Deep listening: towards an imaginative reframing of health and well-being practices in international development

Pavlicevic, Mercédès; Impey, Angela

Abstract

This paper challenges the “intervention-as-solution” approach to health and well-being as commonly practised in the international development sector, and draws on the disciplinary intersections between Community Music Therapy and ethnomusicology in seeking a more negotiated and situationally apposite framework for health engagement. Drawing inspiration from music-based health applications in conflict or post-conflict environments in particular, and focusing on case studies from Lebanon and South Sudan respectively, the paper argues for a re-imagined international development health and well-being framework based on the concept of deep listening. Defined by composer Pauline Oliveros as listening which “digs below the surface of what is heard … unlocking layer after layer of imagination, meaning, and memory down to the cellular level of human experience” (Oliveros, 2005), the paper explores the methodological applications of such a dialogic, discursive approach with reference to a range of related listening stances – cultural, social and therapeutic. In so doing, it explores opportunities for multi-levelled and culturally inclusive health and well-being practices relevant to different localities in the world and aimed at the re-integration of self, place and community.

Citation

Pavlicevic, M., & Impey, A. (2013). Deep listening: towards an imaginative reframing of health and well-being practices in international development. Arts & Health: An International Journal for Research, Policy and Practice, 5(3), 238-252. https://doi.org/10.1080/17533015.2013.827227

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Publication Date: Jan 1, 2013
• Deposit Date: Sep 25, 2013
• Journal: Arts and Health: An International Journal for Research, Policy and Practice
• Print ISSN: 1753-3015
• Electronic ISSN: 1753-3023
• Publisher: Taylor and Francis Group
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 5
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 238-252
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/17533015.2013.827227
• Keywords: international development, health and well-being practices, Community Music Therapy, applied ethnomusicology, deep listening
• Publisher URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17533015.2013.827227