Who is this group for? This reading and discussion group is organised in Music, ECA. We talk, mainly, about musical situations. But students, postgraduates and staff from any subject area are welcome to join. We welcome people who are external to UoE, too. We have regular participants based at HEIs around the UK and overseas. We also welcome participants who are between academic gigs – individuals who might be taking time to develop new proposals or projects and who benefit from the research community. Group meetings are often based around pre-reading of some form. We use a Teams channel to share links and co-ordinate meetings, and that’s where we host meetings online.
What do we mean by Musical Situations? In this group, we began using the term ‘situated music research’ as a deliberately broad description, because it captures the very wide a range of music-related topics/questions that have motivated our conversations. Right from the start, we have used it loosely and productively, to set our agenda.
As the group has become established over the past few years, we’ve developed the concept of ‘situated music research’. It has become a valuable tool in describing and refining group members’ own research projects and practice, helping to clarify common ground, solve common problems, and to identify what’s distinctive or original in a given approach to music research.
Here’s our current working definition, based on text offered up by Nikki to the group on 6 November 2025:
Situated music research relies explicitly on knowledge that is generated within and with reference to tangible contexts of musicking, including socio-cultural and material aspects of the environment of the study, and also the researcher’s own position within that context. Importantly, situated music research uses this knowledge to render the specifics necessary to formulate and design empirical enquiry into the context, and to interrogate and report on the resulting data.
Situated music research, then, provokes methodological innovation. Data collection requires mixed methods, participatory research designs, or other bespoke techniques (e.g. case study, observation, audio capture) tailored to the specific context of musicking and highly sensitive to a given scenario; and of course, the analysis approach must be similarly tailored.
The use of mixed methods or participatory designs can increase the complexity and time required for data collection and analysis, compared to familiar empirical social science paradigms and/or widely understood tools and instruments. This is also an approach to research that hinges on its attention to complex, humane and fallible scenarios of interpersonal interaction. The validity of the approach is inextricably linked with ethical conduct, particularly in sensitive or vulnerable contexts: ethical dimensions are not just add-ons or afterthoughts, they are deeply intertwined with the existence and nature of the phenomena being studied.
All told, this is complex stuff and – as with all high quality research – the best projects require teamwork, skill, time and thought. We shall keep thinking and talking!
Contact Nikki if you are interested in joining. Suggestions for reading and topics also warmly welcomed.
