When health is seen within an ecological framework, the sociological theory of "social capital" is highly relevant (Putnam, 2000). Social capital evolves as a shared resource of trust and reciprocity when people listen to each other, work or play together, and care about each other. Simon Procter (2004) and several other music therapists have suggested that participation in music may contribute to the accumulation and accessibility of social capital in a community.
I think that this is an interesting theoretical idea of clear relevance for contemporary music therapy. It is an idea I think should inform future research in the field. I have been thinking about this notion for a few years, but until recently I never asked if or how we could actually hear social capital. And maybe that is not such a good question? Does it make sense to ask this type of concrete questions in relation to an abstract and theoretical notion like "social capital"? I am not quite sure, but a few weeks ago I had an experience which made me think about this. I was visiting Førde, a small town north of Bergen in Western Norway. In this little town Jorunn Bakke Nydal is working as a music therapist, together with her colleague Pernille Catrine Stangenes.
The day I was in town they were organizing a concert at the local nursing home. In this concert two different Senior Choirs were performing, together with a local group of professional musicians and the two music therapists. It was a moving experience. The music therapists organized some community singing and in various other ways made sure that the many (and in many cases feeble) members of the audience would have possibilities to take actively part in the event. This I think was very nice, but in fact the members of the audience were participating all the time, by smiling, laughing and in other ways communicating their pleasure when listening to the music performed. One moment was particularly moving for me: The male singers in one of the choirs were performing a line with a very low base note. They almost made it all the way down there, but not quite. They were trying, but not quite succeeding. To my pleasant surprise they immediately started smiling to their own attempt, looking at each with facial expressions I felt were closer to joy and engagement than to shame and embarrassment. It was a tremendous moment of serious fun and mutual acceptance of a limitation and the way things are. And we could hear it. There was something in the quality of the voices that told me: These people need to sing, they want to do it together, and they enjoy doing it now.
That's when I asked myself: Maybe I'm hearing the sound of social capital?
Procter, S. (2004). Playing Politics: Community Music Therapy and the Therapeutic Redistribution of Music Capital for Mental Health. In M. Pavlicevic & G. Ansdell (Eds.), Community Music Therapy (pp. 214-230). London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
Putnam, Robert (2000). Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community. New York: Simon and Schuster.
Stige, Brynjulf (2008). The Sound of Social Capital. Voices Resources. Retrieved January 14, 2015, from http://testvoices.uib.no/community/?q=colstige300608