Intercultural Communication in a World Music Community of Practice: A Case Study of Warwick World Music Group and Warwick Fused from an Identity Construction Perspective

Abstract

We are living in a world with an increasingly high level of intercultural contact where integration is observed to be a beneficial strategy (Berry & Sam, 1997; Spencer-Oatey, Dauber & Williams, 2014). A lack of integration is even considered to be a hindrance to the well-being and further development at both the individual and social level (Milak, 2015). Among all music categories, World Music is commonly perceived to be able to promote intercultural communication, but very little research has been conducted to support this opinion. Therefore, Warwick World Music Group and its annual concert, Warwick Fused, are subjected to a close examination as a single case, exploring the specific influence of playing world music together on intercultural communication and competencies through an identity framework provided by Wenger’s Community of Practice theory. Data collection and analysis is conducted with the guidance of the framework, while comparatively assessing the data and the theory (Eisenhardt, 1989). The findings contribute to the validation of CoP theory and other studies, whilst also contesting some of their specifics, which will be discussed. Finally, the limitation of the study is addressed with recommendations for further research.

Keywords

Intercultural communication / world music / community of practice / identity construction / case study

References

[1] Barrett, Margaret. (2005). Musical communication and children’s communities of musical practice. In D. Miell, R. Macdonald & D. J. Hargreaves (Eds.), Musical Communication (pp. 261-280). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

[2] Bennett, Milton J. (2004). Becoming interculturally competent. Toward multiculturalism: A reader in multicultural education, 2, 62-77. Newton, MA: Intercultural Resource Corporation.

[3] Berry, John W. & Sam, David L. (1997). Acculturation and adaptation. Handbook of cross—cultural psychology , 3, 291-326. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

[4] Bhabha, Homi K. (2012). The location of culture. Retrieved from http://www.eblib.com

[5] Bird, S. Elizabeth. (1996). Dressing in feathers: The construction of the Indian in American popular culture. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.

[6] Blacking, John. (1973). How musical is man? Seattle: University of Washington Press.

[7] Bolden, Benjamin. (2012). The Funky Mamas: Learning to create and perform music for young children within a community of practice. International Journal of Community Music, 5(2), 111-129.

[8] Campbell, Patricia S. (1997). Music, the universal language: Fact or fallacy? International Journal of Music Education, (1), 32-39.

[9] Casciani, D. (2005, September 22). Analysis: Segregated Britain? BBC News. Retrieved from http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4270010.stm

[10] Corder, Saskia & Meyerhoff, Miriam. (2007). Communities of practice in the analysis of intercultural communication. In H. Kotthoff & H. Spencer—Oatey (Eds.), Handbook of intercultural communication, 7, (pp. 441-461). Berlin: De Gruyter.

[11] Cortés, Carlos E. (2004). Media and Intercultural Training. In D. Landis, J. M. Bennett, & M. J. Bennett (Eds.), Handbook of Intercultural Training, 11, (3rd ed., pp. 266-286). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

[12] Countryman, June. (2009). High school music programmes as potential sites for communities of practice — a Canadian study. Music Education Research, 11(1), 93-109.

[13] Creswell, John W. (2012). Qualitative inquiry and research design: Choosing among five approaches. Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications.

[14] Cuccioletta, Donald. (2002). Multiculturalism or transculturalism: Towards a cosmopolitan citizenship. London Journal of Canadian Studies, 17, 1-11.

[15] Deardorff, Darla K. (2006). Identification and assessment of intercultural competency as a student outcome of internationalization. Journal of Studies in International Education, 10(3), 241-266.

[16] Dissanayake, Ellen. (2001). Becoming Homo Aestheticus: Sources of aesthetic imagination in mother—infant interactions. Substance, 30(1), 85-103.

[17] Donmoyer, Robert. (2000). Generalizability and the single—case study. In R. Gomm, M. Hammersley & P. Foster (Eds.), Case study method: Key issues, key texts, (pp. 45-68). London: SAGE.

[18] Duffy, Michelle. (2005). Performing identity within a multicultural framework. Social & Cultural Geography, 6(5), 677-692.

[19] Eisenhardt, Kathleen M. (1989). Building theories from case study research. Academy of Management Review, 14(4), 532-550.

[20] Fock, Eva. (1997). Music—Intercultural communication? Micro musics, world music and the multicultural discourse. Nordicom Information, 4, 55-65.

[21] Folkestad, Gran. (2002). National identity and music. In R. A. MacDonald, D. J. Hargreaves & D. Miell (Eds.). Musical identities (pp. 151-162). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

[22] Gläser, Jochen & Laudel, Grit. (1999). Theoriegeleitete Textanalyse? Das Potential einer variablenorientierten qualitativen Inhaltsanalyse. Berlin: Wissensschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung GmbH.

[23] Hall, Edward T. (1989). Beyond culture. New York: Anchor.

[24] Hammarlund, Anders. (1990). Från Gudstjänarnas Berg till Folkets Hus. In O. Ronström (Ed.), Musikoch kultur [Music and Culture], pp.65-98. Lund: Studentlitteratur.

[25] Harwood, Eve. (1998). Music learning in context: A playground tale. Research Studies in Music Education, 11(1), 52-60.

[26] Hargreaves, David J.; Miell, Dorothy & MacDonald, Raymond A. (2002). What are musical identities, and why are they important. In R. A. MacDonald, D. J. Hargreaves & D. Miell (Eds.). Musical identities (pp. 1-20). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

[27] Hargreaves, David J.; MacDonald, Raymond A. & Miell, Dorothy. (2005). How do people communicate using music? In D. Miell, R. Macdonald & D. J. Hargreaves (Eds.), Musical communication (pp. 1-25), Oxford: Oxford University Press.

[28] Hartley, Jean. (2004). Case study research. In C. Cassell & G. Symon (Eds.), Essential guide to qualitative methods in organizational research. pp. 323-333. London: Sage.

[29] Higgins, Lee. (2012). Community music: In theory and in practice. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

[30] Ito, Mizuko; Davidson, Cathy; Jenkins, Henry; Lee, Carol; Eisenberg, Michael & Weiss, Joanne. (2008). Foreword. In D. Buckingham (Ed.), Youth, Identity, and Digital Media. vii-ix. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. DOI:10.1162/dmal.9780262524834.vii

[31] Kalscheuer, Britta. (2009). Encounters in the third space: Links between intercultural communication theories and postcolonial approaches. In Ikas, Karin & Wagner, Gerhard (Eds.), Commnunication in the third space (pp. 26-46). New York: Routledge.

[32] Kim, Young. (2009). The identity factor in intercultural competency. In D. K. Deardorff (Ed.), The Sage handbook of intercultural competence (pp. 53-65). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

[33] Klopper, Christopher. (2010). Intercultural musicianship: A collective and participatory form of music exchange across the globe. Australian Journal of Music Education, 1, 48-57.

[34] Kohlbacher, Florian. (2006). The use of qualitative content analysis in case study research. Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 7(1). Retrieved from http://www.qualitative—research.net/index.php/fqs/article/view/75/153

[35] Levitin, Daniel J. (2008). The world in six songs: How the musical brain created human nature. New York: Dutton.

[36] Macdonald, Raymond & Wilson, Graeme. (2005). Musical identities of professional jazz musicians: A focus group investigation. Psychology of Music, 33(4), 395-417.

[37] Malik, Kenan. (2015). The failure of multiculturalism. Retrieved from https://kenanmalik.wordpress.com/2015/02/17/the—failure—of—multiculturalism/

[38] O’Flynn, John. (2005). Re—appraising ideas of musicality in intercultural contexts of music education. International Journal of Music Education, 23(3), 191-203.

[39] O’Hagin, Isabel B. & Harnish, David. (2006). Music as a cultural identity: A case study of Latino musicians negotiating tradition and innovation in northwest Ohio. International Journal of Music Education, 24(1), 56-70.

[40] Schnurr, Stephanie. (2012). Exploring professional communication: Language in action. New York: Routledge.

[41] Shachar, Hanna & Amir, Yehuda. (1996). Training teachers and students for intercultural cooperation in Israel: Two models. Handbook of intercultural training, 2. In Landis, Dan & Bhagat, Rabi S. (Eds.), Handbook of intercultural training 2 (pp. 400-413). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

[42] Smart, Don; Volet, Simone & Ang, Grace. (2000) Fostering social cohesion in universities: Bridging the cultural divide. Canberra: Australian: Education International Department of Education, Training and Youth Affairs.

[43] Spencer—Oatey Helen, Dauber Daniel & Williams, Stephen. (2014). Promoting integration on campus: Principles, practice and issues for further exploration. Warwick: UK Council for International Student Affairs.

[44] Spencer—Oatey, Helen & Stadler, Stefanie. (2009). The global people competency framework: Competencies for effective intercultural interaction. University of Warwick: Center for Applied Linguistics.

[45] Stake, Robert E. & Savolainen, Reijo. (1995). The art of case study research (Vol. 95004979). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

[46] Swanwick, Keith. (1988). Music, mind and education. London: Routledge.

[47] Tarrant, Mark; North, Adrian C. & Hargreaves, David J. (2002). Youth identity and music. In R. A. MacDonald, D. J. Hargreaves & D. Miell (Eds.).Musical identities (pp. 134-150). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

[48] Ting—Toomey, Stella. (2005). Identity negotiation theory: Crossing cultural boundaries. In W. B. Gudykunst (Ed.), Theorizing about intercultural communication (pp. 211-233). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

[49] Tu, Weiming. (2001). The context of dialogue: Globalization and diversity. In M. K. Asante, Y. Miike & J. Yin (2nd ed.), The global intercultural communication reader. (pp. 496-514). New York: Routledge.

[50] van Klyton, Aaron. (2014). All the way from… authenticity and distance in world music production. Cultural Studies, 30(1), 1-23.

[51] Waldron, Janice. (2009). Exploring a virtual music community of practice: Informal music learning on the Internet. Journal of Music, Technology & Education, 2(23), 97-112.

[52] Walser, Robert. (2000). Musical difference and cultural identity. London: University of London.

[53] Ward, Colleen. (2001). The impact of international students on domestic students and host institutions: A literature review. Export Education Policy Project, Ministry of Education. Retrieved from http://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/publications/international/the_impact_of_international_students_on_domestic_students_and_host_institutions

[54] Wenger, Etienne. (1998). Communities of practice: Learning, meaning, and identity. (1st ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

[55] Wenger, Etienne; McDermott, Richard & Snyder, William M. (2002). Cultivating communities of practice: A guide to managing knowledge. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Business Press.

[56] Yin, Robert K. (2003). Case study research, design and methods (3rd ed., vol. 5). Thousand Oaks: Sage.

[57] Zhang, Juzhong; Harbottle, Garman; Wang, Changsui & Kong, Zhaochen. (1999). Oldest playable musical instruments found at Jiahu early Neolithic site in China. Nature, 401(6751), 366-368.