A Sociotechnical Network Analysis of Bluegrass Practitioners and Instruments: Competing Definitions, Motivating Authenticities, and Tradition-Respecting Innovations

This study applies a sociotechnical network analysis based on Actor Network Theory (ANT) to the bluegrass musical community. Three definitional emphases are identified within bluegrass; these emphases structure and bound the network based on instrumental practices, historical progression, or the community. The study shows how bluegrass practices, such as festivals and jams, temporarily restructure the network, creating and maintaining connections among actors. Further, the study shows how authenticity, conceptualized either as personal expression or as adherence to tradition, motivates actors toward these definitional emphases and connects to larger philosophical and cultural themes beyond bluegrass. The project also applies this network analysis to the instruments of bluegrass. It examines the banjo's history before bluegrass, showing how actors attempted to disentangle the banjo from its previous networks and place it into new musical and cultural networks, making changes both to the material instrument and to its meanings, thereby making possible the position it assumed in bluegrass. The project concludes by examining the place of vintage instruments in the bluegrass network and the need for boundary-crossing instrument makers.

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctor of Philosophy

Level thesis:degree_level

doctoral

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Science and Technology Studies

Department dc:contributor.department

Science and Technology Studies

Grantor dc:publisher

Virginia Tech

Year dc:date.issued

2025

Author dc:creator

• Carroll, William Anthony

Chair dc:contributor.committeechair

• Abbate, Janet E.

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Prieto-Nanez, Fabian
• Collier, James H.
• Olson, Philip R.

• bluegrass community
• authenticity
• tradition
• banjo
• Actor Network Theory
• Science and Technology Studies
• Sound Studies
• bluegrass music

Statement dc:rights

• In Copyright

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Language dc:language.iso

en

Dc Identifier Other

vt_gsexam:44802

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/139691