the community arts practice for creating, promoting and improving the
opportunities for network development, participation and empowerment of the rural Western
Australian communities. The program of work has been presented within the broader systematic
efforts which were aimed towards the social changed in the region of Western Australia.
Therefore, the paper reflects the commitment towards challenging the continuing social
exclusion of Aboriginal people in postcolonizing Australia. Further the paper has critically
highlighted the key concepts of power, empowerment, and participation and situated knowing
while examining the cultural development as one of their participatory methodology. The paper
has also argued on the community cultural development practice which was aimed towards
transformative and instrumental outcomes.
The paper has critically decided on the aboriginal and non-Indigenous community which
includes the local government and critical community cultural development. The paper presents
that the translation is challenging in nature due to the sensitive topics associated with racism,
race and whiteness. It has critically drawn on the references from the whiteness studies and
confronts on the issue without pointing fingers on the individual racists. In order to change the
social imagination, Community Arts Network Western Australia has also been seen to support
the Aboriginal individuals and communities using the participatory methodologies along with
recognizing the need for transforming the broader social structures, discourse, ideologies
perpetuating the inequalities and the social changes and thus is seen to contribute towards the
continuity of coloniality.

Linking Social Change and Developmental Change: Shifting Pathways of Human
Development by Patricia M. Greenfield
The paper presents the new theory of social change associated with the human development for
showing the changing socio-demographic ecologies that have altered the values and learning
environment and led to the shift developmental pathways. These socio-demographic trends vary
from informal education, subsistence economy, formal schooling, commerce, low-technology
environments to urban residence, and high-technology environments. This paper has critically
reviewed the empirical researches by demonstrating the adaptive processes with an aim of
convincing their readers that the social ecologies of Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft are able to
document the transformation taking place in the global world and has been helpful in emerging
with a theory which provides the dynamics for shifting pathways of human development.
By analysing that the world has been accelerating towards the social change as various
environmental factors have transformed the Gemeinschaft communities into Gesellschaft
societies ranging from commerce, technology, wealth, urbanization, formal education, and
heterogeneity have been expanding at high speed. Further the paper has also accounted for the
immigration which has been taking people from more Gemeinschaft into more Gesellschaft
worlds, in a kind of human globalization.
The paper has successfully provided a framework which helps in understanding the general
patterns of the shifting pathways and cultural change of the human development. Along with
associating with the social change and community planning with cultural psychology.