{"id":5279,"date":"2018-05-16T02:00:15","date_gmt":"2018-05-16T06:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/?p=5279"},"modified":"2018-05-14T09:41:24","modified_gmt":"2018-05-14T13:41:24","slug":"justice-and-engagement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2018\/05\/justice-and-engagement\/","title":{"rendered":"Justice and Engagement"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"In March I participated in the <\/span>Intersections Summit hosted by Milwaukee Repertory Theater<\/span><\/a>. It was a gathering of community engagement practitioners from theaters (mostly) across the U.S. As frequently happens, the conference sparked a number of thoughts. Last week I began by reflecting on the meanings of the word engagement. (The Problem of \u201cEngagement\u201d<\/a>) <\/span><\/p>\n

In the opening keynote Carmen Morgan, a gifted diversity\/equity\/inclusion speaker and trainer, discussed the relationship between community justice and community engagement. She suggested that we should be focusing on community justice rather than community engagement. Part of her reasoning was rooted in the poor execution of community engagement that characterizes many arts organizations\u2019 CE efforts. Her more important point was that the only way systemically privileged arts organizations (my term, not hers) can build relationships with non-privileged communities is by working toward justice for them. <\/span><\/p>\n

That is absolutely true. However, one concern I have is that community engagement, as I use the term, refers to connecting with <\/span>any<\/span><\/i> community, not just those which have historically been excluded from access to cultural resources and social power. For the purpose of planning for engagement, I define community as any group of people with something in common. As an extreme example, thirty-year-old accountants can be a \u201ccommunity\u201d in this sense. With some communities, then, issues of justice are not primary; but let me be clear, for many, many they are.<\/span><\/p>\n

My other concern in abandoning community engagement for community justice is that some organizations might see that as being so counter to their mission they would avoid all relationship building. If effective community engagement demands awareness of and work toward justice (and it does), it should be possible to continue supporting community engagement without giving up the important need to work for equity.<\/span><\/p>\n

In attempting to engage many communities, working for justice is critical. I know that I have a professional investment in \u201ccommunity engagement,\u201d but I truly don\u2019t believe that continuing to advocate for it in any way diminishes the need to work for justice as well.<\/span><\/p>\n

Engage!<\/p>\n

Doug<\/p>\n

Photo:\u00a0Wikipedia By ChvhLR10 – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/w\/index.php?curid=4707069<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In attempting to engage many communities, working for justice is critical; however, advocating for engagement does not diminish the need to work for justice as well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5281,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Justice and Engagement: Closely related but not the same","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5,10],"tags":[12,13,47],"class_list":{"0":"post-5279","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-principles","8":"category-the-practice-of-engagement","9":"tag-arts","10":"tag-community-engagement","11":"tag-equity","12":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/JusticeStatue-e1522350592831.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1G6h9-1n9","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5285,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2018\/05\/from-the-q-a\/","url_meta":{"origin":5279,"position":0},"title":"From the Q & A","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"May 23, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Re: equity and justice, are we all really \"on the same page\"? And is there a danger that a designated community engagement staff member can lead to \"outsourcing equity\"?","rel":"","context":"In "Principles"","block_context":{"text":"Principles","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/category\/principles\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Question-143x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":6034,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2020\/09\/community-engagement-network\/","url_meta":{"origin":5279,"position":1},"title":"Community Engagement Network","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"September 2, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"The Community Engagement Network\u2013offering support to people working in the arts and community engagement.","rel":"","context":"In "Community Engagement Network"","block_context":{"text":"Community Engagement Network","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/category\/community-engagement-network\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Network.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5971,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2020\/06\/justice\/","url_meta":{"origin":5279,"position":2},"title":"Justice","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"June 3, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Essential justice is too important to be subsumed into a discussion of community engagement. But for anyone who truly understands community engagement, the connection is obvious.","rel":"","context":"In "Overview"","block_context":{"text":"Overview","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/category\/overview\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Fist-351x500.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1350,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2012\/03\/civic-engagement-by-stealth\/","url_meta":{"origin":5279,"position":3},"title":"Civic Engagement by Stealth","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"March 17, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"I have been waiting to catch my breath in order to comment on Clayton Lord's New Beans post from last October, Directing the Impact Echo. I haven't really caught it, but this is good a time as any. It is possible that some out there may be hesitant to dive\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Overview"","block_context":{"text":"Overview","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/category\/overview\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/CliffDiver.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":6402,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2021\/07\/equity-and-engagement\/","url_meta":{"origin":5279,"position":4},"title":"Equity and Engagement","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"July 14, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Good practices in community engagement and DEI work are closely related. Let's work together on them simultaneously.","rel":"","context":"In "Principles"","block_context":{"text":"Principles","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/category\/principles\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Equity2.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5983,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2020\/06\/there-is-no-try\/","url_meta":{"origin":5279,"position":5},"title":"There Is No “Try”","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"June 10, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"The time for words is past. With respect to equity and justice, Yoda was right. \"Do or do not. There is no try.\" Benchmarks\/metrics are essential.","rel":"","context":"In "Principles"","block_context":{"text":"Principles","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/category\/principles\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Yoda.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5279","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5279"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5279\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5313,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5279\/revisions\/5313"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5281"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}