ACM Speaker Series: Lukas Pairon

A special ACM Speaker Series event with Lukas Pairon in collaboration with the Department of Arts, Culture and Media, and SoundLife Scarborough. This event is open to all UofT staff, students and the general public.

Music-Making and the Art of Positive Fatalism: Lessons from Kinshasa

"What continues to emerge strongly in my research with the young musicians of the social music projects in Kinshasa is their recurring message: Even when their music-making has little material or social impact, they still choose to continue this activity because of its intrinsic value. This was one of the observations which led me to develop the concept of positive fatalism — a posture of embracing what cannot be changed while still engaging in acts of purpose and creativity.

I wish to share these findings at the 10th SIMM-posium to invite reflection on how we understand the meaning of socially engaged music-making in settings where the ambition for transformation must coexist with deeply entrenched structural stagnation. My goal is to contribute to a more nuanced appreciation of the intrinsic motivations behind music-making practices in such contexts, and to discuss the ethical implications of evaluating their ‘impact.’

The research began by investigating how music-making might help support individuals in navigating the extreme limitations of daily life. Gradually, my focus broadened to ask how people —musicians and non-musicians alike — manage to make things work within such constrained realities."

About Lukas

"My professional journey has made me work in the fields of music, international cooperation, and research. I was co-founder and for twenty years director of the Brussels-based contemporary music ensemble Ictus. In 2005, I started the non-profit organization Music Fund, which supports music education in regions affected by conflict or poverty by providing musical instruments and training repair-technicians of music instruments. In 2015 I started with our scholarly network SIMM, and in 2022 I founded the academic Chair Jonet at the University of Ghent. Over time, these experiences led me to reflect on the social roles that music-making can play, especially in challenging contexts.

This reflection developed into a research trajectory. My doctoral research for the Faculty of Political and Social Science of Ghent University (2012-2019) focused on young people in Kinshasa who, through structured music-making, managed to reshape their social identities.

My work has long focused on the role of music-making in contexts affected by structural marginalisation and limited public infrastructure, particularly in Kinshasa, DR Congo. For my postdoctoral research (2024-2025) for the University of Jena (supervised by sociologist Hartmut Rosa and biologist Olivier Hamant) I decided 8-9 years following the fieldwork for my PhD to go back to Kinshasa to explore how music-making helps people navigate the constrained realities of life there."

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