This course is not currently offered, please contact the school or faculty of your program.

Course description

This course is predicated on the principal of diversity and the importance of supporting and promoting local community cultures as a critical aspect of belonging and identity. It begins, as a starting point, with the challenge of working developmentally in cultural spaces that are increasingly globalized and commoditised. Community cultural development thus is positioned as an act of resistance against essentialism and universalism. From this position four components of cultural development are explored: valuing and enlivening local culture, valuing and enlivening indigenous culture, cultural diversity, and participatory culture (such as community arts, music, drama, dance and sport). We engage with creative practices that are potentially political as well as cultural, and that not only seek to build community, but to challenge oppressive practices and structures.