The Research page is dedicated to the study of flamenco as a lived framework of knowledge – or what might be termed a “flamenco epistemology”. Our work seeks to move beyond the mere chronicling of musical events to investigate how the art form functions as a specific mode of understanding the world, articulated through its own contested histories and social realities. This enquiry is situated primarily within the so-called edad de oro or “Golden Age” (circa 1870 to 1930), a pivotal era in which “progressive” and “traditionalist” politics were pitted against each other in a battle for cultural domination.
This research practice adopts a “reparative” methodology, seeking to understand the tradition as many-voiced and productively contested. We navigate the complex intersections of social history, cultural anthropology, and musicology to document the “agonistic tensions” between the aesthetic and the social. Whether examining the “intonational density” of the cante or the strategic “enlargement” of folk materials, our aim is to bear witness to the enacted agency of a community that has consistently maintained its cultural autonomy in the face of hostile encirclement.
The Flamenco Effect 