LAUREN KAPALKA RICHERME
Lauren Kapalka Richerme is Associate Professor of Music Education at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, where she teaches undergraduate and graduate courses on music education foundations, philosophy, and sociology. Lauren’s first philosophy book Complicating, Considering, and Connecting Music Education is published by Indiana University Press, and she currently has a second book entitled Popular Music Will Not Save Us: Capitalism and Music Education under contract. Lauren has published articles in Action, Criticism, and Theory for Music, Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education (BCRME), Journal of Research in Music Education (JRME), Philosophy of Music Education Review, and other journals. Lauren serves on the BCRME and JRME editorial boards and holds leadership positions in the International Society for the Philosophy of Music Education and International Society for Music Education. Prior to her university teaching, Lauren taught high school and middle school band and general music in Massachusetts.
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Musical Relevance, Pedagogical Flexibility, and Capitalism: Innocuous Agreement or Ethical Calamity?
This inquiry considers what the possible correspondence between musical relevance, pedagogical flexibility, and capitalist ideals might reveal about the limits of valuing these aims. Calls for relevance in music education correspond with the capitalist emphasis on youth culture, cultural omnivorousness, and holding consumers’ attention. These practices foster ongoing consumption, individualism, and the equation of satisfying personal desires with ethical action. The flexibility needed for relevance reinforces the precariousness desired in ideal capitalist workers. Emphasising both flexibility and relevance centres issues of recognition rather than distribution, thus dividing the working class and limiting opportunities for cohesion that could challenge capitalist exploitation.