Together with John Sloboda I have written a guest editorial for a theme issue of Music and Arts in Action (MAiA). This issue focuses on the role of the arts and music in conflict transformation and peace building. We present a review of the field and I use some of my fieldwork in Norway and Sudan to discuss the papers in the issue within the context of the challenges that the field of music and conflict transformation faces.

The papers in this isse cover a wide range of topics that are examined using novel case studies, ranging from power, politics and identity issues in an Israeli-Arabic orchestra by Solveig Riiser; the role of sing-alongs in sustaining anti-war movements in the U.S. by Jeneve Brooks; cultural identity theory as unpacked in action research in Craig Robertson's ethnographic study of a Bosnian multi-ethnic choir; the bureaucratic constraints on evaluating community theatre interventions in Northern Ireland by Matthew Jennings and Andrea Baldwin; and the combination of academic and practitioner intervention in conflict transformation work by Svanibor Pettan's look at applied ethnomusicology.

To read the complete issue online go here.

This website is set up to present some information about my academic work, initially a PhD (completed 2010) at Exeter University, that was supervised by Tia DeNora on the topic of music and the role it can play in conflict resolution/transformation programmes. In this context "conflict" refers to the type of conflicts we've seen in the Balkans or Sri Lanka. (image © Cameron Allan 2005)

I have finished two more articles that are in the pipeline in 2010/11:

The first one is in a festschrift for John Sloboda: Emotions in motion: Transforming conflict and music. This is a chapter in Irène Deliège and Jane Davidson (eds), Music and the Mind: Investigating the functions and processes of music (a book in honour of John Sloboda): Oxford University Press [forthcoming 2010]. This discusses a possible mechanism for music use in conflict transformation through the provision of interruptions.

The second one is with with Tia DeNora: Flexibility and (Dis)engagement – mobile music and the politics of everyday life. This is a chapter in Gopinath and Stanyek (eds), Oxford Handbook of Mobile Music and Sound Studies: Oxford University Press [forthcoming]. Data is collected for this paper by a young teenager who interviews her peers thus helping us to fill the 'age-gap' in current literature on iPod/MP3 player use. This helps us capture fresh insights from the group that is most cutting edge when it comes to innovating with the use of mobile technology.