Introduction : Ecological Transitions in and Through Music Education

Abstract

This book explores music education in a rapidly changing world by bringing together and amplifying the work of music educators who choose to be proactive agents working to shift the conduct, aims, and values of music education towards a deeper consideration of societal and planetary sustainability. Taken as a whole, the authors in the book argue that music educators have the opportunity to both shape transitions in music education itself, away from self-centred or music-centred approaches towards more world-centred approaches, and to imagine and influence transitions in societal domains such as culture, economics, and politics from within music education. The book’s introduction frames the chapters through the five axes for strategic action suggested by anthropologist Arturo Escobar as supporting ecological transitions: (i) the recommunialisation of social life; (ii) the relocalisation of social, productive, and cultural activities; (iii) the strengthening of autonomies for local communities; (iv) the simultaneous depatriarchalization, de-racialization, and decolonization of social relations; and (v) the re-earthing of life. This framing allows the authors as a collective to provide a basis for a comprehensive and integrated vision of music education professionalism that reaches beyond existing ego-logical frames, ultimately co-designing a world where many worlds can co-exist.