isaScience 2018 - Participatory Approaches to Music & Democracy

Over the last few decades, a rich body of literature has explored how individuals and groups use music as a resource to achieve social, cultural and political participation and to bring about social change in society. Studies have also investigated music’s use by political groups and parties in the past and present that impose authoritarian, neoliberal or even fascist political ideas. Finally, research is concerned with the promise and myth of democratization through technology in regard to music production, distribution and reception/appropriation.
The organisers of isaScience welcome papers on music and democracy from a wide range of disciplines (e.g. musicology, ethnomusicology, music sociology, cultural studies, queer studies, postcolonial studies, arts and cultural management) addressing (but not limited to) the following themes and topics:
Music’s role for historical revolts and revolutions, for propagating national and nationalistic identities in the long 19th century or music’s use in the name of “the people” during fascist and post-fascist periods;
Research on performance practices of minorities and marginalised groups that challenge and subvert dominant norms and classifications;
Democratizing dimensions of orally transmitted music traditions;
Grassroots, “bottom-up” and Do-it-Yourself approaches to music and performance propagated by social movements;
Research on music and activism: e.g. activist choirs, feminist and queer performance groups, anti-racist rock groups, singer-songwriters;
Participatory forms of “musicking” (Small) in local, translocal and virtual music “scenes”;
Documenting and preserving the “sounds of democracy” and “hidden” popular music’s past: studies on archives, museums and halls of fame;
Music, migration, border regimes and exile;
Representations of democracy in artistic practices (e.g. composing);
Research on “mediamorphosis” (e.g. electrification, digitalisation) and its effects for democratization: “new” possibilities of self-representation, modes of participation for consumers, and business models in the music and media industries;
Notions of “epistemic violence” (Spivak) in music research.