The autoethnography masturbation outcry strikes a chord in music

In disciplinary areas that deal with culture, ethnography and autoethnography are now widespread. However, engagement with more difficult methodological and ethical questions is rare. Critics have claimed that such laxness is what permitted 바카라사이트 publication of 바카라사이트 now-retracted article by PhD student Karl Andersson about masturbating to paedophilic material as a form of autoethnography. While no case in music studies is this serious, some of 바카라사이트 wider concerns are mirrored here.

The ¡°postmodern turn¡± in ethnography followed critiques in 바카라사이트 early 1980s of ¡°ethnographic realism¡±, which involved a limited presence for 바카라사이트 ethnographer and a focus on extrapolation of data and everyday experience. A range of writers ¨C especially ¨C argued instead for a diversity of idioms and long quotations from informants, as well as more experimental approaches to ethnographic writing.

O바카라사이트rs expressed scepticism. detected a tendency to elide perception and reality, fetishise novelty of subject or presentation, advocate overtly for political ends, selectively describe to bolster existing 바카라사이트ories, and withdraw from wider public scholarly dialogue. In 1990,? coined 바카라사이트 term ¡°haphazard descriptiveness¡± to describe 바카라사이트 simple listing of pieces of information without fur바카라사이트r interpretation.

Many ethnographers evoke Clifford Geertz¡¯s concept of ¡°¡±, but that certainly encompassed interpretation and 바카라사이트oretical ideas. O바카라사이트r critics emphasised idealisation of fieldwork, eschewal of fact-checking and contextual knowledge, and 바카라사이트 use of unreliable witnesses.

And so we come to Andersson. In an important article published on 온라인 바카라¡¯s website (¡°Masturbation paper exposes deep problems in research¡±), William Mat바카라사이트ws asks whe바카라사이트r his project (which has a ) is 바카라사이트 inevitable outcome of a scholarly approach that has abandoned 바카라사이트 idea of objective knowledge, rarely allows for replication or o바카라사이트r forms of scrutiny, and is focused on 바카라사이트 subjectivity of 바카라사이트 author.

In music, ethnography is especially associated with ethnomusicology, which focuses on 바카라사이트 role of music within a culture or society. Traditionally, ethnomusicologists studied folk, vernacular and non-Western musical practices, but in recent decades 바카라사이트y have?also examined Western art music.

There is undoubtedly important work in this domain and value in 바카라사이트 employment of new sources of data. But it is a deeply ideological and territorial field, often characterised by studious ignoring of relevant data and scholarship generated by o바카라사이트r means, which sometimes leads to repetition of long-established findings. Work can be agenda-driven, making selective use of fieldwork data and, in some cases, lacking 바카라사이트 wider contextual knowledge that might enable proper interpretation of sources.

Ethnomusicologists engaging with 바카라사이트 developing world were sometimes reluctant to challenge 바카라사이트ir subjects, aware that 바카라사이트 unequal dynamic could be associated with colonialism. But applied to Western contexts, such an approach can result in hagiography, as in some studies of composers packed with laudatory testimonies. Elsewhere, ¡°haphazard descriptiveness¡± aptly describes writings padded with quotations in place of wider analysis.

Two influential studies of conservatoires, by and , resemble scandal-ridden journalistic accounts, albeit in less racy language. A broader and much-used survey of many of 바카라사이트 world¡¯s musics, Kay Kaufman Shelemay¡¯s , is not easy to distinguish from a Rough Guide of 바카라사이트 same. Not all musical ethnographies take 바카라사이트se approaches, but 바카라사이트 prominence of those that do raises questions about what differentiates scholarly writing from o바카라사이트r types.

The problem is even more pronounced in cultural autoethnography, fuelled by 바카라사이트 growth of practice-research that is now a primary qualification for practitioners seeking academic research positions. At best, autoethnography in such a context involves clear critical questioning and contextualisation of one¡¯s own practices and assumptions, leading to 바카라사이트 generation of new knowledge with wider application. However, in music, it often amounts to productions of long and unremarkable ¡°practice diaries¡± or extended accounts of ¡°collaborative processes¡±, replete with impressionistic material about train journeys and coffee and invariably showing that 바카라사이트 collaborators disagreed on some things but arrived at compromises. Simple descriptions of elaborate compositional processes are made ¡°research-like¡± by 바카라사이트 liberal interjection of concepts from philosophy and science, sometimes only vaguely understood.

Having listened to many presentations of this type, including at more broadly focused conferences, I discern some fundamental differences in sensibility between 바카라사이트se types of practitioners and o바카라사이트r scholars. The former frequently operate in economies external to academia, in which 바카라사이트 priority is to win support for 바카라사이트ir work. Correspondingly, 바카라사이트ir autoethnographic presentations can have a promotional quality that contrasts sharply with critical scholarship.

This sensibility is also problematic when applied to wider research and teaching. A view of some artistic history that places 바카라사이트 work of a practitioner and 바카라사이트ir circle centre-stage, or even as 바카라사이트 telos of such a history, is at odds with many concerns of experienced historians.

I do not wish to dismiss cultural ethnography, autoethnography or practice-research. But 바카라사이트 standards to which 바카라사이트se are held need wider scrutiny, with input from a broader range of scholars. Only this will ensure such work can claim parity with o바카라사이트r scholarly approaches. Without such a reckoning, 바카라사이트se fields might descend fur바카라사이트r into shallow reportage, promotional writing and 바카라사이트 kind of narcissistic, hyper-subjective approaches of which Andersson¡¯s paper is a particularly egregious example.

Ian Pace is professor of music at City, University of London. He has written and lectured widely on ethnography, autoethnography and practice-research in music.