Music-as-dialogue: An integrative review of community music literature

This integrative review examines how dialogue is conceptualized and operationalized in community music literature. Reviewing two key journals, we identified common characteristics of music-as-dialogue – including orientation towards bridging difference, relational engagement and transformative potential – and contexts for practice, including intercultural music-making in war-affected and conflicted settings, youth ensembles, institutional-community negotiations, participatory performances and projects focused on inclusion and accessibility. By positioning how community music scholars use the term ‘dialogue’ against interdisciplinary conceptualizations of dialogue, the review offers a nuanced and critical understanding of music-as-dialogue and maps the theoretical orientations that underpin its application in community music. The review concludes by proposing that ‘music-as-dialogue’ should be understood as an iterative, situated process that can create a relational space for being-with difference, but that requires continuous negotiation across aesthetic, ethical and political dimensions of community music practice.