Adjusting the Pitch

Abstract

The article traces the development of eight years of “Music and Resilience,” a project of international cooperation between a Palestinian NGO in Lebanon and an Italian CBO, with the aim of building music resources with, and for, the refugee communities of Lebanon. Supported epistemologically by ethnography, sociology, psychology, and community music pedagogy, the paper narrates and analyzes the project's development as a multi-layered, organically orientated response to the specific geopolitical and social context, in which continuous monitoring and evaluation inform the necessary “adjustments” of the project's “pitch.” Using the paradigm of Action Learning within the framework of Theory of Social Change, the authors draw on the experience and research “Music and Resilience” has stimulated, to identify some “cardinal points” relevant to cross-cultural cooperation in general.

Keywords

• community music
• psycho-social support
• music therapy
• refugees
• social change
• action learning