Transcending Measurement: What Matters When Making-with-Music for Equitable Wellbeing in Health and Social Care...

Area of Science:

• Community Music
• Sociology of Health
• Public Health

Background:

• Music engagement is recognized for promoting health and wellbeing.
• Limited research exists on how music-making structures, rituals, and materiality impact health.
• Existing studies often overlook the cumulative effects of music-related habits and routines.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore how collective routines and communal activities in music projects contribute to health and wellbeing.
• To examine the role of material-discursive practices in fostering social exchange, stability, and belonging.
• To challenge traditional measures of wellbeing and propose a dynamic understanding of health influenced by music.

Main Methods:

• Ethnographic study of interconnected community music projects in North Lanarkshire, Scotland.
• Analysis of collective routines, communal activities, and material-discursive practices.
• Examination of structural elements, memories, and shared experiences within music-making.

Main Results:

• Collective music-making fosters meaningful social exchanges, stability, and a sense of belonging.
• The benefits of music interventions stem from accumulative habits and rituals, not isolated events.
• Music engagement contributes to a dynamic process of health and becoming.

Conclusions:

• Music's impact on health and wellbeing is derived from sustained engagement and habitual practices.
• A broader understanding of music's potential is needed, moving beyond conventional wellbeing measures.
• Findings support scalable community music models and enhanced research-practice-policy partnerships in health and social care.