This article considers the implications of children’s out-of-school musical experiences and activities for conceptualisations of child agency. In particular, it engages with differing approaches to relational agency and considers their value for understanding music-related practice during middle childhood. Accounts from children (n = 111) living in three parts of England are explored, and the subsequent analysis provides the basis for proposing the potential of an interactional–relational approach for approaching questions about children’s agency within such domains of practice and beyond.
AlanenL (2001) Exploration in generational analysis. In: AlanenLMayallB (eds) Conceptulizing Child-Adult Relations. London: Routledge Falmer, pp. 11–22.
2.
BarrettMS (2006) Inventing songs, inventing worlds: The ‘genesis’ of creative thought and activity in young children’s lives. International Journal of Early Years Education14(3): 201–220.
3.
BeckerJ (2001) Anthropological perspectives on music and emotion. In: JuslinPSlobodaJ (eds) Music and Emotion: Theory and Research. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 135–160.
4.
BurkittI (2016) Relational agency: Relational sociology, agency and interaction. European Journal of Social Theory19: 322–339.
5.
CampbellP (1998) Songs in Their Heads: Music and Its Meaning in Children’s Lives. New York: Oxford University Press.
6.
CrossleyN (2011) Towards Relational Sociology. London: Routledge.
7.
DeNoraT (2000) Music in Everyday Life. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
8.
DépelteauF (2008) Relational thinking: A critique of co-deterministic theories of structure and agency. Sociological Theory26(1): 51–73.
9.
DépelteauF (2013) What is the direction of the ‘relational turn’? In: PowellCDépelteauF (eds) Conceptualizing Relational Sociology: Ontological and Theoretical Issues. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 163–185.
10.
DépelteauF (2015) Relational sociology, pragmatism, transactions and social fields. International Review of Sociology25(1): 45–64.
11.
EmirbayerMMischeA (1998) What is agency?American Journal of Sociology103(4): 962–1023.
12.
EsserFBaaderMBetzTHungerlandB (eds) (2016) Reconceptualising Agency and Childhood. New perspectives in childhood studies. London: Routledge.
13.
GellA (1998) Art and Agency: An Anthropological Theory. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
14.
GergenKJ (2009) Relational Being: Beyond Self and Community. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
15.
GreenL (2001) How Popular Musicians Learn: A Way Ahead for Music Education. London: Ashgate.
16.
GreeneSMHillM (2005) Researching children’s experiences: Methods and methodological issues. In: GreeneSHoganD (eds) Researching Children’s Experiences: Approaches and Methods. London: SAGE, pp. 1–21.
17.
HutchbyIMoran-EllisJ (eds) (1998) Children and Social Competence: Arenas of Action. London: Routledge Falmer.
18.
JamesA (2010) Competition or integration? The next step in childhood studies?Childhood17(4): 485–499.
19.
JamesAProutA (1990) Constructing and Reconstructing Childhood: New Directions in the Sociological Study of Childhood. Oxford: Routledge.
20.
KarlsenS (2011) Using musical agency as a lens: Researching music education from the angle of experience. Research Studies in Music Education33(2): 107–121.
21.
KraftlP (2013) ‘Beyond “voice“, beyond “agency”, beyond “politics”? Hybrid childhoods and some critical reflections on children’s emotional geographies’. Emotion, Space and Society9(1): 13-23.
22.
LamontA (2008) Young children’s musical worlds: Musical engagement in 3.5-year-olds. Journal of Early Childhood Research6(3): 247–261.
23.
LatourB (2005) Reassembling the Social. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
24.
LeeN (2001) The extensions of childhood: Technologies, children and independence. In: HutchbyIMoran-EllisJ (eds) Children, Technology and Culture: The Impacts of Technologies in Children’s Everyday Lives. New York: Routledge Falmer, pp. 153–169.
25.
LeonardM (2016) The Sociology of Children, Childhood and Generation. London: SAGE.
26.
MannionG (2007) Going spatial, going relational: Why ‘‘listening to children’’ and children’s participation needs reframing. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education28(3): 405–420.
27.
MarshK (2008) The Musical Playground: Global Tradition and Change in Children’s Songs. New York: Oxford University Press.
28.
MayallB (2000) The sociology of childhood in relation to children’s rights. The International Journal of Children’s Rights8: 243–259.
29.
MayallB (2002) Towards a Sociology of Childhood. Thinking from Children’s Lives. Buckingham: Open University Press.
30.
OswellD (2013) The Agency of Children: From Family to Global Human Rights. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
31.
Phillips-SilverJAktipisCBryantG (2010) The ecology of entrainment: Foundations of coordinated rhythmic movement. Music Perception28(1): 3–14.
32.
RaithelhuberE (2016) Extending agency: The merit of relational approaches for Childhood Studies. In: EsserFBaaderMBetzTet al. (eds) Reconceptualising Agency and Childhood. Oxford: Routledge, pp. 89–102.
33.
SchaferRM (1994) The Soundscape: Our Sonic Environment and the Tuning of the World. Rochester: Destiny Publishers.
34.
TafuriJ (2009) Infant Musicality: New Research for Educators and Parents. London: Routledge.
35.
TaggP (1999) Introductory notes to music semiotics (Unpublished paper, version 3, no. 50). Available at: http://www.tagg.org/xpdfs/semiotug.pdf (accessed 10 October 2010).
36.
ValentineK (2011) Accounting for agency. Children and Society: The International Journal of Childhood and Children’s Services25(5): 347–358.
37.
YoungS (2008) Lullaby light shows: Everyday musical experiences among under-two-year-olds. International Journal of Music Education26(1): 33–46.
38.
YoungS (2012) Theorizing musical childhoods with illustrations from a study of girls’ karaoke use at home. Research Studies in Music Education34(2): 113–127.