"Good works" with benefits: using applied ethnomusicology and participatory action research in benefit concert production at the Unitarian Church of Vancouver

Fletcher, Samantha Breanne (2007) "Good works" with benefits: using applied ethnomusicology and participatory action research in benefit concert production at the Unitarian Church of Vancouver. Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

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Abstract

Within the rather limited applied ethnomusicology literature, what are lacking are methodological summations (how does one practice applied ethnomusicology and what are the implications of doing so?), as well as documented applied research wherein researchers have been or continues to be members of the community in which they are working. By documenting and critiquing the production of a benefit concert in partnership with the Unitarian Church of Vancouver, it has been my intention to contribute to this limited area of study by providing a process-oriented thesis investigating an applied project in a community of which I am a part In so doing, the ways ethnomusicologists may practically contribute their skills to community-based education and social justice actions, and the ways such initiatives might be effectively represented through scholarly writings, will be explored. -- Further, this thesis endeavors to respond to a set of questions that are raised when ethnomusicologists, musicians and community organizations are engaged in relationships of assistance with marginalized and disenfranchised members of the community: When do we help? How do we help? Why do we help? What kind of dialogues are we engaging in with those we are assisting? When is help desired, and when is it not? How can we re-think our processes, motivations, and communication techniques so that benefit events may become as respectful and reciprocal as possible? And finally, how can all participants both help and be helped? Though these questions have not been definitively answered, and though I have stated that responses will be project- and community-specific, the consideration of the issues they raise is of utmost importance in cultivating reciprocal and respectful benefit concert production techniques. -- Finally, the results of applying ethnomusicology in church communities, the methods that were utilized, and the participatory nature of this work approach will be thoroughly examined and critiqued, resulting in recommendations for the development of this form of applied ethnomusicological research.

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