Note 57: Hospitable approaches to community music scholarship1

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to evoke an approach to scholarship that is resonant with community music’s ethos and practice. After contextualizing questions that have driven my work, I engage with a ‘philosophical critique’ of community music, published in 2016, through one of its endnotes and, in so doing, reveal why the text is problematic and ‘out of step’ with contemporary thinking concerning understandings of community music. Following this, I develop some ideas associated with community music as an act of hospitality and, in so doing, provide a potential lens for critique rather than a criticism. In conclusion, I advocate for future scholars and researchers to have a sensitivity and understanding of the practices and the issues that face those who are engaged in community music in order to generate a conducive environment through which powerful critique might be made.