Tackling spatial and social injustice in music education: A systems view of AÏCO in Lyon, France

My doctoral study addresses the question of spatiality and spatial justice in music education as a public service. The question is approached through one case, AÏCO (Apprentissage Instrumental et Invention Collective, or Instrument Learning and Collective Invention),  carried out in Lyon Conservatory (France) in collaboration with a public primary school to develop musical instrument tuition in an underprivileged area. Through this case, the study not only aims at analyzing AÏCO as a dynamical social innovation within the wider conservatory systems involving institutional, professional, spatial, urbanistic, societal, pedagogical and artistic aspects, but also aims at contributing more widely to the international research on the dynamics of social innovations and spatiality in the field of music education. The conceptual frame of the study will combine theoretical approaches of spatiality such as Soja’s (1996) theory of Thirdspace, with dynamical approaches such as those developed to analyze the time evolution of complex systems. I will :construct a detailed system map of AÏCO, collect data (e.g. provided by workshops and teacher interviews), identify the positive feedback loops that allow the AÏCO system to be sustainable and use these results for constructing more general conclusions on institutional choices conditioning accessibility of music education. In particular, the study will focus on the role of cross-sectoral, professional and institutional collaborations. 

References
Soja, E. W. 1996. Thirdspace. Journeys to Los Angeles and Other Real-and-Imagined Places. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers. 

Martin Galmiche is a doctoral student in the Research Study Programme at the at the MuTri doctoral school.

Keywords: Music education, Spatiality, Social justice, Spatial justice, Thirdspace, Systems analysis, Social innovation.