In leaving the more traditional territories of the concert performance for broader societal contexts, professional musicians increasingly devise music in closer collaboration with their audience rather than present it on a stage. Although the interest for such forms of devising co-creative musicking within the (elderly) health care sector is growing, the work can be considered relatively new. In terms of research, multiple studies have sought to understand the impact of such work on musicians and participants, however little is known about what underpins the musicians’ actions in these settings. With this study, I sought to address this gap by investigating professional musicians’ emerging practices when devising co-creative musicking with elderly people. Three broad concepts were used as a theoretical background to the study: Theory of Practice, co-creative musicking, and Praxialism. Firstly, I used Theory of Practice to help understand the nature of emerging practices in a wider context of change in the field of music and habitus of musicians and participants. Theory of Practice enabled me to consider a practice as “a routinized type of behaviour which consists of several elements, interconnected to one another: forms of bodily activities, forms of mental activities, ‘things’ and their use, a background knowledge in the form of understanding, know-how, states of emotion, and motivational knowledge” (Reckwitz, 2002, p. 249). Secondly, I drew the knowledge from co-creative musicking, which is a concept I gathered from two existing concepts: co-creation and musicking. Musicking (Small, 1998), which considers music as something we do (including any mode of engagement with music), provided a holistic and inclusive way of looking at participation in music-making. The co-creation paradigm encompasses a view on enterprise that consists of bringing together parties to jointly create an outcome that is meaningful to all (Prahalad & Ramaswamy, 2004; Ramaswamy & Ozcan, 2014). The concept served as a lens to specify the jointness of the musicking and challenge issues of power in the engagement of participants in the creative-productive process. Thirdly, Praxialism considers musicking as an activity that encompasses “musical doers, musical doing, something done and contexts in which the former take place” (Elliott, 1995). Praxialism sets out a vision on music that goes beyond the musical work and includes the meanings and values of those involved (Silverman, Davis & Elliott, 2014). The concept allowed me to examine the work and emerging relationships as a result of devising co-creative musicking from an ethical perspective. Given the subject’s relative newness and rather unexplored status, I examined existing work empirically through an ethnographic approach (Hammersley & Atkinson, 2007). Four cases were selected where data was gathered through episodic interviewing (Flick, 2009) and participant observation. Elements of a constructivist Grounded Theory (Charmaz, 2014) were used for performing an abductive analysis. The analysis included initial coding, focused coding, the use of sensitizing concepts (Blumer 1969 in Hammersley, 2013) and memoing. I wrote a thick description (Geertz, 1973) for each case portraying the work from my personal experience. The descriptions are included in the dissertation as one separate chapter and foreshadow the exposition of the analysis in a next chapter. In-depth study of the creative-productive processes of the cases showed the involvement of multiple co-creative elements, such as a dialogical interaction between musicians and audience. However, participants’ contributions were often adopted implicitly, through the musicians interpreting behaviour and situations. This created a particular power dynamic and challenges as to what extent the negotiation can be considered co-creative. The implicitness of ‘making use’ of another person’s behaviour with the other not (always) being aware of this also triggered an ethical perspective, especially because some of the cases involved participants that were vulnerable. The imbalance in power made me examine the relationship that emerges between musicians and participants. As a result of a closer contact in the co-creative negotiation, I witnessed a contact of a highly personal, sometimes intimate, nature. I recognized elements of two types of connections. One type could be called ‘humanistic’, as a friendship in which there is reciprocal care and interest for the other. The other could be seen as ‘functional’, which means that the relationship is used as a resource for providing input for the creative musicking process. From this angle, I have compared the relationship with that of a relationship of an artist with a muse. After having examined the co-creative and relational sides of the interaction in the four cases, I tuned in to the musicians’ contribution to these processes and relationships. I discovered that their devising in practice consisted of a continuous double balancing act on two axes: one axis considers the other and oneself as its two ends. Another axis concerns the preparedness and unpredictability at its ends. Situated at the intersection of the two axes are the musicians’ intentionality, which is fed by their intentions, values and ethics. The implicitness of the co-creation, the two-sided relationship, the potential vulnerability of participants, and the musicians’ freedom in navigating and negotiation, together, make the devising of co-creative musicking with elderly people an activity that involves ethical challenges that are centred around a tension between prioritizing doing good for the other, associated with a eudaimonic intention, and prioritizing values of the musical art form, resembling a musicianist intention. The results therefore call for a musicianship that involves acting reflectively from an ethical perspective.
We set out to bring into being a Creative Methods issue to inform and support researchers, practitioners, educators, and those they serve. We did so with what William Blake called “a firm persuasion” (Whyte, 2001, p. 3), and in the process of expanding the vidence-base for creative methods in guidance and counselling we are affirmed that this is both essential and rewarding. In our call for papers, we identified a number of reasons that creative methods are essential to guidance and counselling; for instance, they reintroduce playfulness, which is an often-undervalued capacity of humans that can help create space to respond to serious questions. Creative methods also allow us to be less resistant to so-called “negative” feelings and they let us break rank with the rational linear thinking, planning, efficiency and goal-orientation that has dominated policy and some practice discourses. In essence, this has supressed the creative, sensory and feeling side of human needs and behaviours. Indeed a common theme that appeared in all the articles is the importance of making room for the affective, before connecting that with more cognitive articulations. “This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in "British Journal of Guidance and Counselling" on 05/14/16, available online: https://doi.org/10.1080/03069885.2018.1442917. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/reinekke-lengelle-phd-767a4322/
MULTIFILE
Competent practice in sport psychology is of utmost importance for the professional status of the field, and hence proper assessment of competence for sport psychology practice is needed. We describe three cycles of action research to improve the assessment of competence in a sport psychology education program. The cycles were directed at (a) empowering supervisors in their assessing role, (b) improving the assessment checklist, and (c) investigating an alternative assessment method. Although challenges remain (e.g., improve the still low interrater reliability), the action research has contributed to an improved quality and higher acceptability of the assessment in the education program.
MUSE supports the CIVITAS Community to increase its impact on urban mobility policy making and advance it to a higher level of knowledge, exchange, and sustainability.As the current Coordination and Support Action for the CIVITAS Initiative, MUSE primarily engages in support activities to boost the impact of CIVITAS Community activities on sustainable urban mobility policy. Its main objectives are to:- Act as a destination for knowledge developed by the CIVITAS Community over the past twenty years.- Expand and strengthen relationships between cities and stakeholders at all levels.- Support the enrichment of the wider urban mobility community by providing learning opportunities.Through these goals, the CIVITAS Initiative strives to support the mobility and transport goals of the European Commission, and in turn those in the European Green Deal.Breda University of Applied Sciences is the task leader of Task 7.3: Exploitation of the Mobility Educational Network and Task 7.4: Mobility Powered by Youth Facilitation.
Mediabedrijven en -organisaties maken steeds meer gebruik van algoritmes om hun gebruikers gepersonaliseerde aanbevelingen aan te bieden voor artikelen, muziek, series, films en video’s. Dergelijke aanbevelingsalgoritmes maken gebruik van technieken uit kunstmatige intelligentie om te voorspellen in welke inhoud een gebruiker geïnteresseerd is, bijvoorbeeld op basis van wat de gebruiker eerder heeft bekeken of beluisterd of op basis van wat andere gebruikers hebben bekeken of beluisterd. Publieke omroepen, die programma’s maken voor kijkers en luisteraars, en de Nederlandse Publieke Omroep (NPO), die in Nederland zorgt voor de distributie en uitzending van die programma’s, zien potentie in deze technologie. De NPO maakt nog slechts beperkt gebruik van automatische aanbevelingen om inhoud aan kijkers en luisteraars aan te bieden, maar zij verkent samen met een aantal partners uit het publieke omroepbestel de mogelijkheden om de technologie breder in te zetten. Anders dan de meeste mediabedrijven wordt de NPO wordt bekostigd door overheidsbudget en heeft het als expliciete missie om het Nederlandse publiek te verbinden en te verrijken met programma’s die informeren, inspireren en amuseren. Dit stelt andere eisen aan een aanbevelingsalgoritme. Waar het doel van commerciële partijen veelal bestaat uit het optimaliseren van winst en/of engagement, beoogt de NPO aanbevelingen te bieden op transparante en inzichtelijke wijze, en staat pluriformiteit (diversiteit in perspectieven) in aanbevelingen centraal. Op dit moment speelt bij de NPO de vraag welke principes (pluriformiteit, personalisatie, etc.) leidend moeten zijn in aanbevelingen en hoe deze principes geoperationaliseerd kunnen worden. Het doel van dit project is daarom om, middels literatuuronderzoek, interviews met experts en gebruikers, en prototyping, een aantal principes te identificeren en operationaliseren die geschikt zijn voor aanbevelingsalgoritmes van publieke omroepen.
First Virtual Reality Museum for Migrant Women: creating engagement and innovative participatory design approaches through Virtual Reality Spaces.“Imagine a place filled with important stories that are hard to tell. A place that embodies the collective experience of immigrant women during their temporary stay”. In this project the first museum around immigrant women in Virtual Reality is created and tested. Working with the only migration centre for women in Monterrey, Lamentos Escuchados, project members (professional developers, lecturers, and interior design, animation, media and humanity students) collaborate with immigrant women and the centre officials to understand the migrant women stories, their notion of space/home and the way they inhabit the centre. This VR museum helps to connect immigrant women with the community while exploring more flexible ways to educate architects and interior designers about alternative ways of doing architecture through participatory design approaches.Partners:University of Monterey (UDEM)Lamentos Escuchados
