Necropolitical Effigy of Music Education: Democracy’s Double

The commitment to all things democratic in educational spheres has inspired and generated much contemporary conversation in music education scholarship. Aside from demonstrating the possible discrepancies between what democratic ideals in education pledge to do and how they are materialized in learning situations, at least on the theoretical plane, there has not been strong opposition to, or refutation of the pillars upon which the construct of democracy, political or otherwise, is seated. Informed by Achille Mbembe’s concept of necropolitics, I would like to extend the critique to interrogate (the adjective) “democratic” in education and citizenship discursive practices as a lethal problem. I seek to unravel the violence inherent in the notion of democracy in the field of music education and suggest that a music education based solely on the ideals of democratic participation and engagement risks becoming half of what it purports to do and be. It becomes an effigy.