ESA: Culture Branch Conference @ Bocconi University, Milan

Last week I presented at this conference. There was a little bit of overlap between the Arts and Culture branches, but it was predominately a new audience. I seem to have developed a certain style of presenting which eschews reading a script for a more improvised approach. Actually, I would prefer to present the material in a much more radical manner, but I thought, since I'm new to this game, I'd ease my way into the water gently. Anyway, below is the abstract until I find a publishing outlet:

The Potential Role of the Ethnographic Musician in Conflict Transformation

There have been many music and arts-related projects around the world that have in some manner attempted to promote peace or otherwise positively transform conflicts, and often these projects have been heralded by those involved as successes. Grounded evidence to support these claims is rather less abundant. Does this illustrate how music is an inappropriate and unreliable method for such purposes, or perhaps it is simply that how music interacts reflexively with perceptions of identity, memory, emotion, belief and behavior has not been satisfactorily explored in the context of conflict transformation? Based on grounded research on choirs in Sarajevo and inner-city London, this paper investigates the actualities of how music has been mobilised for conflict transformation purposes, how they have had shortcomings, and how future projects might improve on these approaches. This paper suggests that the music act itself has an innate potential to improve the subconscious pre-lingual level of understanding between the participants yet this has to date been little understood and under-utilised. The act of musical participation is akin to ethnography in as much as it can afford a deep understanding of the ‘other’, albeit at this pre-lingual level. Many conflict transformation practitioners, such as Lederach and Bercovitch, have claimed that increased understanding of the ‘other’ in conflict situations is necessary in order for positive negotiations to occur. This paper explores the logical extension of this thinking and suggest possible ways in which ethnographic musicians might be able to participate positively and effectively in conflict transformation scenarios.

Here I am with David Inglis, Chris Thorpe and Nancy Hanrahan

And here with the SocArts Team Milan: Pinar Guran, Tia DeNora, Sigrun Einarsdottir and David Inglis and Chris Thorpe discussing something very deep and meaningful in the back there.