Applied Ethnomusicology in the Process of the Political Recognition of a Minority: A Case Study of the Austrian Roma

Abstract

Applied ethnomusicology has a special relevance for studies on music and minorities. What constitutes this relevance in particular cases was the focus of a plenary panel discussion at the 38th World Conference of the ICTM in Sheffield in 2005, which explored cultural, social, political, and economic issues pertinent to the musical life of minority groups within the context of a larger (majority) society. Panel participants addressed the topic from the perspective of their individual research fields and the different minority groups they have worked with: Adelaida Reyes provided the example of refugee camps, Stephen Wild of the Rom ceremony of Australian Aborigines, and John O'Connell of a Song for Peace by a Kurdish singer. The aim was to contribute to discourses on applied ethnomusicology in the light of theoretical and methodological insights gained through studies of music and minorities.

Sectarianism in Scotland: A ‘West of Scotland’ Problem, a Patchwork or a Cobweb?

“…Social psychologists have attempted numerous lab-based approaches to reducing prejudice, and these studies suggest that the most successful method is to leave the prejudicial beliefs and usage intact but to reduce the mental categorisation of Others through the introduction of shared identities (Nelson 2008: 11). We also know, from applied research conducted in other regions around the world, that music and intercultural education projects can have a profoundly positive effect in alleviating prejudice, and discrimination against, and between social groups (Hemetek 2006;Pettan 2010;Sweers 2010). In Scotland, we could benefit from recognising the useful role that music and cultural anti-discrimination projects can play, and help us to alleviate sectarianism and bigotry through increasing our relationships and understanding of each other.…”

On definitions and guiding principles in ethnomusicological minority research

“…Much later, when I had started to do research on Roma music in 1989 (Hemetek 2006), I actively contacted some of the people I had met in Zagreb, as I felt rather alone with this research topic in Austria. Among the first was Svanibor Pettan, who at that time was based in Croatia, and Anca Giurchescu in Denmark, both of them doing research on Roma music and dance.…”