Music education and violence prevention with children and youth: Enhancing individual agency for social transformation?

This study is about the role of music in the prevention of violence with youth. It looks at the use of music with youth that are especially vulnerable to becoming involved in a violent and/or illegal context or dynamic. The main focus is on a program called The Network of Music Schools of Medellin, that aims to build and strengthen processes of cooperation and coexistence through music education. The Network also claims to promote cultural transformation necessary for the decrease of violence in the wider Medellin society. Based on semi-structured interviews with staff, parents and students of the program, this research explores how the need to decrease violence in Medellin neighbourhoods is confronted by musical education. It addresses how young people involved in the music schools transform themselves, to confront the daily reality of violence around them. The study reflects on the implications of this kind of musical education for non-violence, in terms of wider social transformation.