Thanks to the support of Axel Vervoordt and Koen Kessels and the Inspiratum Foundation [1] , the Compagnie Sucrière [2] , and the Banda da Musica [3] , Lukas Pairon is returning to Kinshasa in 2024 and in 2025 to conduct further research with the young musicians who took part in his PhD-research from 2012 to 2016 - former members of violent gangs (kuluna) and young people formerly known as 'child sorcerers' and 'street children' (sheges) who have become musicians. During this complementary research, he revisits them and assess with them the role that learning music may have played in their lives - whether or not they have remained musicians.

This follow-up research is carried out through a cross-disciplinary, participatory study, which is again assisted by a Congolese team with in-depth knowledge of the local community relays.

Routledge New York wants in 2026 to publish a new short-format book on this complementary research in their 'focus titles' series. The title of this book is: 'The Art of Positive Fatalism - lessons from Kinshasa'. A French-language version of this new book is also planned, which will be made available in free access or print on command.

Lukas is preparing 'Kinshasa en Polyphonie - Résonances de la Cité', a  podcast of 3 episodes in French, during which especially the young musicians from Kinshasa will be heard.  These podcast episodes will first in August-September 2025 be broadcast on Radio Okapi (UN-Monusco) and then become available online.

The Institute of Sociology at the University of Jena has invited Lukas Pairon for the period 2024-2025 as a visiting scholar, enabling him to develop this post-doctoral research, accompanied by sociologist Hartmut Rosa [4] from this institute. Biologist Olivier Hamant [5] (INRAE, École Normale Supérieure, University of Lyon) also accompanies this research.

[1] www.axel-vervoordt.com/vision#chapter-inspiratum

[2] www.finasucre.com/fr/compagnie-sucriere/

[3] www.labandademusica.com/

[4] Hartmut Rosa: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hartmut_Rosa / In the 15th episode of the SIMM podcast, Hartmut Rosa is interviewed about his theory of 'resonance': www.buzzsprout.com/1424293/10091559

[5] Olivier Hamant: www.ens-lyon.fr/en/research/honors-and-awards/olivier-hamant-biologist-rdp