I thought it would be instructive to share a snippet of some writing/research I have done on the lay-theories around the "power of music". In my research I repeatedly come across quotes from a variety of sources that are marshaled to “prove” how effective music is; these often crop up in discussions on music and conflict transformation and are used to indicate music’s power. Unfortunately, this often contributes to unrealistically high expectations about what role music can play in conflict transformation, rather than providing useful knowledge on how music may actually help such processes. By using extremely broad statements (which are usually never based on research of any kind) we sweep aside any contexts and constraints involved in music’s deployment and reception. This romantic imagery of music can be understood to be linked to age-old philosophical notions of music’s social powers.

I have been living in Oxford, UK for more than 20 years, but will be returning to Norway in 2012, at which point I hope to pursue a career that combines (hopefully) my two fields of expertise, (information) technology and social research. My research career started when I worked as a journalist focusing on music and music related phenomena (see more about projects I have done here). Later I formalised this with a sociology PhD at the University of Exeter (completed in 2010) with fieldwork in Norway and Sudan focusing on the use of music for conflict transformation purposes. More recently I have started working on mobile music, and mobile technology in general. In general my interest lies in the everyday (and often unexpected) uses of music or technology, and how this enables people to shape their social environment. I am also a member of the SocArts research group at Exeter, for more on this go to our SocArts website.