Scene as Ecosystem, Scenes as Parts of Ecosystems or Scene versus Ecosystem? Some considerations about the compability of two conceptional approaches

Description

Since the mid-2010s, the notion of cultural fields as ecologies has been increasingly gaining popularity – especially in regards to musical practices and processes within the system of music production and consumption. While the ecological perspective has so far primarily been understood as a tool for identifying beneficial influencing factors for live music culture (Grant/Schippers et al. 2016) or as a (trans-)local network of social actors within and beyond music (Behr et al. 2016; v.d. Hoeven et al. 2020), it can also be combined with various existing approaches in cultural and music research and used to describe sub-fields or even sub-ecologies of the live music sector. Accordingly, a music ecology can be understood as a totality of different, more or less interconnected sub-ecologies, systems or biotopes with relatively unique modes of functioning, conventions and actor constellations. In this paper, the relationship of the concepts of scene and ecology will be explored by discussing different aspects of compability and combinability between the two approaches. In which way scene might be a valuable approach to further conceptualize music ecosystems? Can scenes be considered as more or less self-reliant entities or ‘biotopes’ within a music ecosystem? Are there any aspects that prevent a combination of the two approaches?

Period	15.07.2022
Event title	Keep it simple make it fast - KISMIF 2022: DIY Cultures, Sustainability and Artistic Ecosystems
Event type	Conference
Location	Porto, PortugalShow on map
Degree of Recognition	International