THE MUSIC STUDENT AS ENTREPRENEUR:
AN ETHNOGRAPHIC STUDY BASED IN THE NORTH EAST OF ENGLAND

Abstract

At the heart of this thesis is the analysis of the entrepreneurial context within which communities of university music students learn, and how this affects students’ abilities to embark on self-managed careers.

Traditionally, the creative sector has high numbers of self-employed workers and significantly nearly three quarters of musicians are self-employed. Based on and contributing to this knowledge, previous studies have been carried out on the lives of working musicians and the destinations of music students from conservatories, but little is known about the specific case of university music students (a more diverse group), whilst they are still studying and anticipating entry into the world of work.

Building on existing ethnomusicological studies of conservatories and university music departments, and recent studies on the working lives of musicians, this study illuminates processes at work in three different communities of university music students in the North East of England. The methodology, drawn from ethnography, seeks to illustrate the students’ identities, perspectives and attitudes through observing their entrepreneurial behaviour, individually and within their wider communities, and exploring how they envisage their future life-worlds as working musicians.

The thesis outlines a new conceptual model ‘the music student as entrepreneur’ arguing that a pedagogical approach which draws directly upon theories of entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial learning, rather than generic theories of student employability and career development, offers a more appropriate working framework in seeking to facilitate professional development for university music students. In doing so, the thesis also repositions some key theories of entrepreneurship by drawing them into a new interdisciplinary location.