What is it about?

This is the opening chapter of a co-edited collection of essays on ethics in ethnomusicological research, and it provides context for and orientation toward the chapters that follow. It explains the division of the book into 4 (overlapping) parts: ideas about ethics and ethical practice, fieldwork as a site for ethical encounters, research in settings characterized by crisis, and research in the public domains. It then provides a history of ethical thinking and practice in ethnomusicology (since c. 1950) and preceding disciplines, referring to key literature. This shows the ways that ethical thought and practice have taken form over time and exposes new directions that would repay further attention in the years ahead.

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Why is it important?

Ethics is fundamental in all research with living subjects. In the book we treat ethics as context-contingent, fluid, always in active negotiation, and very often only noticed at moments where plural visions come into conflict. Ethnomusicology is thus an ongoing series of ethics-laden encounters where we actively reconstitute our own ethical imaginations through contact with others around us. There's still quite little written directly on this in ethnomusicology, so the collection as a whole represents a means to bring focus to thought and practice in this area.

Perspectives

Working on the broader book of which this chapter is a part was a great pleasure. It allowed me to work with several authors with whom I have had long-standing collaborations, several whom I'd wanted to work with for a long while, and several who were new contacts, all on an issue that had been occupying my mind for quite some years. Writing on these topics isn't always simple, but we found and sustained a great shared ethos throughout the whole process.

Professor Jonathan P. J. Stock
University College Cork National University of Ireland

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This page is a summary of: Ethics in Ethnomusicological Research, October 2022, Taylor & Francis,
DOI: 10.4324/9781003043904-2.
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