Musical creativity as a tool for inclusion

This book chapter looks into the use of musical creativity activities as a tool for social and ethnic inclusion. After defining what is meant by ‘musical creativity’, the first part reviews the literature on this topic, outlining examples of projects in a number of countries. A consideration of social psychology theories is offered as a means to understand the role these projects may play in contexts where two or more communities come into contact. The second part gives an account of an exploratory enquiry on using such activities in cross-community settings in Northern Ireland, including examples of practitioners’ and children’s perceptions of the activities. Implications for practice and ideas for further research are considered in the conclusion