oa Introduction: The Activist Turn in Music Research

This chapter introduces the theme of the anthology, its context and summarizes the content of the chapters. After a brief discussion about the neglected history of activism in music research, the chapter introduces the idea of an activist turn in music research along with some of its main characteristics. This is followed by a discussion about the challenges in conducting activist music research and in naming it as a particular field of study, after which the context and content of the book is briefly presented.

Keywords: academic turns ; action research ; activism in music ; activist research methods ; activist scholarship ; applied ethnomusicology ; ecomusicology ; feminist musicology ; Koneen säätiö ; music and social justice ; music as a tool for change ; new musicology ; social activism ; social movements and music ; sociology of music ; world at risk