Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book shares assessments of the ethical risks and opportunities of research in the contexts of personal or group trauma and environmental deterioration. It reports on Jeff Titon long-term interactions with singers in the Old Regular Baptist church in southeastern Kentucky. The book discusses a different kind of collaboration across a further set of faultlines. It looks at the possibilities for fostering productive collaborations toward social change through use of the arts in health work and development. The book shows that working for change in conjunction with NGOs, foundations, health or development bodies, and other organizations raises new ethical complexities for ethnomusicologists and suggests new components in the training of students in the profession.