Introduction

Section one of this Handbook speaks of the challenging intersections between larger social phenomena and how they are made manifest as micro-logical concerns within the local social spaces where music making, teaching, and learning take place. The chapters in this section do not follow the types of corrective sociology of the functionalists, but macro-level concerns are always around the corner – their presence felt in the careful locating of multiple geographies, social norms, and cultural practices. Gathered here are contributions that approximate larger and contemporary societal challenges to their representations and manifestations in musical praxis, clarifying complex challenges faced by the field, while keeping the work of music labourers at centre.