_The Creative Wealth of Nations_ commander declared why it was necessary to target musicians.<sup>48</sup> Consider the following excerpt from the _Washington Post_ : ‘Music is against Islam,’ said Oumar Ould Hamaha, the military leader of the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa, one of the three extremist groups controlling the north. ‘Instead of singing, why don’t they read the Koran? Why don’t they subject themselves to God and pray? We are not only against the musicians in Mali. We are in a struggle against all the musicians of the world.<sup>49</sup> Such extreme positions fueled by historical and cultural misunderstandings cannot be avoided by economics alone. Amid the Bank’s urgent mission to end extreme poverty by 2030, such troubling cases could crop up anywhere, regressing the progress made. As such,

- The World Bank Group needs to ask how it should recalibrate and strengthen its tools of engagement, taking time to understand cultural activities and how they can play a meaningful role in building a more secure and peaceful world amidst globalization.

- There is a pressing need “to save globalization from being exploited for the cultivation of divisiveness and inter-group hostility, with hugely flammable consequences,” as Sen put it, “and instead draw on global cultural interactions to advance our future, even as we admire the past.”<sup>50</sup> Given the consequences of inaction, how is the World Bank Group prepared to provide strategic leadership in this area?

_The Performing Arts and Social Capital_ According to the encyclopaedia of informal education (infed), “it was the work of Robert D. Putnam (1993; 2000) that launched social capital as a popular focus for research and policy discussion.”<sup>51</sup> Putnam’s work is often associated with Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival <u>of American Community. In this book, he “shows how Americans have become increasingly</u> disconnected from family, friends, neighbors, and [their] democratic structures– and how [they] may reconnect.”<sup>52</sup> While his study focuses on America and not on international development per se, ‘social capital’ “has also been picked up by the World Bank as a useful organizing idea. They argue that ‘increasing evidence shows that social cohesion is critical for societies to prosper economically and for development to be sustainable’ (The World Bank 1999).”<sup>53</sup> The performing arts are useful in building domestic and international social capital. Internationally, they can create social ties (imagined or real) across borders. Within local communities music “not only helps to strengthen the solidarity that group identities can generate, but can also help to overcome narrowly divisive groupings that tend to split up a culture into

> 48 Sudarsan Raghavan, “In Northern Mali, Music Silenced as Islamists Drive Out Artists,” _Washington Post_ , November 30, 2012, accessed April 21, 2014; http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/in-northern-mali-music- <u>silenced-as-islamists-drive-out-artists/2012/11/30/110ea016-300c-11e2-af17-67abba0676e2_story.html.</u> 49 Ibid.

> 50 Amartya Sen, “Our Past and Our Future” (lecture, Bali 2013 World Culture Forum).

> 51 “Social Capital,” infed, accessed May 9, 2014, http://infed.org/mobi/social-capital/.

> “ Social Capital for Starters”: See explanation and definitions at the link above.

> 52 “Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community,” accessed May 9, 2014, <u>http://bowlingalone.com/.</u>

> 53 “Social Capital,” infed.

<mark>16</mark>