Ritualised Belonging

This book interrogates the notion of belonging through musicing rituals in the South African context. The authors raise questions such as «What can we learn from musicing rituals?», «What does it mean to belong through musicing?» and «In what ways could musicing address marginalization and transform a broken society?»

To answer these questions, the editors employ a range of perspectives from micro-sociological theory to personal accounts of marginalization and belonging through musicing. The contributors employ both established and novel qualitative strategies of inquiry including case studies, narrative inquiry, performative autoethnography, practice as research, and interpretive phenomenological analysis, amongst others.

Although this book focuses on musicing in the South African context, international readers will also benefit from the rich theoretical and methodological contributions in this volume. It investigates the potentiality of cultivating a sense of belonging through musicing rituals to heal a mutilated world. The contributions will inform and enhance readers' repertoire of musicing strategies in both community and educational contexts.

This work is based on the research supported in part by the National Research Foundation of South Africa (Grant Numbers: 118579). The Grantholder, Prof Liesl van der Merwe, acknowledges that opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in Ritualised Belonging, generated by the NRF supported research (Grant Numbers: 118579), is that of the authors, and that the NRF accepts no liability whatsoever in this regard.

Auteur

The Rev. Professor June Boyce-Tillman MBE is Professor Emerita of Applied Music at the University of Winchester. She has wide experience in education, spirituality and music and has published widely in these areas. She is the convenor of Music, Spirituality and Wellbeing International (http:www.mswinternational.org). She is an Extraordinary Professor at North-West University, South Africa. She is a selfsupporting ordained Anglican Priest and received an MBE for her contribution to music and education.

Liesl van der Merwe is an associate professor in the School of Music at the North-West University, South Africa. She is a grant holder of the NRF research project: Social Cohesion Through Community Music Engagement. Her research interests lie in music and wellbeing, Dalcroze Eurhythmics, spirituality and lived musical experiences. She supervises postgraduate studies, teaches research methodology, music education and bassoon. She has published articles in high-impact journals such as Psychology of Music, Journal of Research in Music Education, International Journal of Research in Music Education, Music Education Research and Frontiers in Psychology. Liesl also performs in chamber music ensembles and is the conductor of the North-West Youth Orchestra.

Janelize Morelli is a senior lecturer in community music at North-West University, School of Music, South Africa. She is a member of the MASARA research niche and the manager of the Musikhane Community Music Engagement Program. Janelize is co-principal investigator of the NRF research project: Social Cohesion Through Community Music Engagement. She holds a PhD from the Steinhardt School at New York University, under guidance of Professor David Elliott, in music education. Her research interests include an ethic of care and relationality in community music. Janelize supervises postgraduate students interested in critical topics in music education and community music. She is passionate about arts-based research.