In this article, we aim to develop a theoretical model to understand what we refer to as "musical gentrification" and to explore how this model might be applied to and inform music education research. We start from a Bourdieusian point of view, elaborating on the connections between social class and cultural capital, and then move on to…

The author of this article proposes an agrarian vision of music education that underscores fundamental, "down-to-earth" principles for human actions and interactions. An agrarian world-view encourages mass participation ("y'all come")--"musicing" is free and available to all and it is not treated as a…

Philosopher Richard Shusterman's book "Body Consciousness" is the most recent and most extensive addition to Shusterman's project of "somaesthetics," an area of philosophy dealing with experiences of embodiment. Shusterman distinguishes three aspects of somaesthetics. Analytic somaesthetics is a "descriptive and theoretical enterprise"; pragmatic…

The role of the body in music experience is extremely complex and multifaceted, and this is exactly what makes it interesting to discuss the implications such notions as "body consciousness" and "somaesthetics" may have for music experience. Richard Shusterman generally argues that human beings can achieve enhanced life quality through increased…

The author of this article comments on the book, "Body Consciousness," by Richard Shusterman. She states that this book speaks to her as a musician-teacher, music scholar crossing multiple disciplines (education, musicology, ethnomusicology, women's studies, gender studies), lesbian-feminist, social activist, Buddhist. While she is not a…

Richard Shusterman's "Body Consciousness" aims at formulating a theory of somaesthetics and somatic experience. There has indeed been a growing interest in the role of the body in experience. Shusterman examines the arguments of six important writers who have been influential in this discussion. The emphasis on the body is natural for a…

The author begins his essay by stating that Richard Shusterman advises us that the 20th century scholarly community has not just ignored the value that can come to one's life as a function of paying close attention to the body and its immediate sensual qualities, it has trained us to eschew its character-enhancing sensual natures in favor of more…

In this essay, the author first addresses the theme of disciplined somatic training and its relationship to self-awareness and transformation. Her attention is focused specifically on the chapter on Ludwig Wittgenstein, in which Richard Shusterman presents and then elaborates upon the philosopher's connections between conscious bodily feelings and…

The author of this article responds to the seven papers in this journal that commented on his book titled "Body Consciousness: A Philosophy of Mindfulness and Somaesthetics." Shusterman responds to comments and criticisms made on the subjects of (1) embodiment and gender; (2) Asian cultural dimensions; (3) the somaesthetics of music; (4)…

With its focus on reason and science, the 18th century began a history of increased specialization. As a result, professional degrees and certificates eventually came to define and control practices that had once been the domains of amateurs. By the end of the 19th century, many practices of lay enthusiasts had been pushed aside; where they were…

The winning of an artist representing the lowest level of Finnish musical taste during the 2006 Eurovision song contest marks not only the rebellious attitude towards the over-sanitized contest, but it was the result of a new practice--voting by text message. Recently, music-biased schools that were once selective of the music they teach are now…

This essay explores the limits and bounds of music education's professional "We". It argues essentially that music education cannot become more socially just until it becomes more inclusive of diversity--and this means diversity of musics, peoples, voices, values, and more. The author argues that until the current homogeneity of music education…

The fourth volume in the Routledge series "Understanding Feminist Philosophy," Carolyn Korsmeyer's "Gender and Aesthetics: An Introduction," aims to provide undergraduate philosophy students with some grounding in feminist aesthetics. The initial chapters provide a clear, although not unproblematical, summary of the ways gender is implicated in…

The new reader "Gender and Aesthetics: An Introduction" is part of a series "designed for students who have typically completed an introductory course in philosophy and are coming to feminist philosophy for the first time". Why should music educators adopt this feminist introduction to gender and aesthetics when they can readily turn to more…

This article presents the author's response to the reviewers of her essay "Gender and Aesthetics." The reviewers have advanced some interesting disagreements regarding the author's speculations about the use of disgust in feminist and postfeminist art, and the connections that she draws between the disgusting and the sublime. In this article, the…