The arts, and particularly music, are well-known agents for social change. They can empower, transform, or question. They can be a mirror of society's current state and a means of transformation. They are often the last refuge when all attempts at social change have failed. But are the arts able to live up to these expectations? Can music education cause social change? Rethinking Music Education and Social Change offers timely answers to these questions. It presents an imaginative, yet critical approach. At once optimistic and realistic, the book asseses music education's relation to social change and offers a new vision for music education as utopian theory and practice. As an important topic in sociology and political science, utopia offers a new tradition of thinking and a scholarly foundation for music education's relation to social change.

About the Author
Alexandra Kertz-Welzel is Professor and Chair of Music Education at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet in Munich (Germany). She obtained her PhD in musicology from Saarland University in Saarbruecken (Germany), as well as master's degrees in music education, German studies, philosophy, piano, and harpsichord. From 2002-2005, she was Visiting Scholar and Lecturer in Music Education at the University of Washington in Seattle, WA (USA). With research interests in international music education, philosophy of music education, music education policy, and community music, she has regularly presented at national and international conferences. She is author and editor of several books and a frequent contributor to leading journals in music education. She was Chair of the International Society for the Philosophy of Music Education (ISPME) from 2017-2019 and Co-Chair of the ISME Commission on Policy from 2016-2018.

Reviews
Unlike any other author, Alexandra Kertz-Welzel has a unique, distinctive way of advocating for music education as an agent of social change that, within limits, holds the potential for developing more just and imaginative societies. Embracing philosophical, sociological, and political perspectives, the insights she presents redefine music education's goals in ways that will stimulate and challenge music educators internationally. * Gary McPherson, University of Melbourne *
With this compelling, if sometimes startling, work, Alexandra Kertz-Welzel has staked her place among leading scholars internationally in calling for a reconceptualization of music education in ways that are nested in utopian thinking that is both imaginative yet honest, visionary yet realistic. It is a brilliant assessment of music's complement of social and artistic-aesthetic dimensions, and it lands squarely on an imperative for professional musician-educators to harness their utopian energies to rethink, refine and reinvent music education's societal mission. * Patricia Shehan Campbell, University of Washington *



Book Information
ISBN 9780197566282
Author Alexandra Kertz-Welzel
Format Paperback
Page Count 200
Imprint Oxford University Press Inc
Publisher Oxford University Press Inc
Dimensions(mm) 156mm * 236mm * 12mm