Applied ethnomusicology is an approach guided by principles of social responsibility, which extends the usual academic goal of broadening and deepening knowledge and understanding toward solving concrete problems and toward working both inside and beyond typical academic contexts (International Council for Traditional Music 2007). This edited volume is based on the first symposium of the ICTM’s Study Group on Applied Ethnomusicology in Ljubljana, Slovenia in 2008 that brought together more than thirty specialists from sixteen countries worldwide. It contains a Preface, an extensive Introduction, and twelve selected peer-reviewed articles by authors from Australia, Austria, Canada, Germany, Slovenia, Serbia, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America, divided into four thematic groups. These groups encompass: diverse perspectives on the growing field of applied ethnomusicology in various geographical and problem-solving contexts; research and teaching-related connotations; the potential in contributing to sustainable music cultures; and the use of music in conflict resolution situations. The edited volume Applied Ethnomusicology: Historical and Contemporary Approaches brings together previously dispersed knowledge and perspectives, and offers new insights to various disciplines within the humanities and social sciences. Rooted in diverse scholarly traditions, it addresses a variety of challenges in today’s world and aims to benefit the quality of human existence.

Complementing Ethnomusicology: An Introduction, this volume of studies, written by world-acknowledged authorities, places the subject of ethnomusicology in historical and geographical perspective. Part I deals with the intellectual trends that contributed to the birth of the discipline in the period before World War II. Organized by national schools of scholarship, the influence of 19th-century anthropological theories on the new field of "comparative musicology" is described. In the second half of the book, regional experts provide detailed reviews by geographical areas of the current state of ethnomusicological research.