Name
Resonant Ecologies: A Framework for Analyzing Music Education-Industry Interdependence
Date & Time
Thursday, July 30, 2026, 2:50 PM - 3:20 PM
Description
Scholars typically consider music education and the music industry as separate domains with distinct purposes and values. This arbitrary separation leads to significant shortcomings in theory, as educational scholarship often overlooks the impact of industry on educational outcomes. In contrast, industry studies rarely consider how academic institutions frame the dynamics of commerce. This presentation introduces "resonant ecologies"—a theoretical framework that transcends traditional binary oppositions by revealing the co-constitutive nature of academic and commercial musical spheres.Drawing on actor-network theory, ecological systems theory, and digital materialism, this framework makes three distinct contributions to the philosophy of music education. To begin, it explains how the educational and commercial sectors operate as an integrated dynamic system rather than as different entities. Second, it incorporates material agency into these relations by demonstrating how instruments, technologies, and digital platforms actively shape cross-domain musical practices, rather than remaining as passive instruments. Third, it provides an analytical approach that simultaneously maps existing power dynamics while envisioning more equitable possibilities.The framework comprises nine interconnected mechanisms through which education and industry influence one another: material circulation, value transfer, knowledge exchange, capital conversion, technological mediation, and philanthropic investment. The mechanisms operate within governed power relations, characterized by disproportionate distributions of economic and cultural capital, producing what Bourdieu calls “field effects” that support certain practices and constrain others.Concrete examples illustrate the framework's analytical power. The Fender Play Foundation's guitar donations to schools demonstrate how material objects carry industry values into educational settings while simultaneously serving multiple functions (philanthropic investment, capital conversion, and market development). The educational disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic revealed previously masked technological dependencies, as teachers hastily adopted the pedagogy of commercial digital platforms, demonstrating the fundamental interstate interdependence that had been concealed within institutional borders.This framework provides valuable critical evaluations of current systems and offers constructive recommendations for restructuring more equitable systems by reframing music education and the music industry as resonant ecologies. The research examines how commercial and educational values mutually influence each other through continuous social and material exchanges, which traditional philosophical methods have often overlooked. Within this framework, music educators can analyze the adoption of technology, partnerships with institutions, and curricular decisions through the lens of material agency and power relations, thereby facilitating greater equity in pedagogical choices.
Location Name
510A
Full Address
Palais des Congres - Montréal Convention Centre
1001, Place Jean-Paul-Riopelle
Montreal QC H2Z 1H2
Canada
1001, Place Jean-Paul-Riopelle
Montreal QC H2Z 1H2
Canada
Session Type
Paper Presentation
Presenting Author(s)
Stacey Swanson