Beyond the State

This book takes an ethnographic approach to understanding music in the rural creative economy of the Highlands and Islands and brings a fresh understanding of sustainability in regional policy and creative lives. Drawing upon ethnographic evidence from more than seventy interviews with musicians, venue operators, promoters, instrument makers, teachers, festival organisers, public officials and police, the book reveals the ingenuity, creativity and place-based innovation across the Highlands and Islands of Scotland.

The book argues that one of the results of continuing globalization and digitalization of society is a return to local, place-based communities with greater digital visibility, and that creative livelihoods in rural areas are becoming increasingly sustainable because of this movement. The chapters deal with the lived experience of rural and island musical education and performance, and provide an explanation of the impact of continuing state-retreat from the arts and the cultural sector.

Importantly, this book offers an original contribution to the literature on the creative economy and creative industries by rethinking the model of capital exchange in music that moves beyond older binary models. The author makes the case that in today's platformed world, music should not be understood as a commodity, but as a form of labour that includes a much wider range of activity beyond performance including audiences and listeners. This fundamental shift turns our attention to understanding capital exchange through people's desire to participate in the arts as the core commodity that supports sustainability in the creative economy.