Music for Global Human Development

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http://m4ghd.org

Music for Global Human Development: Participatory Action Research cycles towards a stronger social fabric.

M4GHD (a global initiative of the Canadian Centre for Ethnomusicology) has been developed by Professor Michael Frishkopf since 2007 (see History below).

Music is a social technology of tremendous potential for social justice, resilience, and positive change. Music for Global Human Development (M4GHD) is an approach to applied ethnomusicology that entails participatory action research projects in music & development (humanized in aims and methods), centered on global collaborations between academics, NGOs, government organizations, musicians, and others, applying ethnomusicology to real-world social issues, focusing on peoples who have been marginalized--socially, politically, economically--by colonialism and its aftermath, whether in the "developing" world or not, and linking them to others across the globe.

In the process, these links, resonating with the emotions of musical communication, are transformed into what I call "threads", extending horizontally across ethnic divides (weft) as well as longitudinally, across generation gaps (warp). Together they weave a new, global social fabric of understanding and connection, in which new patterns emerge.

These music-centered projects, including related arts (dance, poetry, drama) as well, are twinned with evaluative evidence-based research, gauging project impact through anthropological and sociological study. They are carried out as collaborative projects in partnership with artists and other experts in each locale, resulting in change for all participants, rippling outwards . The aim, in every case, is global human development, as well as development of the global human, weaving and reweaving the global social fabric, one thread at a time...

Core theoretical sources include:

  • Phenomenology, System Theory, and Critical Theory (Habermas) {the big picture}
  • Social Network Theory and Communication Theory {interactive feedback}
  • Participatory Action Research {ethical and effective methods}
  • Applied Ethnomusicology {music as social technology}

Watch:

Read:


M4GHD

History of M4GHD

M4GHD comprises four main branches:

Songs for Development

...primarily via local mass-mediated popular music styles, to disseminate messages relevant to crucial development issues, especially public health, education, peace, tolerance, and constructive critique...and especially to the youth, while building a horizontally integrated "culture of music" and supporting social cohesion on this basis. This project focuses on social weft, the horizontal threads that bind society today. A crucial application is GIVING VOICE TO HEALTH:

Music for Cultural Continuity

... supporting participatory, adaptive musical continuity (neither stasis nor displacement) towards broader intergenerational social and cultural connectivity over time--the social "warp"--and hence greater social solidarity in the present. Such music may be accompanied by development messages stressing the importance of such continuity for identity, cohesion, and civil society. Ironically one of the most powerful ways to support musical continuity is by injecting "traditional" music into the local media space, which otherwise tends to become filled with global popular music. Subprojects include partnerships with culture organizations in Egypt, Lebanon, and elsewhere. See for instance, in Ghana: Kinka: Songs from Avenorpedo, and in Egypt: the Aswan Music Project (AMP). Also Sounding the Garden, an augmented sonic reality layer for the University of Alberta's Aga Khan Garden in Edmonton, Alberta, designed to support harmonious understanding of Islam and religious pluralism in Canada, while deepening visitors' experiences of the world's northernmost Islamic garden.

Musical Economies

The concept behind Musical Economies is that live music (shorthand for all performing arts, including music, dance, storytelling, theatre) is an efficient, effective force for economic development. Revivifying music culture, a process of "musicification" by supporting musicians, facilitating performances, encouraging recording projects, encouraging children to learn music from elders, and providing opportunities for them to do so, and reviving local arts instills a sense of community identity and harmony. Sponsoring festivals, workshops, and concerts, draws visitors while enhancing the ability of a community to align internally, reducing conflict, raising morale, bolstering a sense of pride in traditions, thus lifting up the financial as well as social and cultural economy. Music supports long-term cultural and linguistic continuity, resisting the encroachment of hegemonic economic and cultural forces imposed from outside. Music draws and enchants tourists -- local, regional, or international -- from near and far, who may also visit for other reasons, as well as encouraging longer-term practical study of local music and dance with local artists, what might be termed "musical tourism", with concomitant positive effects for the local service and hospitality industries. This model has proven highly successful in Ghana, and is now in development in Aswan, Egypt as part of the Aswan Music Project.

Global Community Music/Sound Therapy

In Global Community Music/Sound Therapy, the actions of musicking (performing, listening, dancing, and interacting by and through music and sound) constitute a form of therapy in themselves, beyond any messaging they may convey (e.g. music and dance to improve mental health, or physical activity to reduce the incidence of diabetes) for community wellbeing, beyond messaging or social connection. Related to the Singing and Dancing for Health initiative, Chinese Five element music therapy, as well as Autonomous Adaptive Soundscapes (addressing ICU patients) and Mindful Social Listening (addressing student stress and lack of focus).

In collaboration with Love and Hope International (a Canadian-Tanzanian charity) and Edmonton author and playwright Tololwa Mollel we have recently (2024) embarked on a new project entitled "Binti Tucheze" (Girl, Let’s Dance, in Swahili), using music -- singing, drumming, dancing and drama--to promote mental health among adolescent girls in Tanzania.

We have recently joined an inteernational collaboration called Genetic Music Collective, seeking to use sonification of DNA sequences in order to raise awareness of rare genetic diseases; a concert featuring one member of the collective was recently held at MIT's Broad Institute. See Jakob's Melody for an instance (press "Play Slideshow" to hear the musical examples).

Project taxonomy

(Slightly out of date)

Click to view recent m4ghd project taxonomy


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Course: Music for Global Human Development

I have formulated an undergraduate course (Music 365) centered on M4GHD, which functions as an M4GHD project in itself, as well as an instance of Community Service Learning (CSL). See http://course.m4ghd.org

Most of our M4GHD-CSL projects have developed connections to local Edmonton-based non-profit organizations. The summer 2017 Ghana program also centered on Music for Global Human Development. See http://bit.ly/ghanamusic

Relevant publications on M4GHD and M4GHD projects

Canadian Centre for Ethnomusicology (CCE)

M4GHD is a project within CCE, and CCE is a direction within M4GHD. (Essentially CCE is the umbrella organization for all things ethnomusicology or world music here at the University of Alberta.)

See http://cce.m4ghd.org

Press

Useful links

SDG training

C4D

Contact

For more information contact us: info@m4ghd.org.

--Michael Frishkopf, Professor of Music, University of Alberta
http://frishkopf.org

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