Do we all have to be “leftists”? A dialogue about antagonism and agonism in music education research

Abstract

In this article, the tension between diversity and uniformity in our music education research communities is discussed as it relates to Thomas Piketty’s research on elites and shifting political leanings, Francis Fukuyama’s and Judith Butler’s reflections on identity politics, and Chantal Mouffe’s critical discussion of an antagonistic way of thinking, in which opponents are not defined politically but, rather, morally. We must establish an agonistic public sphere, Mouffe argues, a political sphere characterised by fights in which different political projects confront one another, accepting the fact that identity is relational. The article is the result of a series of ongoing dialogues between the authors and offered as an attempt at agonistic turn-taking that clearly identifies the two voices involved and their respective views.