Music Asylums: Wellbeing Through Music in Everyday Life

179 Pages·2013·1.268 MB·English

by  Tia Denora

Music AsyluMs: Wellbeing Through Music
in everydAy life
Music and change:
ecological Perspectives
Series Editors:
gary Ansdell, director of education, nordoff robbins Music Therapy, uK
Professor Tia denora, department of sociology & Philosophy, huss,
university of exeter, uK
Series Advisory Board:
Kenneth Aigen, Temple university, usA
Jane davidson, university of Western Australia
Timothy dowd, emory university, usA
lucy green, institute of education, uK
lee higgins, boston university college of fine Arts, usA
raymond Macdonald, edinburgh university, uK
Mercédès Pavlicevic, nordoff robbins, uK
even ruud, university of oslo, norway
brynjulf stige, university of bergen, norway
henry stobart, royal holloway, university of london, uK
Music and Change: Ecological Perspectives, is a cross-disciplinary, topic-led series
for scholars and practitioners. its aim is to explore the question of how, where and
when music makes a difference. if music is a dynamic ingredient of change, what
are the processes and mechanisms associated with music’s powers, and how can
ecological perspectives help us to understand music in action? book proposals are
welcome in any of the following areas: healthcare, social policy, political activism,
psychiatry, embodiment, mind and consciousness, community relations, education
and informal learning, management and organizational cultures, trauma, memory
and commemoration, theories of action, self-help, conflict and conflict resolution,
the life course, spirituality and religion, disability studies, palliative care, social
criticism, governance, resistance, protest, and utopian communities.
Forthcoming titles in the series:
How Music Helps in Music Therapy and Everyday Life
gary Ansdell
Musical Pathways for Mental Health
gary Ansdell and Tia denora
Music Asylums:
Wellbeing Through Music in
everyday life
TiA denorA
University of Exeter, UK
© Tia denora 2013
All rights reserved. no part of this publication 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 publisher.
Tia denora has asserted her right under the copyright, designs and Patents Act, 1988, to
be identified as the author of this work.
Published by
Ashgate Publishing limited Ashgate Publishing company
Wey court east 110 cherry street
union road suite 3-1
farnham burlington, vT 05401-3818
surrey, gu9 7PT usA
england
www.ashgate.com
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the british library
The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows:
denora, Tia.
Music asylums : wellbeing through music in everyday life / by Tia denora.
pages cm. -- (Music and change : ecological perspectives)
includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn 978-1-4094-3759-8 (hardback) -- isbn 978-1-4094-3760-4 (ebook) --
isbn 978-1-4724-0032-1 (epub) 1. Music therapy. 2. Music--social aspects. i. Title.
Ml3920.d37 2013
781'.11--dc23
2013007769
isbn 9781409437598 (hbk)
isbn 9781409437604 (ebk – Pdf)
isbn 9781472400321 (ebk – ePub)
II
Contents
List of Figures and Tables vii
Preface ix
Acknowledgements xi
Introduction 1
1 In Sickness and in Health: Defining the Ecological Perspective 9
2 Learning from Erving Goffman, Part I: Agency and Culture 33
3 Learning from Erving Goffman, Part II: Reconfiguring the
Concept of Asylum 47
4 Music Asylums, Part I:
Disconnections, Reconnections and Removal 63
5 Music Asylums, Part II: Making Musical Space Together,
Furnishing and Refurnishing Worlds 79
6 Musicalizing Consciousness: Aesthetics and Anaesthetics 97
7 Where is Good Music? 121
Conclusion: What Music Makes Us Well and When? And How to Know
How Music Helps? 135
References 145
Index 161
This page has been left blank intentionally
List of Figures and Tables
Figures
1.1 Three features of ‘health’ and their mutual interaction, situated in
relation to social media and time 25
5.1 BRIGHT musical space, 2006 87
5.2 The musical event 94
6.1 Three individuals’ musical trails through BRIGHT
musical space, 2006 117
Tables
3.1 Removal and refurnishing 56
7.1 Music that is good and music that does good 125
This page has been left blank intentionally
Preface
This book is the first of a three-volume set, the outcome of a six-year interdisciplinary
study of community music therapy. The research focused on mental health and
wellbeing within the context of a centre supporting people with mental health
challenges and involved collaboration between the centre, Gary Ansdell and
Sarah Wilson from the music therapy charity, Nordoff Robbins and Tia DeNora at
Exeter University.
The set of books was inspired by the idea of a triptych – a three-panel painting
where the first and third panels fold inward to reflect upon the main, centre panel.
Two complementary books by DeNora (Volume 1) and Ansdell (Volume 2)
represent the two ‘side panels’. They aim to develop a grounded theory of music
as a medium of wellbeing in therapy and everyday life (arenas which, the authors
show, cannot be fully distinguished from each other). This topic is addressed from
the complementary perspectives of the two authors’ professional and theoretical
backgrounds – as a sociologist and music therapist respectively. A third, co-authored,
volume forms the main panel, refracting and further developing understandings and
perspectives from the two side-panels.
In Volume 1, Music Asylums: Wellbeing Through Music in Everyday Life,
DeNora considers how music offers forms of asylum. Music ‘asylums’ may
offer respite (from pain or distress) but they can also involve collaborative
transformations of social worlds. The book draws upon DeNora’s work as a
cultural sociologist with a long-standing interest in music in action.
Volume 2 presents Ansdell’s complementary perspective, drawing on his 25
years of experience as a music therapist and researcher. How Music Helps in Music
Therapy and Everyday Life suggests an ecological framework for understanding
the key continuities between the specialist area of music therapy and people’s
more everyday experiences of how music promotes wellbeing.
Volume 3, Musical Pathways for Mental Health, is co-written by Ansdell and
DeNora. A wide range of methods of data collection and analysis are used in this
case-study to explore how collective musical activity helps the participants of a
community music therapy project at a centre supporting people with mental health
challenges forge pathways into greater wellbeing.