New Directions in Music and Sustainability Research

In September 2015, leaders from around the world met in New York to formally agree the UN's Sustainable Development Goals, which are designed to underpin the UN's socio-political agenda for the next fifteen years (until 2030). "Sustainability" is a watchword of the early twenty-first century, with activists, academics, and politicians all struggling to balance the wide-ranging meanings and interpretations of "sustainability" to address the urgent economic, environmental, and humanitarian challenges facing the planet.

The arts and humanities have an important role to play in such debates, and the aim of this Leadership Fellow project is to imagine new ways of addressing current environmental challenges through the arts with a focus on the theme of music and sustainability. My first task is to compare and critique how, why, and to what effect such concepts as "sustainability," "ecology" and other environmental studies terminology are now being deployed across various sub-disciplines within music scholarship, with a view to encouraging interdisciplinary dialogue in this area. I will also examine how music professionals outside the academy navigate the challenge of environmental sustainability against challenges of the sustaining their livelihoods in the digital economy.

The project draws on a sociological model of sustainable behaviour change to explore three case study areas. First, it investigates music-making and music-listening technologies. I will use the history of drum kit as a lens to explore the growth of the musical instrument manufacturing industry, and develop the argument for an ecological turn in both musical instrument and music consumption research. Through participant-observation and interviews, I will then explore how members of the global DIY music "maker" movement addresses sustainable consumption of music technologies through building their own instruments and other music technologies. Both of these studies will shed light on the hidden costs of music - be they economic, social, labour, or environmental - and how they change.

Second, the project builds on previous collaborative AHRC research to develop an ecological approach to understanding live music, focusing on how organizers, artists, and audiences currently balance issues of economic and environmental sustainability across the British live music sector. I will work with stakeholders from relevant organizations in the live music sector to (a) assess the infrastructure and environmental consequences of live music in the UK and (b) foster an emerging community of practice across live music organizations that seeks to adopt environmentally sustainable production practices and encourage sustainable audience behaviours.

Third, the project will draw from new research into music and arts sustainability research to envision what a "green cultural policy" might look like. I will analyze approaches from existing cultural policies across the Global Greens (a network linking Green political parties from around the world) in relation to the cultural policies of other political parties within the UK, and create an account of the current state of green cultural policy - as well as recommendations for how it could fruitfully develop in future.

Finally, in addition to exploring new directions in music and sustainability research through the case studies above, I aim to build new links between music scholars and relevant wider networks across the arts and humanities (e.g. environment humanities, energy humanities, and petrocultural studies) with a view to enhancing the impact of arts and humanities research in sustainability development studies as a whole.

I have deliberately structured my project according to Southerton et al's (2011; see also Visual Evidence 1) "Individual-Social-Material" model of sustainable behavioural change. I therefore aim to deliver impact across individual, social, and material contexts. Specific targets for impact are outlined below.

INDIVIDUAL CONTEXT: In addition to interrogating the sustainability of my professional practice as an academic with a view to creating impact within the academy, the fellowship allows me to consider my behaviours and practices as a musician, maker, and artist. I intend to develop a dialogue with other individual MUSICIANS, MAKERS, and ARTISTS about the balancing different types of sustainability in their professional practices. I will engage with MUSICIANS, and in particular the amateur and professional drumming community, via public engagement work relating to my research on the history of the drum kit at UK drum shows. I will engage other MAKERS via participation at maker faires as I exhibit my work and build connections with others operating in the DIY music maker movement. I will engage recording ARTISTS through both my research methods (interviews, participant observation) and my creative practice in partnership with Chemikal Underground Records and the wider DIY music scene in Scotland and beyond. Finally, I aim to engage AUDIENCES of the events and activities above, using my own work as a spark for general audiences to reflect on the sustainability of their own behaviours in their everyday lives.

SOCIAL / INSTITUTIONAL CONTEXT: Through my prior collaborative work as part of the Live Music Exchange (www.livemusicexchange.org), I have built up a working relationship with a range of REPRESENTATIVE BODIES FOR THE MUSIC INDUSTRIES including UK Music, the Musicians' Union, and the Music Venue Trust. In my recent "Fields of Green" project I have also built links with key ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY ADVOCACY ORGANIZATIONS for the arts and cultural sector including A Greener Festival, Julie's Bicycle, and Creative Carbon Scotland. My fellowship research into the challenges of balancing economic and environmental sustainability within the live music sector will draw on the organizations above as research subjects; however, afterwards I will feed back my research findings to the above groups and continue to engage with them, with a particular focus on encouraging environmentally sustainable practices to be shared and implemented more widely across the live music sector (particularly outside of England). I will achieve this by working in close partnership with Creative Carbon Scotland, the leading Scottish charity in this area (see letter of support).

MATERIAL / POLICY CONTEXT: This fellowship allows me to continue to build on my track record of cultural policy research and impact. Having worked throughout 2015 consulting with a wide range of stakeholders to advise the refresh of the Scottish Green Party's cultural policy, I will expand the scope of that work by interviewing POLICYMAKERS across other Green parties via the Global Green network, (which has members in over 90 countries) and comparing their work against the cultural policies of other political parties. The aim of this strand of research is to gather data on emerging Green Cultural Policy and envision how environmental sustainability should be integrated into the heart of cultural policy. I will then disseminate my findings back not only to the Global Green network but also policymakers across other UK parties via the lobbying bodies mentioned under the "Social / Institutional" context section, with the overarching aim of encouraging green cultural policy irrespective of political party affiliation.