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Music as Participation! Exploring Music’s Potential to Avoid Isolation and Promote Health

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Music and Public Health

Abstract

Public health research states that we have never been lonelier and more socially isolated than today. The same research calls for activities and non-medical interventions that can provide people with new ways of coping and give them a sense of pleasure and mastery. This essay asks: What are the potential connections between isolation and musical participation? Can music activities become a resource for avoiding isolation and promoting participation instead? The essay firstly elaborates upon notions like social isolation, loneliness and participation. Then it suggests a perspective on music as participation. The essay refers to Norwegian research projects in the child welfare system where music is used to promote participation among vulnerable children and adolescents. This author argues that music is as a powerful and valuable (yet still a somewhat hidden) means for participation, one that is both practical and has few negative side effects. Music therapy research is employed to examine in what ways and to what extent music activities might promote health and cultivate local democratic micro-cultures with a positive social ripple effect.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Retrieved 21 April, 2017: https://www.apha.org/what-is-public-health.

  2. 2.

    Retrieved 20 April, 2017: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/03/21/science-loneliness_n_6864066.html.

  3. 3.

    Retrieved 23 April, 2017: https://publichealthmatters.blog.gov.uk/2015/12/08/loneliness-and-isolation-social-relationships-are-key-to-good-health/.

  4. 4.

    The BBC program is still available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06vkhr5.

  5. 5.

    In this part, the essay refers to isolation as a notion that contains all those aspects described above with regard to loneliness and social isolation.

  6. 6.

    Ansdell and Pavlicevic write musicking without the k, which is what the music educator David Elliot did in his early writings too.

  7. 7.

    Barnevernpanelet, 2011, retrieved 23 April, 2017, see: www.regjeringen.no/globalassets/upload/BLD/Barnevern/2011/barnevernpanelets_rapport.pdf).

  8. 8.

    Retrieved 23 April, 2017, see: www.bufdir.no/Statistikk_og_analyse/Barnevern/.

  9. 9.

    Retrieved May 9, 2017 at http://www.traumacenter.org/products/pdf_files/preprint_dev_trauma_disorder.pdf.

  10. 10.

    The title is translated from Norwegian by the present author.

  11. 11.

    Read more about Come closer on their website: https://www.aleris.no/Her-finnes-vi/Region-Vest/Region-vest/Teaterlag/ . Ida wrote her song together with music therapist, Viggo Krüger and theatre instructor Morten Lorentzen in Come closer and it is part of the music intervention. The song, Transit, can be heard on YouTube and Spotify.

  12. 12.

    Retrieved 6 May 2017 from https://www.google.no/search?q=Barnevernloven+%C2%A7+4-1&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-b-ab&gfe_rd=cr&ei=MyoPWfv1EOPk8Ae0kouAAQ.

  13. 13.

    See the film at: https://tv.nrk.no/program/K;TE30000614/jihad-hellige-krigere. Stensæth and Jenssen (2016) reflect upon this too.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Research in Music and Health, the Norwegian Academy of Music, Oslo, Norway

    Karette Stensæth

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  1. Department of communication and psychology, Center for Research in Music and Health, The Norwegian Academy of Music, Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark

    Lars Ole Bonde

  2. Karolinska Institute, Stress Research Institute, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden

    Töres Theorell

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Stensæth, K. (2018). Music as Participation! Exploring Music’s Potential to Avoid Isolation and Promote Health. In: Bonde, L., Theorell, T. (eds) Music and Public Health. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-76240-1_9

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