bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Oral Histories
Authors: Della Gatta Carla
Published: January 2024

One of the questions that arises in theatre-making is how to create space—metaphorical, geographical, theatrical, emotional—for communities of colour. This includes the wide range of theatre-makers, onstage and off, as well as audiences and local communities. The artists shared their stories of how communities were made within a singular production and how they can be created within and across institutions. Community is essential to the collaborative nature of theatre. For example, the ‘dialogue’ between Lileana Blain-Cruz and Carl Cofield (who directed 1 Henry IV and 2 Henry IV, respectively, at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF) in 2017 with the same cast of actors) is indicative of how productions can be in conversation and how they can create community across space and time. The artists express various access points and strategies for creating space for stagings and subsequent conversations about race, and how that space informs their work.
The Oral Histories
Authors: Della Gatta Carla
Published: January 2024

What is often referred to as a ‘concept production’ of Shakespeare is in fact the integration of a culture or setting into the rhythm and fabric of the play. It is an act of translation, and with attention to dramaturgy and the casting of actors who will voice and contribute to the mechanisms for conveying culture, these theatrical productions can bring forward new understandings of the plays, and of identity. Much must be negotiated with actors’ desires to express their identity and the means by which identity is legible, or made legible. All of these elements point to the question of the mechanisms and meaning of theatre.
The Imperatives of Race Consciousness in 21st-Century Shakespearean Performance
Authors: Karim-Cooper Farah
Published: January 2024

This chapter examines the role of ‘colour blind casting’ today and calls for a ‘race conscious’ approach not only to the casting of actors in Shakespearean roles, but also to all aspects of a production. It argues that for too long theatre companies in Britain and the United States have echoed the mid twentieth-century social and legal movements towards racial equality in developing a race-neutrality lens. Post-2020 and the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement, theatres on both sides of the pond have admitted to racial inequities but under the guise of ‘inclusive’ culture or ‘inclusive’ casting, there is a danger towards deepening race neutrality which renders invisible the industry-wide racial inequalities in classical theatre and, more pointedly, Shakespeare in performance.
History and Digital Public Diplomacy
Authors: Cull Nicholas J.
Published: January 2024

This chapter will focus on one specific dimension of digital diplomacy—digital public diplomacy—and consider the value of history in understanding both the micro-processes at work within foreign ministries and the macro-trends unleashed in wider society, which in turn generate the wider landscape of foreign policy. It identifies a three-phase pattern to the introduction of new technology to public diplomacy. 1) A period of symbolic use when the communication technology is used as a statement in the hope that its use will be newsworthy in existing media. 2) Early application when the new technology is used to accomplish a task accomplished by a former technology without integrating the full potential of the new medium. 3) Mature application when the full capabilities of the new technology are used. The pattern is illustrated with the cases of radio, terrestrial television, and satellite television. The chapter goes on to argue that the arrival of new technologies of communication—media disruption—is an unrecognized factor in many of the worst crises of the twentieth century, including the origins of the two World Wars and the Cold War. Conversely, the chapter argues that a process of media disarmament was part of the process of moving beyond these crises.
Transforming International Development
Authors: Ghica Luciana Alexandra
Published: January 2024

Digital technologies and international development for cooperation are now at the forefront of the global strategic framework for managing current and future challenges, and for ensuring social and economic progress worldwide. This new agenda, which emerged from a multistakeholder dialogue led by the United Nations, builds on decades of conceptual, institutional, and normative advancements in international cooperation. However, it is not a linear process but rather one of constant change and uncertainty. As new technologies continue to emerge and new social practices develop, previously established norms are being challenged, leading to changes in power relations and new modes of governance. In the context of the global agenda on development and current trends in digital cooperation, digital diplomacy can be viewed as a ‘liquid’ landscape with quantum features. It is not only what diplomats do, but rather the environment they share with other stakeholders in an increasingly digitalized and constantly changing landscape. They are also actively participating in the observation and transformation of this environment.
New Trends in Digital Diplomacy
Authors: Fjällhed Alicia , Lüfkens Matthias , Sandre Andreas
Published: January 2024

TikTok’s viral short-video app has seen tremendous global growth, but its adoption in foreign policy and digital diplomacy is still low. Some diplomatic actors have refrained from developing a presence on TikTok due to geopolitical concerns emerging from TikTok’s Chinese ownership. Other diplomatic actors have established a presence on the platform due to its ability to make content with high engagements, reaching a young audience. The chapter observed three principal objectives when employing TikTok for digital diplomacy: 1) educating young audiences and raising awareness about current issues, including Covid-19 and the War in Ukraine; 2) countering misinformation and disinformation; 3) putting vulnerable communities at the forefront and empowering young people. The chapter also focuses on TikTok as a case where the international geopolitics of algorithmic governance has grown salient in the public debate, hoping to serve as a first step towards a theoretical conversation in digital diplomacy on the matter. This new interest concerns a deeper level of influence over public political debates, from an interest in actor’s participation in digital conversations to an understanding of how influence can be asserted through the algorithmic structures determining the possible scope of and promoted voices in such conversation.
Digital Diplomacy
Authors: Holmes Marcus
Published: January 2024

Digital diplomacy provides opportunities for states to manage the image they project to broad audiences. This occurs through dual processes of identity projection and audience response retrieval. Through digital tools, states are able to craft and refine their projections based on the response to those projections by diverse audiences. This chapter applies Erving Goffman’s dramaturgical theory to digital diplomacy and theorizes the ways in which states interact with online audiences and, just as importantly, how online audiences interact with states. The dyadic interaction between the state and the audience creates a feedback loop which provides audiences the power to shape and reshape how states bring themselves into existence online. To exemplify the use of this type of micro-sociological analysis, the chapter applies Goffman’s framework to the online interactions between the US, Russia, and Ukraine surrounding the 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
Digital Diplomacy of the Central Asian Countries
Authors: Faizullaev Alisher
Published: January 2024

This chapter analyses the features, trends, and challenges of digital diplomacy (DD) in the Central Asian countries (CAC) and focuses on social media diplomacy (SMD). The coronavirus pandemic has significantly affected the penetration of digital communication technologies into the diplomatic activities of CAC, including their consular work. The number of followers of the social accounts of presidents, foreign ministries, diplomatic missions abroad, and diplomats is constantly growing. But despite certain development of DD in the countries of the region, SMD has not yet become one of the main and proactive instruments of international diplomacy of these states. Using the ideas of game theory, the chapter argues that CAC have begun to develop their SMD and at this stage it takes place mostly through the dissemination of information about ongoing meetings and events, rather than engagement with other state and non-state actors regarding their long-term fundamental objectives and critical international problems. Currently, the SMD of CAC is largely based on reputation-building and image-making public diplomacy. For SMD to be used at a more strategic level, that is, as a pivotal instrument of foreign policy and diplomacy, CAC need to develop comprehensive strategies of dialogical engagement and interaction with other state and non-state stakeholders as well as a more conceptualized SMD with clearly defined strategic goals and measurable objectives.
Chinese Wolf-Warrior Diplomacy
Authors: Cooper Andrew F. , Hai-chi Loo Jeff
Published: January 2024

The People’s Republic of China (PRC) has undergone a significant shift in its diplomatic practices, driven by the use of social media and new digital technology. This shift is a departure from the non-resistant, passive, and conservative approach that the PRC has used for the past two decades, and is now characterized as provocative, nationalistic, aggressive, and high profile. The motivations behind this shift are often attributed to the defence of ‘national interest’ and ‘territorial integrity’ from a realist perspective. However, this new form of diplomacy, known as ‘wolf-warrior diplomacy’, also taps into a deep reservoir of emotions, including resentment, frustration, anger, pride, and status deprivation. Before 2019, wolf-warrior diplomacy was present only at the margins of PRC diplomatic practice. However, the shift reflects an awareness of the tools of technology, the use of social media, informational technology, and AI at the PRC’s disposal, as well as a massive echo chamber of netizens (especially the 50 cent army). The shift came about because of a perceived strategical necessity rationale at the apex of power with President Xi Jinping’s belief system that wolf-warrior diplomacy not only helps maintain the privileged position of the Chinese Communist Party (CPC) but also consolidates his personal support.
Diversities and Developments in Asia Pacific Digital Diplomacy
Authors: Spry Damien
Published: January 2024

This chapter provides an overview of the practices and contexts of digital diplomacy in the Asia Pacific, a vast, diverse region with great disparities in wealth, size, geostrategic heft, demographics, and political systems. The Asia Pacific is shaped by legacies of history, ongoing great power rivalries, the omnipresence of global systems of trade and communication, and by contemporary issues such as climate change and the Covid-19 pandemic. These conditions are the basis for any discussion of digital diplomacy in this dynamic, complex region. The chapter considers diplomacy in practice, and practices that affect and inform diplomacy; digital publics as participants in digital diplomacy and the techno-social and techno-political systems that shape digital diplomacy. It also considers practices that are emergent, such as coercive diplomacy and foreign interference, the increasing role of the system of digital networks that facilitate diplomacy, and the evolving information disorder which problematizes diplomatic practice.
Digital Diplomacy in Latin America
Authors: Aguirre Daniel , Ramos Alejandro
Published: January 2024

Referring to general aspects and common features that offer insights on the digitalization of diplomacy in Latin America, the chapter provides a conceptual mosaic that seeks to synthesize diverse approaches by which a number of countries in the region—albeit at different paces—embraced the digital paradigm and consequently adopted digital platforms to achieve their own foreign policy objectives. In addition, the chapter delves deeper into the specific cases of Mexico and Chile, providing details of different aspects of each experience to illustrate how the region has ventured into digital diplomacy during the last decade. The growing consularization of diplomatic practice, particularly following the Latin American countries’ response to the Covid-19 pandemic, is examined and discussed in the final section of the chapter. From the chapter’s recounting and the authors’ perspectives on the practical use of digital tools for diplomatic purposes, the Latin American experiences shed light on how the different countries have recognized the importance of (and the high cost of not ) developing a strong online presence and a digital diplomacy strategy that is in step with the times.
Diplomacy in Times of Crisis in the GCC
Authors: Akdenizli Banu
Published: January 2024

This chapter examines the use of social media, specifically Twitter, by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Embassies of Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries during two significant periods in recent history: the Blockade (2017–2021) and the Covid-19 pandemic (2019–2021). The GCC is a unique region where countries share similarities while also highlighting their distinct differences. This is evident in their responses to the Blockade and the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as the way these events were framed and interpreted online by both the public and officials. The analysis in this chapter reveals a gap between the public’s concern for pressing issues affecting humanity and the states’ focus on individual power. The GCC’s digital diplomacy is driven by power and competition. Trust in social media platforms and trust in governments continue to be major concerns. The chapter also highlights existing digital restrictions, such as restrictions on VoIP technology, safety and privacy concerns resulting from digital tracking and surveillance, and the weaponization of social media as realities that must be taken into account in the practice of digital diplomacy in the region. Both cases examined show that digital diplomacy is not currently a useful practice for relationship management in the GCC. Despite efforts to maintain a unified identity, mistrust and suspicion continue to plague the region. The chapter argues that digital diplomacy has the potential to rebuild trust, but it is not sufficient on its own.
Soft Power in the Digital Space
Authors: Rawnsley Gary D.
Published: January 2024

This chapter interrogates the conceptual and practical value of ‘soft power’ as a means of understanding politics and international relations in the digital space. It argues that digital technologies both reflect and communicate soft power capacity and have provided political actors, especially within civil society, tools to communicate and collaborate, mobilize, and protest. However, the chapter also reviews how states have transferred their power online to complement and reinforce their power offline, thus challenging the more normative assessments of digital political cultures that emphasize how digital spaces have grown democratic ideas and practices and expanded the number and range of voices in politics. Rather, the digital space is still shaped and reshaped by political decisions taken elsewhere. The chapter refers to examples from across the democratic and non-democratic world but provides detailed discussion of China, which is now an almost fully digital society. China reveals how states can claim to be ‘soft powers’ and embrace digital technologies for routine services but can also use those same technologies to control society more efficiently and limit levels of political accountability, transparency, and the autonomy of civil society—the markers of soft power.
Researching Influence Operations
Authors: Briant Emma L.
Published: January 2024

Since 2016’s UK Brexit referendum and US presidential election, concern about influence operations has dominated media coverage, scholarship, and policy debates. Social media platforms enabled a Wild West where disinformation (deliberately false or ‘black’ propaganda) can be distributed with algorithmic precision to influence minds and behaviours. This chapter’s contribution is in defining a ‘digital influence industry’ concept, distinguishing it from similar actors, and analysing its role and its importance for understanding influence operations and, within it, propaganda and ‘disinformation’. The author advocates for renewed focus on studying influence actors and industries to understand more deeply their distinct roles in shaping ideas, emotions, and behaviours for governments, politicians, and other actors. The chapter argues this is essential to understanding and addressing misleading campaigns within a democracy in a way that ensures accountability and protects free speech and citizens’ rights.
Digital Feminist Foreign Policy
Authors: Cassidy Jennifer A.
Published: January 2024

The power of digital technology to shape the perception of states and their citizens is an increasing and vital area for scholarly investigation. States are now using digital tools to compete for international and national attention, to secure influence, and to gain legitimacy. In a continuous quest to project an image of an attractive, credible, and capable actor on the global stage, diplomats are increasingly utilizing what can now be referred to as online ‘tools of attraction’. Tools of attraction are those strategies and resources which have been, and are, enabling countries to craft their brands online, shape their nation’s image positively, and progressively grow and cement their soft power, both online and off. This chapter examines how two ‘Western’ nations (Sweden and Mexico) have used, and are using, the adoption and promotion of a feminist foreign policy as a digital tool of attraction. Tools of attraction are now a driving force behind reputation and influence on the global stage, with the medium of digital diplomacy playing an essential role.
Sikh Economic Ethics
Authors: Singh Pashaura
Published: January 2024

This study explores the relationship between Sikh values and economic morality affecting the evolution of the global Sikh community (Panth) in different historical periods. As the founder of the Sikh tradition, Guru Nanak was a pioneer in developing the notion of spiritual capital alongside material capital. To eradicate the problems of poverty, unemployment, the exploitation of the poor by the rich, and the uneven distribution of wealth, he laid emphasis on the work ethic of earning one’s living through honest labour, adoring the divine Name, and sharing one’s earnings with the needy. During his lifetime, the doctrine and praxis of sevā (‘selfless service’) and the institution of laṅgar (‘free community kitchen’) became the pillars of a moral economy that is just, free, equitable, and conducive to the material and spiritual well-being of society. From the perspective of a Sikh world view, therefore, Sikh economic ethics seeks the welfare of one and all (sarbat dā bhalā).
Native American Spirituality and Economic Ethics
Authors: Gladstone Joseph Scott
Published: January 2024

This chapter defines and describes a generalized Native American spirituality and ties this spirituality to economic ethics and morality. Native American oral tradition, literature, and publications reveal a pragmatic Native American spirituality summed as ‘an active awareness of an animate tangible and intangible world beyond oneself, and an extrasensory connectedness with it’ (Gladstone, 2015, p. 23). This spirituality influences a transplanar Native American wisdom (Gladstone, 2014, 2015, 2018, 2021) that recognizes a sense of relatedness among all things animate and inanimate, and a sense of time with no distinct separation across past, future, and present. By recognizing, acknowledging, and respecting animacy in all things, and that all things exist in a broad extended moment, a strong spiritually driven Native American ethos influences pragmatic economic behaviour that considers its effects not only for public benefit, but the well-being for all things animate, inanimate, past, present, and future.
Aztec Religious Economic Ethics
Authors: Blanton Richard E.
Published: January 2024

This chapter addresses pre-Hispanic Aztec religion and philosophy in relation to economic ethics during the period roughly 500 years before the Spanish conquest of Mexico in 1521 ce. This time period is of interest for the subject matter of this volume given the relative abundance of information about religion and its social outcomes in a pre-Hispanic society. By comparison with other Mesoamerican regions and time periods, in Aztec society religion played an important role in shaping notions of economic ethics and market institutions. Ideas rooted in religion fostered broadly-based cooperation in a diverse society that was undergoing rapid change in scale and social complexity, including in its market system. Cooperation is evident in Aztec egalitarian ideology, in the establishment of good government policies such as a fair judiciary, and in the associated phase of economic growth driven by enhanced possibilities for free and equitable commercial interactions across statuses, genders, wealth differences, and ethnicities.
Religion and Finance
Authors: Kaleem Ahmad , Ahmad Saima
Published: January 2024

Interest-based loans are prohibited as taught by the three best known Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam). Instead, they offer alternative forms of financing, such as sale-based debts (assets-based transactions), interest-free loans, leasing, charity, and various types of partnerships. Despite the clear prohibition of interest in three of the world’s dominant religions with billions of followers, it is surprising that contemporary financial policies and practices are not reflective of these faith-based methods of financing. International crises like the Global Financial Crises (GFC), COVID-19 pandemic and later on hike in the global interest rates further necessitate the need for research on alternative and, in particular, interest-free methods of financing. These events initially compelled national economies to dispense substantial rescue packages, lowering interest rates and reducing tax rates. Later, the increase in interest rates exacerbates financial difficulties, impeding the ability to recover and invest. Interest-free financing reduces the strain of debt liabilities on the borrowers while enabling borrowers to access funds without the added burden of interest payments.
Religion and Business Ethics
Authors: Newell Edmund
Published: January 2024

This chapter discusses the development of business ethics as a specialism within moral philosophy in the twentieth century, its influence on business practice, its historic background—particularly the long and enduring influence of religion on ethical thinking—and how a multi-faith approach is essential in today’s globalized business environment. The main determinates of ethical principles in Buddhism, Christianity, Confucianism, Hinduism, Islam, and Judaism are compared, and are examined against non-religious criteria commonly used in applied ethics, highlighting their differences and similarities within the broad traditions of deontological, consequentialist, and virtue ethics. These comparisons highlight both the practical importance of understanding religiously influenced cultural differences when conducting international business in an increasingly globalized economy, and of value in establishing agreed ethical criteria for guiding decision-making in business. The chapter concludes with a call to build on the 1994 Interfaith Declaration by widening its scope to embrace ethical thinking beyond Islam, Judaism, and Christianity.
Religion and Work
Authors: Parboteeah K. Praveen , Kim Sahrok
Published: January 2024

Religion and work are integral to the foundation of society. Therefore, interest in understanding the effects of religion on work, work obligations and related aspects remains strong given recent reviews examining general elements of religion, work, and organizations. Given such importance of religion to work, this chapter will first discuss the general links between religiosity and work aspects. However, to provide a more nuanced view of these links, the chapter also considers four of the world’s main religions, namely Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, and Hinduism. A majority of people around the world practise one of these four religions and the chapter will discuss how the religious teachings of these faiths inform the connection between religion and work and related work aspects such as work values. In sum, the chapter will provide a comprehensive understanding of the connections between religion and many work aspects.
Religion and Altruism
Authors: Chilton Bruce
Published: January 2024

This chapter deals with altruism in classical Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, beginning with an assessment of what it means to study religions critically. How religions promote care for others can then be investigated on the basis of the motivations set out in literature held to be pivotal within each tradition. That analysis, however, problematizes the very definition of ‘altruism’, requiring consideration of how it has been applied and what methods can be used to detect and measure altruistic behaviour. Although the critical issues involved require continued research and attempts at resolution, this chapter offers a provisional set of findings.
Religion and Consumerism
Authors: Cloutier David
Published: January 2024

The globalization of consumer culture exists in tension with traditional strictures and lifestyles of many world religions. Those traditional strictures and lifestyles emphasize that excessive material consumption harms both the self and social relations, and are accentuated today by concerns about environmental destruction. By contrast, consumerism increasingly encourages individuals to develop their very identities through their consumer practices. This chapter outlines the fundamental conflict between traditional teachings and consumer culture, focusing on Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism. The socio-cultural interaction of religious traditions and consumer society involves a kind of hybridity, rather than a simple confrontation. This raises the question of how to evaluate such hybridity from the perspective of the traditions while also exploring various forms of ‘hybrid’ identities that have emerged in religious communities negotiating these tensions. Also, given the newness of consumer society, the question remains whether such a dual identity is authentic and sustainable.
Buddhist Economic Ethics
Authors: Amore Roy C.
Published: January 2024

Early Indian Buddhism saw the rise of banking and the business class. The movement of disciples led by Shakyamuni, the Buddha, denounced animal sacrifices and undermined the authority of Brahmins and landowners. The old economic order was called into question. The Asian expansion over two millennia brought the ethic of non-violence and moderation, along with the idealization of monastic life. Buddhism taught that good kings should sponsor places to feed the poor, avoid wars of aggression, and focus on economic uplifting for their subjects. Modern developments include Schumacher’s promotion of ‘Buddhist Economics’, U Nu’s approach to a Buddhist middle path to economic development, and the emergence of a worldwide engaged Buddhism movement led by Thich Nhat Nanh, Sulak Sivaraksa, D.T. Ariyaratne, Dalai Lama and other. The ecodharma goal is to uplift the poor while sustaining the environment and challenging those who exploit others or the planet.
Religion and Socialism
Authors: Rieger Joerg , Stauffer Aaron
Published: January 2024

While religion and socialism are often seen at odds, there are many examples of religion and socialism engaging and supporting each other. This chapter explores the life and work of B.R. Ambedkar (Buddhism), Rev. George Washington Woodbey (Christianity), and Ali Shariati (Islam). Ambedkar was one of the architects of the Indian constitution and Woodbey, an often under appreciated figure in the Black Social Gospel, worked in close solidarity with economically exploited people, and therefore are quite clear about the realities of the class struggle. For Shariati, as a leader of the Iranian Revolution, class was a central topic as well, but his emphasis was less on the economics than on the politics of it. These figures demonstrate how political and religious democracy might be grounded in economic democracy. When religion and socialism are brought together both sides can benefit, often in ways that deepen the understanding of each.
Analytical Synthesis: Religion and Economic Ethics
Authors: Barrera Albino
Published: January 2024

This concluding chapter to the Oxford Handbook of Religion and Economic Ethics presents three major findings. First, it traces the convergence of these religions’ teachings and practices on economic life to similarities in their foundational cosmologies and anthropologies. Socio-economic life is embedded within a much larger natural and divine economic order, which can be partly discerned in natural law. Second, it explains how these religious teachings are antithetical to modern market practices, mainstream economic thinking and policy, and even the public’s economic ethos. Third, this chapter also finds that the direction of contributions is not unidirectional, such as religion shaping economic life. Rather, it is a two-way causation with economic life improving religious practice and faith formation. Religious beliefs and practices can indeed lead to a much-improved economic life with strife, competition, and inordinate desire replaced by cooperation, temperance, and mutual solicitude, at least in theory. Economic life, in its own turn, can also lead to the furtherance of religious beliefs and practices by providing the temptations, challenges, adversity, and occasion that can drive believers to a deeper appreciation and appropriation of their faith. Indeed, there is a surprising symbiotic relationship between religion and economic life.
Compositional Idea Selection and Development
Authors: Crawford Lisa A.
Published: January 2024

Developing creating and composition activities for students requires 1) an understanding of a variety of student musical and personality types that exist within classrooms, 2) consideration of how students will come to understand the expression of emotion when creating and composing, 3) the development of an approach to growing musical knowledge and skills through creating music throughout the lifespan including very young children, and 4) a range of strategies to support students as they share their creative work. These ideas must be addressed within opportunities for students in order for their experiences with composition to be positive and fulfilling. As educators select project ideas and begin working with students, idea development unfolds naturally in the adjustments and amendments made to fit the needs of independent and collaborative projects. This chapter presents a range of creating and composition ideas, from initial conception through their development, and then offers reactions from students and teachers concerning their unique creative experiences. Ideas presented in this chapter are offered from the perspective of a student-centered approach in that the student’s understanding of creative processes, presentation, and self-evaluation are positioned with greater priority than teacher-evaluation of an outcome of a student’s work. At the introductory, intermediate, and advanced levels of creating music, project idea selection and development are processes that emerge through reflection on the creative process as it relates to students’ intentions. These concerns are represented in the models provided throughout the chapter and are then brought together with the INSPIRE approach, which may be used by teachers to design activities and by students to guide their work as they create and compose.
The Role of Technology in Learning to Compose
Authors: Greher Gena R.
Published: January 2024

Music technology, such as notation software and digital audio workstations (DAW), as well as the development of MIDI instruments and a host of other music creation tools and apps allows for greater access to music creation for anyone, at any age, with an interest in music. On one level, music technology affords anyone the ability to “play with sound” to determine what sounds good or interesting. On another level, instead of learning the principles of music theory as an abstract concept of Roman numerals and rules, music technology can turn abstract concepts into concrete listening experiences, allowing students to hear chords, chord progressions, melodies, timbre, form, and musical hierarchies. Whereas many music teachers have shied away from incorporating music composition in their classes until their students learn traditional notation and basic music theory, music technology makes possible an approach to music composition that is more sonically oriented. This chapter will provide strategies for employing a variety of music software applications and platforms for developing an understanding and ability to compose music with both novice and advanced students. From easy entry points for young musicians such as the use of looping software to more advanced approaches to music composition involving recording, editing, and mixing within a DAW, this chapter will clarify the role technology can play in engaging students.
(Un)Assessing the Processes and Products of Children’s Original Musical Composition
Authors: Hickey Maud
Published: January 2024

This chapter explains the author’s view that grading specifically, and assessment, more broadly, of a child’s creative product as well as process, should be done with utmost care. Assessment done thoughtlessly (even with good intentions) has the potential to squelch a child’s comfort and freedom with being creative and original. In this chapter, the author addresses strategies for teachers to approach a child’s original musical work in a way that will not squelch creativity. The chapter details findings from research as well as the author’s own practical experience working with children in a variety of settings and with a variety of assignments over the past twenty years. The assessment of both the processes of creation as well as the products (original music) will be described. The chapter concludes with practical suggestions for teachers to move forward confidently in their approaches to composing in their classrooms.
Playing with Music
Authors: Bond Judy
Published: January 2024

This chapter opens with an Orff-based lesson intended to inspire the reader to imagine joyful music-making and creating in a group setting. This experience sets the stage for an overview of the historical development of Orff’s composition pedagogy. While there are few direct references to composition in Orff’s original texts, composition can be an integral part of Orff-Schulwerk philosophy for teaching and learning music. Orff and his collaborating author, composer Gunild Keetman, encouraged improvising and making up, with written notational practices taught as a skill necessary to save musical ideas that sprang from playing with music and improvisation. The chapter provides practical examples showing how Schulwerk composition pedagogy is part of an integrated curriculum leading to a deeper understanding of musical concepts and inspiring confidence and joy in creating new music. Lessons and references support the belief that the Schulwerk approach to composition can be adapted to any style of music.
Creating and Managing Young Composer Festivals and Showcases
Authors: Deutsch Daniel
Published: January 2024

Student composition festivals and showcases offer valuable opportunities for young composers and music educators. They help to nurture the development of young composers by recognizing their achievement and by providing venues for them to interact with peers and mentors in educational workshop settings. In addition, these programs serve educators by demonstrating benchmarks of excellence in composition and by offering professional development sessions for teachers. This chapter presents strategies for establishing and developing such programs and offers a detailed description of program elements, all of which can be shaped to fit the needs of various organizations. To reduce the competitive element that is inevitable in a selective program, the author advocates that each student who submits a composition should receive a supportive written evaluation. Guidance for writing effective evaluations is provided.
Facilitating Songwriting with Children
Authors: Burton Suzanne L. , Wadler Heather
Published: January 2024

Children’s natural propensity for songmaking and the development, refinement, and preservation of their songs through songwriting are considered in this chapter. As songmakers, children intuitively and effortlessly experiment with music, generating and connecting musical ideas. Growing older, many will intentionally weave these musical ideas into song. A means for personal expression, children’s songs may range from introspective and reflective to humorous or silly. Preserving their songs reveals opportunities for further refinement. In this chapter, the authors describe a project through which music teachers can encourage and facilitate songmaking and subsequent songwriting with their elementary-aged students. Strategies to engage students in peer collaboration, reflection, self-assessment, and revision are presented. Suggestions for the construction and implementation of a developmentally appropriate songwriting curriculum are provided.
Developing Soundcrafters
Authors: Genevieve Burghart Rice Sarah , Clements Ann
Published: January 2024

Soundcrafting as a means of music production highlights the combination of artistic and technological knowledge and skills needed throughout the production process. Music production is a multifaceted process of bringing recorded music together. This chapter will provide unique ways to foster the skills needed for all students to become soundcrafters and become engaged in digital recording. It includes concrete examples of developing musical interpretation skills and how to put these skills to work within recording projects. From understanding the mechanics of audio engineering, to knowing how filtration and compression can help the articulation or intonation of a musical instrument, students who develop musical production skills become musical leaders capable of high-level musical thinking and decision making. This chapter covers the basics of music production and the various roles that music producers play throughout that process. It provides practical examples of how to foster production skills in students at all levels. For younger students, the approach focuses on musical play through attributes such as instrument proximity, amplification, and musical decision-making between recorded tracks. At older levels, it covers those topics as well as specific ways in which to engage students in tracking, editing, mixing, and mastering recording songs. Concrete examples include sample lesson ideas, software suggestions, and a recording equipment list. Sample exercises are forward-looking and intend to push practice in new directions.
Composition in Choral Settings
Authors: Strand Katherine
Published: January 2024

Writing choral music is about learning to express to myriad feelings, sensations, and ideas that live in words through the almost innumerable colors of the human voice. This chapter presents some of the ideas that contemporary composers have articulated about their composing process, shaping their statements about how to compose into a series of musical explorations and composing projects that can be completed and repeated during choir classes. In learning more about the composing process and in creating their own musical ideas, students will learn about their own and their classmates’ voices, about score-reading and theory, acoustics, and counterpoint. In this chapter I will attempt to help choral teachers develop pedagogical practices to mentor students in their thinking about setting a text to a melody, about vertical sound, pacing in sound, and taking listeners on a feelingful journey with every piece of choral music. This chapter does not attempt to tackle songwriting or the pop tradition of a cappella because both of these topics are addressed through numerous articles, videos, and books; however, many of the ideas in the chapter can be used to help students to improve their instrumental, songwriting, and a cappella writing skills. Choir teachers can use composing exercises and projects to develop the musical ear, the creative mind, and to deepen our students’ understanding of what choral music can be.
Composing in Orchestra
Authors: Hopkins Michael
Published: January 2024

This chapter will examine the role of composition in string classes and orchestra and provide examples of projects for directors who teach at different levels. Opening with a brief overview of the orchestra teaching profession and surveys of attitudes toward composition, the chapter goes on to explore the benefits and challenges within the teaching and learning of composition before providing examples of composition projects for students at different levels of compositional development. Teachers will find that composing in orchestra can a) enhance student musicianship, including performance skills, b) create opportunities for students to collaborate, negotiate, and compromise, c) increase student motivation as a direct result of the act of creating a new culturally relevant piece of music, and d) change the role of the teacher from ensemble director to facilitator, which provides new opportunities to learn how much students understand about the structure of music. Teachers will learn how to address challenges such as off-task talking, social loafing, unequal interaction, and negative interactions. Throughout the chapter, teachers will provide answers to these common questions: What is the role of the teacher in a composing project? How do I plan and implement an effective composing project? How much time will this take? Will it impact our performance preparation?
Composition Pedagogy in Germany
Authors: Rolle Christian , Weber Julia
Published: January 2024

In German-speaking countries, composition pedagogy is mainly oriented toward art music and characterized by some reluctance to include popular music. The chapter gives an overview about the history and common practices of composition pedagogy in Germany and the related discussions in music education. The chapter also contains an analysis of how approaches to composition in contemporary art music are reflected in typical composition assignments for students in schools. The analysis considers the practices of composition pedagogy in primary school classrooms as well as tasks for secondary school. Furthermore, the chapter will give an overview of current research in the field of composition pedagogy in the German-speaking countries. Issues investigated include collaborative composing projects with extracurricular partners as well as songwriting with tablets in the music classroom.
Vocabularies of Genius and Dilemmas of Pedagogy
Authors: Thomas Smith Neil
Published: January 2024

This chapter explores the “vocabularies” of genius in artistic practice and pedagogy. The first section presents a brief historical overview of ideas of genius and creativity before illuminating some of the critiques these have faced in the twentieth century. It is maintained that these concepts were from their inception exclusionary and present a difficult inheritance for current musical practice. In section two, three “dilemmas” of pedagogy are discussed in the context of these debates: whether pedagogy involves imparting knowledge or unlocking students’ creativity; whether the canon can be elastically broadened or must be dispensed with; and the question of genre. It is argued that the history of genius vocabularies has ongoing impacts on current pedagogical debates and that a critical awareness of these can lead to a more open music pedagogy.
Music Composition in Portuguese Classrooms
Authors: Veloso Ana Luísa
Published: January 2024

This chapter is divided into two sections that address how music composition has evolved and expanded in Portuguese music classrooms. The first section offers a contextualization of the history and politics of education in Portugal, focusing on the field of music and music composition. This section also explores how and why musical practices in the Portuguese classroom repeatedly favor vocal and instrumental performance over music composition and other creative activities. The second section offers examples from my own practice as a teacher and researcher. I do so as a way of illustrating how, despite the general Portuguese landscape, some music teachers and researchers have been addressing and developing music composition in Portuguese classrooms. The chapter concludes by emphasizing the need to enhance music composition pedagogy at the level of general education, searching for new ways that might evidence the importance of music composition in the classroom and new routes to develop it with pupils.
Advancing Pedagogy through Teacher Assessment and Program Evaluation
Authors: Stringham David A.
Published: January 2024

Teachers, students, parents, administrators, and other stakeholders use a variety of criteria to evaluate music teachers and school music programs. Some metrics relate to the number of music course offerings, enrolled students, and music teachers; financial support for music instruction may also be considered. Others may evaluate music teachers, and music programs more generally, based on accolades earned by performing ensembles at festivals and state assessment events. Published frameworks for evaluation are also frequently employed in these evaluations. Yet, it is rare to find tools for assessing music teachers or music curricula that value the extent to which students have opportunity to engage in, or develop their skills in, creating original music. This chapter offers music teachers and other interested stakeholders ideas for music teacher assessment and music program evaluation that include facilitating students’ creativity through composing music. These ideas are compatible with existing frameworks published by state and national professional organizations and commercial evaluation frameworks. These ideas are intended to be applicable not only for music teacher assessment and music program evaluation, but also for reflecting on and improving one’s pedagogy. Recognizing that advocating for and implementing change in existing teacher assessment and program evaluation practices may meet with questions, skepticism, and even resistance, the author shares strategies for initiating conversations with four important stakeholder groups: students, administrators, parents, and professional organizations.