Bells and bell ringing have been a regular part of the English experience for upwards of four hundred years. Change ringing is a specific type of bell ringing, created in England, where the bells ring in sequences. Currently in decline, the central bodies of the change ringing world are scrambling for solutions to prevent complete generational turnover. A supposed anomaly to the trend, at the time of research the University of Bristol Society of Change Ringers had twenty-four resident members, most of whom, including myself, met regularly on a Tuesday evening to practice. Following them and myself as individuals and as a group during these Tuesday evening practices and in interviews, I aim to unpack how change ringers interact, what they deem important, and what challenges arise as their contemporary interests clash with the hobby. What I uncover is a Foucauldian ethical project which is both collective and influential across the times and places of my interlocutors. This project has emerged from a gap in purpose in the change ringing world caused by ethical tensions with the Church of England. The ethical project’s telos is to maintain change ringing as a discipline, and this is achieved by fashioning oneself ethically into the perfect ringer. This perfection is exemplified at an event which I follow for a significant portion of the work, the National 12-Bell Striking Contest.
Tone of Contention: the Ethical Project of English Change Ringing
Mcara, I. C. F. (Author). 9 Dec 2025
Student thesis: Master's Thesis › Master of Philosophy (MPhil)