In today's globalized landscapes, both traditional and progressive K–12 music education practices, including those associated with popular music, can further capitalism-related inequities. Richerme’s analysis sheds light on how prevalent practices can inadvertently uphold capitalist ideals and reinforce individualism, unceasing accumulation, and precarity in the workforce. Given that no musical genre inherently challenges problematic aspects of capitalism, Richerme proposes that music educators instead focus on affective flows, or the circulation of sensations within pedagogical spaces, and consider four alternative positionalities: thriving within, surviving under, resisting, and challenging capitalism.
