On the value of publishing in community music

This Special Issue of the International Journal of Community Music ( IJCM ), ‘Practitioner Perspectives’, places the spotlight on writing by and about practitioners. The lead article, by Kathleen Turner, Alexis Anja Kallio, Helen Phelan and Naomi Sunderland, thoughtfully engages in a knowledge mobilization exercise based on a series of online conversations between practitioners and researchers in Ireland and Australia. Staying with the Australian context, Brydie-Leigh Bartleet, Mat Klotz, Pearly Black, Joel Spence, Chi Lui Flora Wong and Emma Heard engage in a playful but rigorous exercise of using the Möbius strip as an analytic device to illustrate and understand the interplay between community music and social impact. In the third article, Nerissa Rebagay and Ryan Rebagay use the lens of community music therapy to examine the Miami Jam Sessions, a programme for neurodivergent people to build meaningful relationships and foster social connections through music. The next four articles focus on Canadian contexts. Mason Micevski, creative director of Emerson Arts in Hamilton, Ontario, thoughtfully explores assumptions around musical theatre as a safe space for 2sLGBTQIA+ individuals. In the tradition of cultural mapping, Thomas Barker’s article ‘maps’ the city of Edmonton’s system of ‘community leagues’. The final two articles, one by Louise Campbell and Deanna Yerichuk, the other by Roger Mantie, discuss online databases: the Participatory Creative Music Hub and the Canadian Community Music Group Database, respectively. The former details the activity of those who lead participatory music making, the latter provides a resource of over 1600 groups for those who engage in intact participatory music groups.