Let Us Say Yes: Music, the Stranger and Hospitality

Editor's note: Defining what civic space is, and further defining how music might contribute to the create of that space, would seem to suggest the need for understanding what it is we are looking for. Generally, as politicians and public administrators, we might look for outputs - more voters at the polls or more citizens joining activist groups - in order to define the health of civic society and our success in sustaining and improving it. However, these seemingly tangible outputs may not always express or address the quality of relationships among citizens, or the level of integration of difference, as much as they express the perceived conflict among individuals over narrow interests. Helen Phelan suggests that music provides a space for the intangible to occur, for people to adjust to each other according to their own time and accordingly to the complexity of human relationships. Her analysis of the nature of music and her findings among immigrant women and Travellers in Ireland have significance for public policy that defines the manner and space in which citizens interact and long-term sustainable civic relatioships are created.