Multidissiplinêre vennootskappe in gemeenskapseie woordkunsprojekte – ’n Gevallestudie

Abstract

Multidisciplinary partnerships in community-specific writing or storytelling projects – A case study. Partnerships are used as strategy in various sectors of society, especially in order to reach goals which are unattainable for independent individuals, institutions or academic disciplines. The complexity of community-specific creative writing and storytelling projects (including the variety of languages, literacy levels and socio-economic issues in the country, as well as practical aspects such as funding, access to communities et cetera) means that such projects cannot easily be run by individual persons or organisations but that collaboration is needed. The aim of this overview article is to investigate multidisciplinary partnerships in community projects which promote community-specific writing and storytelling, focusing on one such project in particular. As background the situation in South Africa with regard to writing and storytelling in communities is sketched. The focus then shifts to multidisciplinary partnerships. A case study is discussed to highlight the complexity of such partnerships. This article addresses the dearth of research on partnerships in the context of creative writing or storytelling projects in communities. Although multidisciplinary partnerships do have their challenges, the article concludes that they can bring balance and wealth to community development previously unexplored. OPSOMING: Vennootskappe word in verskeie sektore van die samelewing as strategie gebruik, veral om doelwitte na te streef wat buite bereik is van individue, instansies of akademiese dissiplines wat onafhanklik werk. Die kompleksiteit van gemeenskapseie woordkunsprojekte (onder andere die verskeidenheid tale, geletterdheidsvlakke, en sosiaal-maatskaplike problematiek in die land, asook praktiese aspekte soos befondsing, toegang tot gemeenskappe, ensovoorts) bring mee dat sodanige projekte gewoonlik nie deur ’n enkelpersoon of -instansie uitgevoer kan word nie, maar dat daar samewerking van verskillende partye nodig is. Die doel van dié oorsigartikel is om ondersoek in te stel na multidissiplinêre vennootskappe binne gemeenskapsprojekte ter bevordering van gemeenskapseie woordkuns, met bespreking van een sodanige spesifieke projek. Ter agtergrond word die woordkunssituasie in Suid-Afrika belig, waarná die fokus na multidissiplinêre vennootskappe verskuif. ’n Gevallestudie word bespreek om die kompleksiteit van sodanige vennootskappe te belig. Die artikel roer die gebrek aan navorsing oor vennootskappe binne die verband van gemeenskapseie woordkuns aan, asook die voordele en uitdagings daaraan verbonde. Hoewel multidissiplinêre vennootskappe hul kwota vraagstukke meebring, word daar in die artikel tot die gevolgtrekking gekom dat dit ook ’n balans en rykdom na gemeenskapsontwikkeling bring wat voorheen nie ondersoek is nie.