Economy, Ecology, and Music: An Introduction

If music is regarded as a renewable biocultural resource, then the current discourse surrounding sustainability contributes ways of thinking about music and cultural policy. Coming principally from developmental economists and conservation ecologists, sustainability provides a theoretical and practical framework for applied ethnomusicology. Cultural and musical rights and ownership, the circulation and conservation of music, the internal vitality of music cultures and the social organization of their music-making, music education and transmission, the roles of community scholars and practitioners, intangible cultural heritage, tourism, and the creative economy, preservation versus revitalization, partnerships among culture workers and community leaders, and good stewardship of musical resources, are among the issues to which the essayists in this volume address sustainability thinking.