Music sociology has proven a fertile arena for the study and theorization of object–subject inter... more Music sociology has proven a fertile arena for the study and theorization of object–subject interaction, with the work of scholars such as Tia DeNora and Antoine Hennion marking its key contribution to the ‘new sociology of art’. Recent years have, however, witnessed no little debate amongst music sociologists about the broader purchase and value of such scholarship, especially considering its apparent challenge to Bourdieu’s critical cultural sociology. This article seeks to contribute to debates in this area by advocating a novel approach to questions about music’s relation to the social, one that seeks less to map the social distribution of taste profiles or explore how listeners make use of music’s affordances than understand the variable ways in which music emerges as something to be attended to (or not) in the first place. Drawing on recent work in relational sociology, the mature philosophy of pragmatist John Dewey as well as new materialist thought, this article explores the...
This article addresses a number of questions concerning the use of music by young people. In part... more This article addresses a number of questions concerning the use of music by young people. In particular, the argument presented seeks to bring to the fore a set of concerns whose significance is often overlooked or downplayed in debates about young people's engagements with music. These relate to music's capacity to function, on the one hand, in a way that reflects and embodies ethical and ideological commitments of varying kinds and, on the other, as a vehicle of expression through which people might ‘give an account’ of themselves. The article first surveys some of the ways in which scholars have conceived of the relation between forms of musical activity and their broader social force before turning to recent research and policy developments concerned with school-based music education in Britain and considering the ways in which certain forms and dimensions of young people's expressive musical activity are granted legitimacy and state support while others are ignored ...
In recent years the omnivore thesis has come to take centre stage in debates surrounding cultural... more In recent years the omnivore thesis has come to take centre stage in debates surrounding cultural taste and its social structural co-ordinates. On the assumption that tastes for music are reflective of people’s tastes in other cultural domains, the matter of musical preference has received substantial attention within omnivore-related empirical research. Yet while the ongoing omnivore debate has seen the concept’s original formulation undergo revision and refinement in light of new findings, a number of substantive and theoretical difficulties continue to receive inadequate attention, especially in respect of music. These difficulties include commonly made assumptions about the sanctity of musical genre categories and hierarchies of cultural legitimacy, the reliability of decontextualized expressions of taste for disclosing real-world cultural practices, and questions about the deployment of cultural capital. This article assesses the implications of these difficulties and goes on t...
Palgrave Studies in Relational Sociology In various disciplines such as archeology, psychology, p... more Palgrave Studies in Relational Sociology In various disciplines such as archeology, psychology, psychoanalysis, international relations, and philosophy, we have seen the emergence of relational approaches or theories. This series, founded by François Dépelteau, seeks to further develop relational sociology through the publication of diverse theoretical and empirical research-including that which is critical of the relational approach. In this respect, the goal of the series is to explore the advantages and limits of relational sociology. The series welcomes contributions related to various thinkers, theories, and methods clearly associated with relational sociology (such as Bourdieu, critical realism, Deleuze, Dewey, Elias, Latour, Luhmann, Mead, network analysis, symbolic interactionism, Tarde, and Tilly). Multidisciplinary studies which are relevant to relational sociology are also welcome, as well as research on various empirical topics (such as education, family, music, health, social inequalities, international relations, feminism, ethnicity, environmental issues, politics, culture, violence, social movements, and terrorism). Relational sociology-and more specifically, this series-will contribute to change and support contemporary sociology by discussing fundamental principles and issues within a relational framework.
<p>Recent years have witnessed an increasing alignment between community music activity and... more <p>Recent years have witnessed an increasing alignment between community music activity and youth. From the range of community music-style activities taking place across formal domains of youth provision, to the youth-oriented musical activities occurring within informal settings, many commentators have come to see community music activities as holding particular relevance and value in relation to youth. Importantly, however, the assumptions lying behind the purportedly 'special' relationship between community music and youth—as well as their implications for the nature of much youth-focused community music activity—too often go unexamined. This chapter critically interrogates some of the key ways in which this relationship is commonly understood, and then examines how these sit alongside the broader purposes and values commonly associated with community music.</p>
This chapter examines Peter Kay’s Car Share (BBC1, 2015) to consider the ways it represents pop m... more This chapter examines Peter Kay’s Car Share (BBC1, 2015) to consider the ways it represents pop music as both a resource which the characters draw on to make sense of their lives and, by virtue of this, a fertile site for comedy. One way the programme does this is by showing how pop functions as a marker of taste and a resource for the enactment of cultural snobbery. Here we suggest that the programme’s comedy can – in certain respects – be understood via the superiority theory of humour. However, we also go on to argue that superiority is not, in fact, the key way in which humour functions in the series. Rather, what might at first appear to be a comedy which mocks the granting of undue significance to pop music, instead ultimately offers up as humorous attempts to deny the powerful personal emotional resonances that such supposedly simple culture can facilitate.
THIS ARTICLE ENGAGES WITH QUESTIONS OF FAILURE IN CULTURAL PARTICIPATION THROUGH A REFLECTION UPO... more THIS ARTICLE ENGAGES WITH QUESTIONS OF FAILURE IN CULTURAL PARTICIPATION THROUGH A REFLECTION UPON MATTERS OF INTERPRETATION AND MEANING. THAT IS, RATHER THAN CONSIDERING THE WAYS OR EXTENT TO WHICH CULTURAL PARTICIPATION PROGRAMMES MIGHT ACHIEVE THEIR STATED GOALS, THE DISCUSSION CENTRES UPON THE CRUCIAL ROLE OF REPRESENTATIONS AND PERCEPTIONS IN RELATION TO QUESTIONS OF ‘FAILURE’/‘SUCCESS’. THE DISCUSSION CENTRES UPON ONE CASE STUDY INITIATIVE, ENGLAND'S VERSION OF THE VENEZUELAN EL SISTEMA PROGRAMME, IN HARMONY, AND EMPLOYS FRAME ANALYSIS TO EXPLORE THE WAYS PRESS COVERAGE AND RELEVANT POLICY DOCUMENTS CULTIVATE AN IMAGE OF PROGRAMME ‘SUCCESS’. IN ORDER TO HELP REVEAL SOME OF THE PROBLEMATIC ASSUMPTIONS EMBEDDED IN DOMINANT ACCOUNTS, THE ARTICLE ALSO DRAWS ON ORIGINAL INTERVIEW DATA IN EXPLORING THE MARGINALISED PERSPECTIVES OF PROGRAMME PARTICIPANTS. THE FINDINGS WHICH EMERGE SUGGEST THE NEED FOR PARTICULAR ATTENTION TO THE SYMBOLIC DIMENSIONS OF CULTURAL PARTICIPATION POLIC...
This document reports on an AHRC Research Network (2013) whose aim was to improve understanding o... more This document reports on an AHRC Research Network (2013) whose aim was to improve understanding of the historic, current, and potential roles that community music can play in promoting community engagement.
Recent years have witnessed an increasing alignment between community music activity and youth. F... more Recent years have witnessed an increasing alignment between community music activity and youth. From the range of community music-style activities nowadays taking place across formal domains of youth provision, to the youth-oriented musical activities occurring within informal settings, many commentators have come to see community music activities as holding particular relevance and value in relation to youth. Importantly however, the assumptions lying behind the purportedly ‘special’ relationship between community music and youth – as well as their implications for the nature of much youth-focussed community music activity – too often go unexamined. This chapter therefore critically interrogates some of the key ways in which this relationship is commonly understood, before examining how these sit alongside the broader purposes and values commonly associated with community music.
This article engages with questions of failure in cultural participation through a reflection upo... more This article engages with questions of failure in cultural participation through a reflection upon matters of interpretation and meaning. That is, rather than considering the ways or extent to which cultural participation programmes might achieve their stated goals, the discussion centres upon the crucial role of representations and perceptions in relation to questions of ‘failure’/‘success’. The discussion centres upon one case study initiative, England's version of the Venezuelan El Sistema programme, In Harmony, and employs frame analysis to explore the ways press coverage and relevant policy documents cultivate an image of programme ‘success’. In order to help reveal some of the problematic assumptions embedded in dominant accounts, the article also draws on original interview data in exploring the marginalised perspectives of programme participants. The findings which emerge suggest the need for particular attention to the symbolic dimensions of cultural participation polic...
Community arts initiatives have risen quickly up the agendas of policymakers and local authoritie... more Community arts initiatives have risen quickly up the agendas of policymakers and local authorities alike in recent years. In particular, low-cost and flexible community arts projects have increasingly been framed as an effective means of combating social exclusion and contributing to neighbourhood renewal. Yet at a time when the community arts movement is benefiting from unprecedented levels of funding and rhetorical backing, the need to resolve complex questions surrounding eYaluation, outcomes and conflicting agendas persists. Focussing upon the community music participation of 'young people living in areas of social and economic need who might otherwise lack opportunity' (Youth Music 2006), this thesis seeks to make a key contribution in the developing academic study of community arts activities. The study draws upon and adapts the work of Pierre Bourdieu in proposing a theory of musical habitus. This theory recognises the significantly socially structured and structuring...
The aim of the research project about which this document reports was to explore some of the ways... more The aim of the research project about which this document reports was to explore some of the ways in which three case study community-based organisations in Norwich – and especially those with either a current or previously significant involvement in arts activity – have been affected by the current period of financial austerity.
While efforts to grapple with questions about the nature of music-listener relations have seen so... more While efforts to grapple with questions about the nature of music-listener relations have seen some welcome developments since the turn of the millennium—especially, in music sociology, through DeNora’s work on everyday consumption and Hennion’s analyses of taste—even in the most interactionist and pragmatist of these accounts, there remain enduring traces of a certain substantialism in respect of both ‘the music’ and its ‘listeners’. In setting Dewey and Bentley’s trans-actional approach, along with further elements of Dewey’s intellectual edifice (specifically his concepts of ‘inquiry’, ‘habit’ and ‘imagination’), into dialogue with current debates in music sociology, this chapter considers the potential value of thinking in terms of ‘musical trans-action’. As will be seen, although such an approach may be seen to diminish the grounds for proposing regularities, patterns or generalizations on the part of scholars and analysts, the more modest and realistic approach encouraged by t...
This research project on which this paper reports was designed to explore questions of cultural v... more This research project on which this paper reports was designed to explore questions of cultural value in relation to the schools music project In Harmony-Sistema England. Our core research focus has been upon the ways in which children, their teachers and tutors, and their families understand the value of their participation in IHSE initiatives. The project engaged with three case studies of IHSE initiatives (based in Norwich, Telford and Newcastle) and qualitative data was gathered with primary school children, school staff, parents and IHSE musicians in all three cases.
Conjunctions. Transdisciplinary Journal of Cultural Participation
This article engages with questions of failure in cultural participation through a reflection upo... more This article engages with questions of failure in cultural participation through a reflection upon matters of interpretation and meaning. That is, rather than considering the ways or extent to which cultural participation programmes might achieve their stated goals, the discussion centres upon the crucial role of representations and perceptions in relation to questions of ‘failure’/‘success’. The discussion centres upon one case study initiative, England's version of the Venezuelan El Sistema programme, In Harmony, and employs frame analysis to explore the ways press coverage and relevant policy documents cultivate an image of programme ‘success’. In order to help reveal some of the problematic assumptions embedded in dominant accounts, the article also draws on original interview data in exploring the marginalised perspectives of programme participants. The findings which emerge suggest the need for particular attention to the symbolic dimensions of cultural participation polic...
Music sociology has proven a fertile arena for the study and theorization of object–subject inter... more Music sociology has proven a fertile arena for the study and theorization of object–subject interaction, with the work of scholars such as Tia DeNora and Antoine Hennion marking its key contribution to the ‘new sociology of art’. Recent years have, however, witnessed no little debate amongst music sociologists about the broader purchase and value of such scholarship, especially considering its apparent challenge to Bourdieu’s critical cultural sociology. This article seeks to contribute to debates in this area by advocating a novel approach to questions about music’s relation to the social, one that seeks less to map the social distribution of taste profiles or explore how listeners make use of music’s affordances than understand the variable ways in which music emerges as something to be attended to (or not) in the first place. Drawing on recent work in relational sociology, the mature philosophy of pragmatist John Dewey as well as new materialist thought, this article explores the...
This article addresses a number of questions concerning the use of music by young people. In part... more This article addresses a number of questions concerning the use of music by young people. In particular, the argument presented seeks to bring to the fore a set of concerns whose significance is often overlooked or downplayed in debates about young people's engagements with music. These relate to music's capacity to function, on the one hand, in a way that reflects and embodies ethical and ideological commitments of varying kinds and, on the other, as a vehicle of expression through which people might ‘give an account’ of themselves. The article first surveys some of the ways in which scholars have conceived of the relation between forms of musical activity and their broader social force before turning to recent research and policy developments concerned with school-based music education in Britain and considering the ways in which certain forms and dimensions of young people's expressive musical activity are granted legitimacy and state support while others are ignored ...
In recent years the omnivore thesis has come to take centre stage in debates surrounding cultural... more In recent years the omnivore thesis has come to take centre stage in debates surrounding cultural taste and its social structural co-ordinates. On the assumption that tastes for music are reflective of people’s tastes in other cultural domains, the matter of musical preference has received substantial attention within omnivore-related empirical research. Yet while the ongoing omnivore debate has seen the concept’s original formulation undergo revision and refinement in light of new findings, a number of substantive and theoretical difficulties continue to receive inadequate attention, especially in respect of music. These difficulties include commonly made assumptions about the sanctity of musical genre categories and hierarchies of cultural legitimacy, the reliability of decontextualized expressions of taste for disclosing real-world cultural practices, and questions about the deployment of cultural capital. This article assesses the implications of these difficulties and goes on t...
Palgrave Studies in Relational Sociology In various disciplines such as archeology, psychology, p... more Palgrave Studies in Relational Sociology In various disciplines such as archeology, psychology, psychoanalysis, international relations, and philosophy, we have seen the emergence of relational approaches or theories. This series, founded by François Dépelteau, seeks to further develop relational sociology through the publication of diverse theoretical and empirical research-including that which is critical of the relational approach. In this respect, the goal of the series is to explore the advantages and limits of relational sociology. The series welcomes contributions related to various thinkers, theories, and methods clearly associated with relational sociology (such as Bourdieu, critical realism, Deleuze, Dewey, Elias, Latour, Luhmann, Mead, network analysis, symbolic interactionism, Tarde, and Tilly). Multidisciplinary studies which are relevant to relational sociology are also welcome, as well as research on various empirical topics (such as education, family, music, health, social inequalities, international relations, feminism, ethnicity, environmental issues, politics, culture, violence, social movements, and terrorism). Relational sociology-and more specifically, this series-will contribute to change and support contemporary sociology by discussing fundamental principles and issues within a relational framework.
<p>Recent years have witnessed an increasing alignment between community music activity and... more <p>Recent years have witnessed an increasing alignment between community music activity and youth. From the range of community music-style activities taking place across formal domains of youth provision, to the youth-oriented musical activities occurring within informal settings, many commentators have come to see community music activities as holding particular relevance and value in relation to youth. Importantly, however, the assumptions lying behind the purportedly 'special' relationship between community music and youth—as well as their implications for the nature of much youth-focused community music activity—too often go unexamined. This chapter critically interrogates some of the key ways in which this relationship is commonly understood, and then examines how these sit alongside the broader purposes and values commonly associated with community music.</p>
This chapter examines Peter Kay’s Car Share (BBC1, 2015) to consider the ways it represents pop m... more This chapter examines Peter Kay’s Car Share (BBC1, 2015) to consider the ways it represents pop music as both a resource which the characters draw on to make sense of their lives and, by virtue of this, a fertile site for comedy. One way the programme does this is by showing how pop functions as a marker of taste and a resource for the enactment of cultural snobbery. Here we suggest that the programme’s comedy can – in certain respects – be understood via the superiority theory of humour. However, we also go on to argue that superiority is not, in fact, the key way in which humour functions in the series. Rather, what might at first appear to be a comedy which mocks the granting of undue significance to pop music, instead ultimately offers up as humorous attempts to deny the powerful personal emotional resonances that such supposedly simple culture can facilitate.
THIS ARTICLE ENGAGES WITH QUESTIONS OF FAILURE IN CULTURAL PARTICIPATION THROUGH A REFLECTION UPO... more THIS ARTICLE ENGAGES WITH QUESTIONS OF FAILURE IN CULTURAL PARTICIPATION THROUGH A REFLECTION UPON MATTERS OF INTERPRETATION AND MEANING. THAT IS, RATHER THAN CONSIDERING THE WAYS OR EXTENT TO WHICH CULTURAL PARTICIPATION PROGRAMMES MIGHT ACHIEVE THEIR STATED GOALS, THE DISCUSSION CENTRES UPON THE CRUCIAL ROLE OF REPRESENTATIONS AND PERCEPTIONS IN RELATION TO QUESTIONS OF ‘FAILURE’/‘SUCCESS’. THE DISCUSSION CENTRES UPON ONE CASE STUDY INITIATIVE, ENGLAND'S VERSION OF THE VENEZUELAN EL SISTEMA PROGRAMME, IN HARMONY, AND EMPLOYS FRAME ANALYSIS TO EXPLORE THE WAYS PRESS COVERAGE AND RELEVANT POLICY DOCUMENTS CULTIVATE AN IMAGE OF PROGRAMME ‘SUCCESS’. IN ORDER TO HELP REVEAL SOME OF THE PROBLEMATIC ASSUMPTIONS EMBEDDED IN DOMINANT ACCOUNTS, THE ARTICLE ALSO DRAWS ON ORIGINAL INTERVIEW DATA IN EXPLORING THE MARGINALISED PERSPECTIVES OF PROGRAMME PARTICIPANTS. THE FINDINGS WHICH EMERGE SUGGEST THE NEED FOR PARTICULAR ATTENTION TO THE SYMBOLIC DIMENSIONS OF CULTURAL PARTICIPATION POLIC...
This document reports on an AHRC Research Network (2013) whose aim was to improve understanding o... more This document reports on an AHRC Research Network (2013) whose aim was to improve understanding of the historic, current, and potential roles that community music can play in promoting community engagement.
Recent years have witnessed an increasing alignment between community music activity and youth. F... more Recent years have witnessed an increasing alignment between community music activity and youth. From the range of community music-style activities nowadays taking place across formal domains of youth provision, to the youth-oriented musical activities occurring within informal settings, many commentators have come to see community music activities as holding particular relevance and value in relation to youth. Importantly however, the assumptions lying behind the purportedly ‘special’ relationship between community music and youth – as well as their implications for the nature of much youth-focussed community music activity – too often go unexamined. This chapter therefore critically interrogates some of the key ways in which this relationship is commonly understood, before examining how these sit alongside the broader purposes and values commonly associated with community music.
This article engages with questions of failure in cultural participation through a reflection upo... more This article engages with questions of failure in cultural participation through a reflection upon matters of interpretation and meaning. That is, rather than considering the ways or extent to which cultural participation programmes might achieve their stated goals, the discussion centres upon the crucial role of representations and perceptions in relation to questions of ‘failure’/‘success’. The discussion centres upon one case study initiative, England's version of the Venezuelan El Sistema programme, In Harmony, and employs frame analysis to explore the ways press coverage and relevant policy documents cultivate an image of programme ‘success’. In order to help reveal some of the problematic assumptions embedded in dominant accounts, the article also draws on original interview data in exploring the marginalised perspectives of programme participants. The findings which emerge suggest the need for particular attention to the symbolic dimensions of cultural participation polic...
Community arts initiatives have risen quickly up the agendas of policymakers and local authoritie... more Community arts initiatives have risen quickly up the agendas of policymakers and local authorities alike in recent years. In particular, low-cost and flexible community arts projects have increasingly been framed as an effective means of combating social exclusion and contributing to neighbourhood renewal. Yet at a time when the community arts movement is benefiting from unprecedented levels of funding and rhetorical backing, the need to resolve complex questions surrounding eYaluation, outcomes and conflicting agendas persists. Focussing upon the community music participation of 'young people living in areas of social and economic need who might otherwise lack opportunity' (Youth Music 2006), this thesis seeks to make a key contribution in the developing academic study of community arts activities. The study draws upon and adapts the work of Pierre Bourdieu in proposing a theory of musical habitus. This theory recognises the significantly socially structured and structuring...
The aim of the research project about which this document reports was to explore some of the ways... more The aim of the research project about which this document reports was to explore some of the ways in which three case study community-based organisations in Norwich – and especially those with either a current or previously significant involvement in arts activity – have been affected by the current period of financial austerity.
While efforts to grapple with questions about the nature of music-listener relations have seen so... more While efforts to grapple with questions about the nature of music-listener relations have seen some welcome developments since the turn of the millennium—especially, in music sociology, through DeNora’s work on everyday consumption and Hennion’s analyses of taste—even in the most interactionist and pragmatist of these accounts, there remain enduring traces of a certain substantialism in respect of both ‘the music’ and its ‘listeners’. In setting Dewey and Bentley’s trans-actional approach, along with further elements of Dewey’s intellectual edifice (specifically his concepts of ‘inquiry’, ‘habit’ and ‘imagination’), into dialogue with current debates in music sociology, this chapter considers the potential value of thinking in terms of ‘musical trans-action’. As will be seen, although such an approach may be seen to diminish the grounds for proposing regularities, patterns or generalizations on the part of scholars and analysts, the more modest and realistic approach encouraged by t...
This research project on which this paper reports was designed to explore questions of cultural v... more This research project on which this paper reports was designed to explore questions of cultural value in relation to the schools music project In Harmony-Sistema England. Our core research focus has been upon the ways in which children, their teachers and tutors, and their families understand the value of their participation in IHSE initiatives. The project engaged with three case studies of IHSE initiatives (based in Norwich, Telford and Newcastle) and qualitative data was gathered with primary school children, school staff, parents and IHSE musicians in all three cases.
Conjunctions. Transdisciplinary Journal of Cultural Participation
This article engages with questions of failure in cultural participation through a reflection upo... more This article engages with questions of failure in cultural participation through a reflection upon matters of interpretation and meaning. That is, rather than considering the ways or extent to which cultural participation programmes might achieve their stated goals, the discussion centres upon the crucial role of representations and perceptions in relation to questions of ‘failure’/‘success’. The discussion centres upon one case study initiative, England's version of the Venezuelan El Sistema programme, In Harmony, and employs frame analysis to explore the ways press coverage and relevant policy documents cultivate an image of programme ‘success’. In order to help reveal some of the problematic assumptions embedded in dominant accounts, the article also draws on original interview data in exploring the marginalised perspectives of programme participants. The findings which emerge suggest the need for particular attention to the symbolic dimensions of cultural participation polic...
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