Endangered musical heritage as a wicked problem

Abstract

The issue of the widespread decline and loss of musical heritage has recently found increasing prominence in ethnomusicological discourse, and many applied projects from grassroots to international levels strive to support genres perceived to be under threat. Much recent literature on the subject features rhetoric that draws on metaphors from ecology, including, for example, the ideas of music ‘ecosystems’, ‘endangerment’ and ‘sustainability’. Offering an alternative (though not contradictory) perspective, I here characterise the widespread loss of musical heritage as a ‘wicked problem’– one with complex interdependencies, uncertainties and conflicting stakeholder perspectives, which defies resolution more than some of the ecological metaphors arguably imply. By drawing on theoretical notions of ‘wickedness’ from social policy planning and other areas, I aim to bring interdisciplinary insights to the discussion of strategies to mitigate the global threat to music as intangible cultural heritage. Offering three ‘stories’ about the problem of music genres ‘at risk’ and critiquing each of these stories against the theory of wicked problems, I explore the implications of this conceptualisation for heritage scholars, music researchers, policy-makers and other cultural stakeholders, in terms of moving us closer to realising effective, resilient and innovative approaches to the problem at hand.