Unfreezing identities: Exploring choral singing in the workplace
Journal article, Peer reviewed
![Thumbnail](/oda-xmlui/bitstream/handle/10642/2972/1263034.pdf.jpg?sequence=6&isAllowed=y)
View/ Open
Date
2015Metadata
Show full item recordCollections
- SAM - Handelshøyskolen [394]
Original version
Jansson, D. & Balsnes, A.H. (2015). Unfreezing identities: Exploring choral singing in the workplace. International Journal of Community Music, 8(2), 163-178. doi:10.1386/ijcm.8.2.163_1 http://dx.doi.org/10.1386/ijcm.8.2.163_1Abstract
The topic of this article is the emerging trend of singing at work. The discussion isbased on case studies of singing interventions carried out at two different workplaces. Our phenomenological and hermeneutic approach focuses mainly on theemployees’ experience of singing at work. The research data comprises groupinterviews, participant observation and questionnaires. The analysis was structuredby thematic coding of the interview data. The discussion is illuminated mainly byEtienne Wengers community of practice theory (1998). The following researchquestions were explored: How do the members of a workplace communityexperience choral singing? What implications do the participants see for themselvesas individuals and for the organisation? We identified four axes of impact:enjoyment, comfort zone, communality, and identity and roles. A workplace choirchallenges perceptions about how collegues view each other and transformindividual identities. Consequently, the choir may also change the workplace as apractice community.