Perspectives on Uniformity, Sameness, and Homogeneity and Proclamations of Pluralism, Diversity, and Heterogeneity

Our times are described as pluralistic and diverse. In the Nordic countries, societies are often described—even officially—as multicultural. People with different cultural and ethnic backgrounds are expected to co-exist and respect each other. Different values are set free from hierarchical conceptual models. Many stories about the world are said to exist side by side and the general perception is that we live in times dominated by a cultural mentality that values difference and ambiguity. The modern educational progress project is questioned by thinkers who are affected by postmodern pluralism and relativistic impulses and the foundation of modern educational thinking, the Grand Narrative of knowledge as growth and development, is shaken. This means that one can no longer associate terms like "true," "real," or "essential" with knowledge. There is no reason to assume that there exists a continuous life cycle that can be described in terms such as "growth," "development," and "maturation." A term such as "identity" may also seem problematic; conceptions of "national tradition," "heritage," "control," and "efficiency" of teaching likewise.

In many ways, this seems like a reasonable description of our times. However, we find some quite contrary tendencies in our societies—tendencies toward uniformity, sameness, and homogeneity--which in the worst case could lead to a simple and naïve understanding of life, society, and culture. Some kinds of technical rationality, instrumental reason, and instrumentalism put their clammy hands on an increasing number of areas of life. This affects thinking in a number of fields, including education, art, science, health, children, sports, and nature.

This tension between proclaimed pluralism, diversity, and heterogeneity—and expressions and experiences of uniformity, sameness, and homogeneity—is the foundation for the reflections in the following individual texts. In our context of philosophy of music education, we naturally focus on music educational questions and discuss different aspects within our field related to what we see as tendencies of uniformity, which paradoxically exist in times of proclaimed diversity.

Two common concepts in the following texts are instrumentalism and technical rationality/instrumental reason. Instrumentalism is the tendency to look at everything and everyone as a means to another goal. Instrumentalists never value music as an end in itself, nor do they appraise human development as an end in itself. Things such as subjects and people are always seen as means and instruments. It is quite common to see instrumentalism as an expression of what is often called technical rationality/instrumental reason. When focusing on technical rationality/instrumental reason, the academic classic is Max Weber.¹ Weber's aim is to understand the character of modern Western rationality and to explain how it has been developed. In this context, it becomes clear that the rationality from the areas of technology and economy undoubtedly has become an important part of modern bourgeois society's ideals of life as a whole. Weber emphasizes how the mathematically founded, rationalized empiricism in Protestant asceticism is an important aspect of the Puritan spirit of capitalism. And, as is the fact with all kinds of discourses, we are enshrouded by this discourse of technical rationality/instrumental reason to a degree of which we are hardly fully aware. It is the way of thinking, taken for granted.

In the field of philosophy of music education, the influence of capitalist rationality and/or neoliberalism has been discussed.² We will argue that this certainly can be seen related to the hegemony of technical rationality/instrumental reason. In many ways, neoliberalism can be seen as a late modern top of the iceberg (known from Reformation time and the Enlightenment) of technical rationality/instrumental reason. The main focus in our texts is therefore, in different ways, related to a more fundamental philosophical problem than neoliberalism as such. One important point in the followings texts is the focus on what we find to be the very iceberg itself: technical rationality/instrumental reason.

We are, however, very well aware of the fact that instrumental thought in society and in education is not a new problem, neither is the critique of this situation. In societies...