University of Tasmania
Browse

Researching the social impact of arts and disability: Applying a new empirical tool and method

Download (111.79 kB)
journal contribution
posted on 2023-05-19, 06:48 authored by Onyx, J, Darcy, S, Grabowski, S, Green, J, Hazel MaxwellHazel Maxwell
This paper has a twofold focus: to establish a method of assessing the potential social impact of arts and disability projects and to apply this method to ten such projects. It does so by using a newly developed ‘ripple’ model that conceptualises social impact in terms of the development of active citizenship on the part of all participants over time. The model identifies ten factors (programme activity, welcoming, belonging, programme social values, individual social values, programme networks, individual networks, skills and creativity, programme wider social impact, and individual wider social impact) which evolve through four progressive stages. The original model is empirically adapted for application to arts and disability projects. Qualitative data were collected in the form of interviews, surveys and media reports across ten case studies, each representing a major arts and disability project offering a professional outcome for an external audience. The qualitative data were coded to provide a simple scoring tool for each case. The results support the application of the model in this context. Furthermore, findings indicate three critical conditions which enable projects to generate considerable positive social impact beyond the individual; ensemble in nature; project embeddedness; and networks and partnerships.

History

Publication title

Voluntas

Volume

29

ISSN

0957-8765

Department/School

School of Nursing

Publisher

Springer New York LLC

Place of publication

United States

Rights statement

Copyright 2018 International Society for Third-Sector Research and The Johns Hopkins University. This is a pre-print of an article published in Voluntas. The final authenticated version is available online at: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11266-018-9968-z

Repository Status

  • Open

Socio-economic Objectives

Arts not elsewhere classified

Usage metrics

    University Of Tasmania

    Categories

    Exports

    RefWorks
    BibTeX
    Ref. manager
    Endnote
    DataCite
    NLM
    DC