Applied Ethnomusicology - Chapter 1-1

8/6/2019 Applied Ethnomusicology - Chapter 1-1

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Applied Ethnomusicology


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Applied Ethnomusicology:

Historical and Contemporary Approaches

Edited by

Klisala Harrison, Elizabeth Mackinlayand Svanibor Pettan


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Applied Ethnomusicology: Historical and Contemporary Approaches,

Edited by Klisala Harrison, Elizabeth Mackinlay and Svanibor Pettan

This book first published 2010

Cambridge Scholars Publishing

12 Back Chapman Street, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 2XX, UK

British Library Cataloguing in Publication DataA catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Copyright 2010 by Klisala Harrison, Elizabeth Mackinlay and Svanibor Pettan and contributors

All rights for this book reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system,or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or

otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner.

ISBN (10): 1-4438-2425-9, ISBN (13): 978-1-4438-2425-5


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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgements .................................................................................. viii

Preface ........................................................................................................ ix

Stephen Wild, Secretary General, International Council for Traditional

Music (ICTM)

Introduction ................................................................................................. 1

Klisala Harrison and Svanibor Pettan, Executive, Study Group on Applied

Ethnomusicology, ICTM

Part 1: Historical and Contemporary Understandings of Applied

Ethnomusicology in International Perspective

Chapter One............................................................................................... 22

Maintaining the Distance, Othering the Subaltern: RethinkingEthnomusicologists Engagement in Advocacy and Social Justice

Ana Hofman

Chapter Two .............................................................................................. 36

Solving Conflicts: Applied Ethnomusicology at the Music Department

of the University of Fort Hare, South Africa, and in the Context of IMOHP

Bernhard Bleibinger

Chapter Three ............................................................................................ 51Applied Ethnomusicology, Music Therapy and Ethnographically Informed

Choral Education: The Merging of Disciplines during a Case Study

in Hopevale, Northern Queensland

Muriel Swijghuisen Reigersberg

Part 2: Teaching Pedagogies and Research Practices of Applied

Ethnomusicology

Chapter Four.............................................................................................. 76United States Ethnomusicology and the Engaged University

Eric Martin Usner


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Table of Contentsvi

Chapter Five .............................................................................................. 96

Big Women from Burrulula: An Approach to Advocacy and Applied

Ethnomusicology with the Yanyuwa Aboriginal Communityin the Northern Territory, Australia

Elizabeth Mackinlay

Chapter Six .............................................................................................. 116

Singing from the Dark: Applied Ethnomusicology and the Study

of Lullabies

Katarina Juvani

Chapter Seven.......................................................................................... 133

Solid as Stone and Bone: Song as a Bridge between Cultures

and Generations

Vojko Vernik

Part 3: Building Sustainable Music Cultures

Chapter Eight........................................................................................... 150

Three Journeys, Five Recollections, Seven Voices: Operationalising

Sustainability in Music

Huib Schippers

Chapter Nine............................................................................................ 161

Questioning the Possibility of Revitalising Traditional Rural Songs

in Topola, Serbia

Jelena Jovanovi

Part 4: Musics Roles in Conflict Situations

Chapter Ten ............................................................................................. 182The Music of Minorities in Austria: Conflict and Intercultural Strategies

Ursula Hemetek

Chapter Eleven ........................................................................................ 200

The Musical Arts in Aceh after the Tsunami and the Conflict

Margaret Kartomi


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Applied Ethnomusicology: Historical and Contemporary Approaches vii

Chapter Twelve ....................................................................................... 214

Polyphony of Cultures: Conceptualization and Consequences

of an Applied Media ProjectBritta Sweers

Contributors............................................................................................. 233

Index........................................................................................................ 239


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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

General editors:

Klisala Harrison

Elizabeth Mackinlay

Svanibor Pettan

Copy editors:Klisala Harrison (article texts)

Elizabeth Mackinlay

Editorial assistant:

Rodrigo Caballero

Review board:

Samuel Arajo, Katelyn Barney, Kelly Best,

Sam Cronk, Ruth Davis, Gerd Grupe,Erica Haskell, Jeffrey Hatcher,

Lasanthi Manaranjanie Kalinga Dona,

Michelle Kisliuk, Susan Monk, Karl Neuenfeldt,

John Phillips, Adelaida Reyes, Owe Ronstrm,

Anthony Seeger, Kjell Skyllstad, Atesh Sonneborn,

Jeff Todd Titon, Stephen Wild, Deborah Wong

Cover image: Photograph taken by Vojko Vernik at the Twentieth MusicReview of Children, Pupils and Adults with Special Needs, Lets Sing,

Play, Dance, on 13 May 2010 in Prevalje, Slovenia. Cover design by

Elizabeth Mackinlay.


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PREFACE

STEPHEN WILD,SECRETARY GENERAL,INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL FOR

TRADITIONAL MUSIC

Study groups are the lifeblood of the ICTM; they sustain the discourseof members between biennial world conferences. Most ICTM members

actively participate in at least one study group, often more than one. Over

the last thirty years, the number of study groups has steadily grown from

six listed in the April 1980 Bulletin of the ICTMto nineteen listed in the

April 2010 Bulletin. Study groups may be either topically based, for

example Folk Musical Instruments, Ethnochoreology, and Music and

Gender, or regionally based, for example Music and Dance of Oceania,

Music of East Asia, and Music of the Arab World. Study groups meet

between world conferences, often in the alternate years between them. Thegroups may be large, for example the Study Group on Ethnochoreology

has several sub-groups that meet independently in addition to meetings of

the whole group, or small, for example the Study Group on the Music and

Dance of Oceania, whose meetings usually involve only twenty to thirty

members. Study groups provide a forum for intensive discourse on

narrower subjects than that the whole ICTM represents. They also publish

results of those discourses while the ICTM provides limited opportunity

for members to publish papers in the Yearbook for traditional music. An

annual review of study groups by the Executive Board of the ICTMensures that those continuing to be recognised by ICTM remain active.

The Study Group on Applied Ethnomusicology, under the collaborative

leadership of Svanibor Pettan (Chairperson), Klisala Harrison (Vice-

chairperson) and Eric Martin Usner (Secretary), had its genesis in a

preliminary symposium associated with an ICTM Executive Board

meeting in Ljubljana, Slovenia in 2006, and a panel at the ICTM World

Conference in Vienna in 2007. Its first symposium since official

recognition by the Executive Board was held in Ljubljana in 2008. The

present volume is the first published outcome of its deliberations. Acursory examination of the contents reveals the global spread of its

participants research interests: South Africa, the USA, Australia, Slovenia,


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Prefacex

Serbia, Austria, Indonesia and Germany. It has close links with the

research interests of another recently formed study group on Music and

Minorities, as acknowledged by the latters Chair, Ursula Hemetek, in herarticle in this volume. The two study groups will meet jointly in Vietnam

in 2010.

A full discussion of this volume belongs to the Introduction, but allow me

to touch on some highlights. After a thorough consideration by Ana Hofman

of the deep sources and ethical dilemmas of applied ethnomusicology,

particularly in Europe, several articles acknowledge the influence of

Daniel Sheehys 1992 seminal paper published in our sister journal

Ethnomusicology in the USA. Perhaps Sheehys article can be considered

as the formal starting point of applied ethnomusicology. However, as

Ursula Hemetek points out, much of ethnomusicology is inherently

applied research (as per the study groups definition of the topic; see

Introduction) because of the disciplines representation of the music of

ignored or oppressed peoples. This point comes through loud and clear

throughout the volume. Another prominent theme of the book is the

potential of music and the contribution of ethnomusicology to affect

tolerance and reconciliation between otherwise hostile peoples. This is

strongly expressed in Bernhard Bleibingers essay Applied ethnomusicology

at the Music Department of the University of Fort Hare, South Africa and

Britta Sweers article on combating extreme nationalism in a northern

German town through a multicultural music recording project. A final

theme of the volume that I wish to highlight is the use of music and

ethnomusicology in a therapeutic role, both in clinical practice and on the

ground: Muriel Swijghuisen Reigersberg on the therapeutic value of choral

singing in a northern Australian Aboriginal community, and Margaret

Kartomis account of the healing effect of music in tsunami and civil war

affected Aceh, Indonesia.

This volume repositions applied ethnomusicology in the characterisation

of the discipline. I suspect that no ethnomusicologist will be able to ignoreit in their own understanding of who they are and what they do

professionally. Every paper in this volume makes a significant contribution

to this still-emerging and dynamic field. I congratulate the authors and the

editors on producing such a powerful contribution to ethnomusicology as a

whole and a worthy addition to the publications of the study groups of

ICTM.


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CHAPTER ONE

MAINTAINING THE DISTANCE,OTHERING THE SUBALTERN:

RETHINKING ETHNOMUSICOLOGISTSENGAGEMENT IN ADVOCACY

AND SOCIAL JUSTICE

ANA HOFMAN

Introduction

This essay investigates the dynamics of partnership between the

scholar and the social subjects involved in ethnomusicological research,with the aim of rethinking the scholars role in advocacy and social justice.It questions the very notion of applied work and explores its existingconcepts, values and possible futures. The focus will be on the followingissues:

fieldwork methodology and applied work, representation of the subaltern, ethics, the role of institutions, and industry and consumerism.

The main idea is not a critique as such of the application of knowledge inethnomusicology, but rather a response to the ongoing debate on thepower/knowledge relation in academic production and the general need forrethinking the existent ethical problems in current scholarship.


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Maintaining the Distance, Othering the Subaltern 23

Pure academic vs. impure applied ethnomusicology

In recent years the ethnographically oriented disciplines such asanthropology and ethnomusicology have been faced with the new conceptof promoting scholarly work beyond the academy. Growing interests inadvocacy, consultancy and the use of academic knowledge in education,business or in the public sector also testify to shifts in the mostfundamental concepts of these disciplines. New approaches suggest thatscholarly work is a socially produced interpretation (Stanley 1992, 7) inwhich every representation of the Other (the observed) is also theconstruction of the self (the observer) (Geertz 1973, 14, 15). Regardingthe intersubjective concept of fieldwork, which is based on a dialogicalmodel of webs of interlocution, Taylor remarks:

I am a self only in relation to certain interlocutors: in one way in relation tothose conversation partners which are essential to achieve my self-definition, in another in relation to those who are now crucial to mycontinuing grasp of languages of self-understanding (1992, 36).

Taking this into account, the researcher constructs reality together withsocial subjectsthose partners and interlocutors involved in the research,

who participate actively in the research process, at times even becomingco-authors of the project. Scholars such as Veit Erlmann (1991), TimothyRice (1994), Jeff Titon (1997), Virginia Danielson (1997) and JonathanStock (1996, 2001) follow the new ethnomusicological epistemology inwhich fieldwork is defined as knowing people making music (Titon1997, 91), and further, as an interactive and dialogic way of researchingmusic. This approach includes the presumption of respect, equality andreciprocity among the research participants. The concept of collaboration(Field and Fox 2007, 9) as a method of field research and an

epistemological approach emphasizes an applied perspective of theethnographic method.Such approaches assert the neglected moments in the recognition of

the essential relation between politics and theory. As Homi Bhabhasuggests, it is a question of political maturity to understand that there aremany forms of political actions that obscure the division between thetheoretical and the activist (Bhabha 2004, 32). These attitudesdestabilise the dichotomy between academic and applied work, challengingthe purity, neutrality and detachment associated with academic

work, and impurity and involvement as characteristics of the appliedapproach. They also show that social interventions and ethical problemsare associated with both of these concepts, and challenge the idea of


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Chapter One24

knowledge being produced inside intellectual communities on the onehand, and practical action, outside of them on the other (Titon 1992,

315), confirming that all ethnomusicological work is fundamentallyapplied and that all ethnomusicologists are applied ethnomusicologists. Asa result, the firm boundaries of the very discipline are challenged, evokingthe many ways that an ethnomusicologist can embody or define his or herroles both within and outside of existent academic concepts. From thisstance, applied and basic research do not involve separate scholarlypositions or intellectual traditions. Ethnomusicology should not beessentialised and limited to a single field such as academic and/orapplied, but instead the strong multisided nature of the discipline shouldbe outlined.

Fieldwork ethnography and applied work

The above-mentioned new approaches to fieldwork in ethnomusicologyassert the crucial importance of the focus on individuals. Rice asserts theneed for shifting a focus in ethnomusicological research toward moreatomised studies of individuals and small groups of individuals musicalexperiences, defining the approach as subject-centered musicalethnography (Rice 2003, 152). As Jonathan Stock points out, such amethod disputes the holistic view, supporting reflexive accounts andpolyvocality (Stock 2001, 8). Both scholars employ a self-reflexive anddialogic research methodology, with the aim of offering the polyvocal andmultifaceted images of many, complex and contradictory musicalexperiences. This approach also suggests abandoning the concepts ofcultural coherence and purity, putting emphasis on alternative culturalnarratives as well as the dominant ones.

Because of its engaged nature and the pragmatic imperative to enablecertain higher goals to be achieved (Pettan 1996, 246), applied work canfall into the trap of employing a holistic view of communities with thepurpose of achieving certain political goals such as: enabling theempowerment of a group; earning official recognition; the right of self-determination; to maintain and preserve the distinct culture of certaingroups; and to support interaction and dialogue among various national,ethnic or social groups. This so-called strategic essentialism is criticisedby Judith Butler, who takes a stance against the essentialism of a collectiveidentity, pointing out that we is only and just a phantasmal constructionthat has its own purpose, but which is denying internal complexity and in

determination of this term (Butler 1995, 131).


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The essentialised standpoint view risks reifying cultures as separateentities, by overemphasising their internal homogeneity and cohesion. As

Fanon suggests, in asserting the cultural traditions of a subordinate people,it is important to be aware of the dangers of the fixity and fetishism oftheir identities (Fanon in Bhabha 2004, 13). Cultures are not homogeneouswholes, but consisted from the narratives and symbolisations of theirmembers, and their complex social and significative practices. Therefore,the applied approach can better comprehend the complexity and richnessof social reality itself. Benhabib further criticises the essentialism of ashared comprehensive viewpoint as a distinguishable feature of groups andasks, Why should members of the same ethnic or other group share acomprehensive worldview? (Benhabib 2002, 123). By neglecting theinternal heterogeneity within communities, a researcher can tend to singleout the dominant narratives as more significant than others. What I amsuggesting is that the applied approach should avoid a reductionistapproach, and the essentialising idea of culture as the property of an ethnicor social group. From this stance, the researcher should accept cultures inall of their heterogeneity and be open to their various interconnected andoften incomprehensible discourses.

Speaking in the name of the subalternThe issue of colonial legacy has been broadly discussed in the field of

anthropology. Its connection with European colonialism and imperialdomination was particularly visible in the works of early scholars whocollected information useful for governing indigenous communities. Theidea of applying knowledge in order to help people or communities toprotect their musical cultures, provide a better life or solve the conflicts,seems to contain similarly emancipatory concepts. The authority of theresearcher who is helping a community involves a power/knowledgerelationship, which actually does not call for reciprocity as suggested bythe above-mentioned new ethnomusicological approaches. The discourseson empowerment and emancipation have a long tradition inethnomusicological praxis, and are particularly prevalent in workinvolving various kinds of marginalised groups and individuals. As Pettanpoints out, applied ethnomusicology has very much to do with minorities,indigenous communities, diasporas, immigrants and refugees (Pettan2006), and generally with voices of the marginalised. In this respect, thesubaltern is very much the focus of applied work.

The new field of subaltern studies deals with representations asauthorial and hegemonic practices, approaching the problems of representing


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Chapter One26

the subaltern in disciplinary discourse and practice within the academy

(Beverley 1999, 1). As Spivak reminds us, representation is not only a

matter of speaking about, but also of speaking for (as I have pointedout in the above sub-title) and therefore concerns politics and hegemony

(Spivak 1988). In this way, academic knowledge does not only represent

the subaltern, but also is involved in its production. Attempting to focus on

the subaltern, scholars maintain a relation between domination and

subordination, constantly othering the subaltern. Challenging this

stance, subaltern studies calls for an intervention into the production of

this binary notion in scholarship, emphasising the limits of such

representations. As Beverley points out, it is not just a question of studying

marginalised and subordinated people outside of the academy, but also of

examining our own involvement in creating and reproducing relations of

power and subordination within the academy (Beverley 1999, 10).

The question of the adequacy of representations of subalternity is also

strongly associated with ethnomusicological scholarly work. In my

opinion, the main problem is that by conceptualising the subaltern as a

subject who lacks the power of self-representation, the power/knowledge

relation is maintained. As already mentioned, applied research often

focuses on marginalised groups of people, who are considered as not being

able to speak for themselves, but instead as needing the authority of the

researcher to help them in their self-representations. By acting as agents

for our partners in research through the promotion of them and their

musics, we as researchers still maintain their subordinate position and rob

them of their right to self-promotion and self-representation. Even though

researchers establish long-term relationships with the groups they are

working with, [are] accepted as members of the community to a certain

extent, and view their informants as partners, not as objects (Hemetek

2006, 39), they still function as translators or mediators between the

community world and the world of academia.

This constant othering of the subaltern maintains a hierarchical relationwith the Other, which cannot be transgressed, and as Lyotard argues,

ensures that the Other stays Other. This hinders any negotiation of such

a relation and Beverley asks the important question, What is the point in

representing subaltern as subaltern? (Beverley 1999, 28). Spivak claims

that only by altering the power/knowledge relations that constitute the

subaltern in the first place can the subaltern speak in a way that would

carry any sort of authority to alter the relations of subalternity (Spivak

1988). In that sense, our role as ethnomusicologists is to help in altering

these relationships by giving voice to the subaltern, and especially bycreating voice and knowledge opportunities for self-representation.


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Chapter One28

modernisation as a stage of economy-in-development towards a moderncapitalist market economy is an approach that neglects the historical and

cultural complexities and social consequences of such processes. Newerapproaches have challenged the Western idea of progress as a conceptshaped by capitalism and globalisation, moving away from the monolithicconcepts of development and modernity to the idea of multiplemodernities.

The second question concerning ethics is how can we be sure that ourideas will be applied in practice in the ways that we intend? The problemis that the initial goal does not depend directly on the guiding purpose andquality of actionthese actually can be performed very differently inpractice and carry the potential for unintended results upon the lives of thepeople with whom we are collaborating. Since the individuals, groups andcommunities are not passive, but active actors in the research process, theactions undertaken in one concrete situation may have completelydifferent implications in another frame. In keeping with the Arendtsstance, an author of social action may be the initiator of its uniquemeaning, but as an agent he or she cannot control its outcome (Arendt1998, 180). Scholars focusing on discriminatory practices andmarginalisation processes have to be careful not to undertake particularinterventions. Additional dilemmas can arise from sometimes conflictingdemands, such as when certain goals might interfere with others (forexample, the rights of a minority group can conflict with another groupsrights, or can interfere with global political and economic interests). It alsois particularly challenging if a researchers personal ethics are not inconnection or accordance with those of the community in which he or sheis working. Thus, the most crucial concept related to ethics andethnomusicological work has to be one of responsibilitythat is, to beresponsible not only towards the people with whom we are working, buttowards ourselves and our discipline.

Research and institutions

Because of the above mentioned colonial legacy and its connection toearly anthropological work, the relation between ethnographically orientedscholarly practices and institutions has a rather long history. Theassociation of ethnomusicological work with local, state or internationalinstitutions is also not a new practice. In fieldwork, apart from the relationwith interlocutors, we as researchers must consider the contact and

interaction we have with leaders and intellectuals from the communities inwhich we work. This means adjusting our actions to meet the criteria and


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agendas of local authorities or communities leaders, which is part of theongoing negotiations that must occur when researchers consider the local

and more general goals and practices of others. Local, state andinternational institutions, NGOs, political parties, and other civil societygroups thus are all highly involved in the work of ethnomusicologists.

Keeping this in mind, scholars should be very careful when employinginstitutional guidelines in order to avoid indoctrination and propaganda.Peacekeeping and human rights activist organisations that promoteuniversal international legal human rights have been challenged by manyscholars as means of transmitting dominant Western ideologies and globaltechnologies. While working within an institutional framework, it isimportant to remember that the concept of human rights is culturallyspecific and not always in concordance with universalised orinstitutionalised formulations. In institutionally supported notions ofculture, cultural pluralism, multiculturalism and the development ofdemocratic societies, all musical activity involves training anddevelopment of the human capacity for communication, social interplayand democratic action at all levels of society (Skyllstad 1996, 235). Theseconcepts have already been criticised because of their relation to theculturally unitary policies of Western ethnocentric and colonial discourses.Helbigs experiences of working with a Romani NGO in the Ukrainethrows light on the complexity of these relations (Helbig 2007). Her workreveals how Western institutions play a significant role in establishing andperpetuating global frameworks of understanding in the culturalexpressions within Romani groups. Helbig confronted the complexrelationship between Romani people and NGO leaders, and had tonegotiate between the interests of institutions and her personal andacademic priorities. She comments,

While our interlocutors may use the cultural representations we choose to

analyse for political means, it is important to practice caution regarding ourown involvement, as it is not always clear whom our best intentions benefitin the long run (2007, 83).

In taking a critical stance against the universalised institutional and legalconcepts of protection, empowerment and human rights, we must alsodebate whether such norms are able to articulate the needs of theparticular.


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Chapter One30

East-European experiences:

State socialism and applied work

In Eastern Europe, Hemetek (2006, 36) asserts that the paradigm offolk music research is closely connected to the promotion of nationalfolklore, making the applied aspect an integral part of ethnomusicologicalwork. Scholarly work has been used in state projects to construct andimplement national policy. As my research on folklore performances andidentity politics in socialist Yugoslavia revealed, scholars were activelyinvolved in socially relevant work (drutveno-korisni rad), and in thepromotion and development of folk culture (Hofman 2008, 2010). They

significantly contributed to an ideology of the development of artisticactivities, as part of the overall development of socialist society, whichwas asserted as a primary goal of state policy. The concept ofvolunteerism (amateurism) was represented in official discourse as themost important feature in the creation of a new folk culture.Volunteerism was presented as a spontaneous cultural activity and abasic necessity of every individual subject aspiring to be a part of thewider social community (Supek 1974, 8, 9).

In official narratives, this concept of culture emerged as a response toold traditional culture and cultural life on the one hand, and elitistactivities of high culture, on the other. As part of the process of creatingnew folk culture, the state established new institutions and agencies to suitand cater to the demands of new cultural policy through so-called culturehouses, collective houses ( Zadruni domovi), cultural-educationalassociations (Kulturno-prosvetne zajednice or KPZs), and various amateurassociations and groups. These organisations were the main organisers andpurveyors of cultural manifestations together with individuals from localcommunitieswriters, scholars, composers, journalists, along with localauthorities and party administrators. Their main aim was to implement thestates agenda on education and to assist in the propagandisation ofpositive norms and values. Cultural workers (kutlurni radnici) andscholars were also highly involved in the natural process of thedevelopment of folk heritage and in the development of cultural-entertainment life (kulturno-zabavni ivot) in general (Zeevi 1968, 219).

Due to this, emphasis was placed on direct, first-hand experiences andcooperation realised through direct contacts among scholars and theculture producers. In order to support more direct cooperation,institutions called self-governing interest societies (Samoupravneinteresne zajednice orSIZs) were founded in late 1970s, with the aim ofmobilising people to take an active part in decision-making processes.


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Official narratives propagated the new concept of Yugoslav culture as adirect result of joint work (udrueni rad) and self-management free

cooperation (samoupravna slobodna saradnja) (Dretar 1981, 117). Themain idea was to create an alternative method of cultural productionthough the social-productive everyday activity within the localcommunity and joint work organisations (Hadagi 1979, 167). The mainnarrative of democratisation of the relations in culture or thesocialisation of the culture policy announced the end of cultural policyfrom above (Gavri 1981, 113).

Even though these agendas were quite different when applied on theground, the idea of a culture from below was based on the activeinvolvement of all people (including scholars, culture workers, policymakers and community members) in cultural production. As my studyrevealed, these activities were not state-imposed artificial culture forms,but offered an excellent opportunity for various people to be engaged incultural activities. They also challenged the binary opposition betweenpure and applied approaches, and as stated at the beginning, are agood example of the public usage of scholarly work in Eastern Europe.

Ethnomusicology, industry and consumerism

Sheehy notes that in recent years, applied ethnomusicology has beenpromoted as a career option (1992, 323). The pragmatic reasons behind theidea of applied work are related to new areas in which scholars can work.Some important questions arise from this: Are ideas about widening thediscipline and making it more marketable behind the faade of the newethnomusicologys public profile? Or do they include creating more jobsfor professionals from the discipline? Indeed, there is no doubt that therevived relevance of applied work and similar concepts are responses tothe current social and cultural climate, and the demands of late capitalistand post-industrial societies. Therefore, the main idea of sellingknowledge and making a commercially consumable discipline can beseen as part of global transnational processes. The disciplines orientationhas shifted in order to meet the demands of changes not only in culture,society and politics in a global context (Pink 2006, 4), but also in theacademic market place.

The global economic, political and social climate, in which countriesof the West have controlled almost eighty percent of global production,has produced social and cultural conditions that depend substantively not

on national governments, but on multinational corporations such as theWorld Bank or the International Monetary Fund. This is particularly


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Chapter One32

visible in the wake of the current global economic crisis. Spreading neo-liberal economies and globalisation have produced new patterns of

domination and exploitation, with pressure on scholarly work to produceknowledge appropriate to the task of understanding and administratingmulticultural populations and transnational working classes (Beverley1999, 29). In such a global climate, disciplines such as ethnomusicologywill have to become more action-oriented and engaged in shaping publicpolicy, and also be strong enough to confront the dominant interestsinherent within the politics of research.

Conclusion

In my opinion, the issues I have outlined are very important for thepresent and future of the discipline of ethnomusicology. Essentialscholarship exists in the academy, and must be open for public scrutinyand become more engaged in solving important social issues.Ethnomusicology has contributed to social policy, practice and advocacyin a number of different ways. Mutual interaction of people inside theacademy and mainstream scholarly practices in research projects canbecome the source of newly emerging concepts in ethnomusicologicalwork and can help to overcome the existing tensions. Bohlman and Stokesremind us, Such knowledge and its circulation as ethnomusicologicalscholarship are by no means dependent on professional academics, butrather are conditioned, as elsewhere, by complex interactions betweenuniversities, museums, amateur organisations, state agencies, and markets(Stokes and Bohlman 2003).

However, regarding ethnomusicological work, it is not possible tooffer one single answer or coherent strategy, establishing any singleuniversal behaviour, practice or rule as the norm for applied work. AsLacan (in umi Riha 1995, 87) suggests, it is not possible to talk about auniversal ethic, but only of relative ones, attached to specific discourses,that is ethics (in plural). It is important to take into account our differentbackgrounds, inner conflicts and identity transformations, and the fact thatwe are always confronting new situations and making new decisions,which can also call into question our own assumptions, and challenge ourindividual norms as subjects, researchers and persons. We have to dealwith moral dilemmas, which are connected with our own personalbiographies and research contexts. I do not argue here for the universalparticularity or the hegemonic domination of the singular, but rather for

abandoning generalised codes of moral behaviour in favour of specific orpersonal ones. By becoming aware not only of our moral dilemmas but


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also of our moral limitations and the choices we make, we can grow asmoral subjects together with our research partners.

References

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Benhabib, S. 2002. The claims of culture: Equality and diversity in theglobal era. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Beverley, J. 1999. Subalternity and representation: Arguments in culturaltheory. Durham: Duke University Press.

Bhabha, H. 2004. The location of culture. New York: Routledge.Butler, J. 1995. Od parodije do politike (From parody to politics). enskestudije (Gender studies) 1: 131-37.

. 2003. Sluajna utemeljenja: Feminizam i pitanje postmodernizma(Contingent foundations: Feminism and the question of postmodernism).Genero 2/3: 33-47.

Danielson, V. 1997. The voice of Egypt: Umm Kulthm, Arabic song, andEgyptian society in the twentieth century. Chicago: University ofChicago Press.

Dretar, T. 1981. Razgovor o kulturnoj politici (Discussion about culturepolicy). Kultura (Culture) 53: 91-132.

Erlmann, V. 1991. African stars: Studies in Black South Africanperformance. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Field, L. W., and R. G. Fox, eds. 2007. Anthropology put to work. Oxford:Berg.

Gavri, K. 1981. Razgovor o kulturnoj politici (Discussion about culturepolicy). Kultura (Culture) 53: 91-132.

Geertz, C. 1973. The interpretation of cultures: Selected essays. NewYork: Basic Books.

Hadagi, M. 1979. Samoupravne interesne zajednice u kulturi (Self-governing interest societies in culture). Kultura 45/46: 166-177.

Helbig, A. 2007. Ethnomusicology and Advocacy Research: Theory inAction among Romani NGOs in Ukraine. The Anthropology of EastEurope Review: Central Europe, Eastern Europe and Eurasia 25 (2):78-83.

Hemetek, U. 2006. Applied ethnomusicology in the process of the politicalrecognition of a minority: A case study of the Austrian Roma.Yearbook for Traditional Music 38: 35-57.


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Chapter One34

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