CALL FOR PAPERS

MUSIC, CULTURE AND GLOBALISATION

Submissions are now invited on any aspect of this theme with papers that seek to explore newer issues relating to this subject, including, but by no means limited to, the following topics (which are, of course, very much interrelated and overlapping):

Musical traditions in transformation
A form of globalisation has been in progress throughout history, which, as a result, constantly transformed music cultures across the globe. This theme intends to extend debates surrounding hybridity, heterogeneity, mestijaze or creolisation, and invites submissions that explain the role played by globalisation (be it economic, political, technological, social and/or cultural) in the transformation of musical traditions. Here, research may focus on the shifting patterns evident in the creation and performance of music over several generations and raise questions, such as: To what extent is it still useful and meaningful to apply ‘the local’ and ‘the global’ in describing musical traditions and transformed musical styles? This theme also invites research concerned with the role played by transmission and learning of musical traditions (both in local/informal and formal educational contexts) in effecting musical transformation.

Music, place and identity
Under this broad theme, submissions are invited that seek to explain the complex links between places, music and cultural identities and extend debates on the global/local nexus, space and time. Research might focus on the migration of aesthetic practices, or borders and border crossing, or ask questions such as: What is the role played by music in connecting, or disconnecting, local communities from their sense of place? Why have discourses on globalisation marginalised the importance of place and locality? What is the impact of global flows of scapes on the intersection of place-making and music-making? To what extent can musics truly embody and express the new social identities that emerge as products of migratory de-territorialisation and transnational diasporic development? What is the impact of cyber- and other spaces on people’s negotiation and construction of place and identity through music? Or, what is the role played by place and locality within the context of the nation-state and political struggle?

New centres and peripheries?
Recent years have shown that the cultural domination of economically powerful Western culture industries within the global capitalist market has not led to the eroding of local, indigenous cultures and traditions. Instead, local and national alternatives are constantly reviving, leading to the emergence of new local musical forms and identities. Within this context, papers are invited that move beyond current debates on cultural or media imperialism, and homogeneity. Questions may be asked, such as: To what extent is it still applicable to suggest a movement from the centre to the periphery, or vice versa? Instead, what is the role played by the local music industries and new media technologies in democratising musical activity around the globe? Therefore, are we witnessing the emergence of new centres and peripheries? Here, papers may also address the significance of resistance to dominant cultural orders, be it through cultural activism within political contexts; musical indigenisation and glocalisation; or other forms of musical resistance that aim at unsettling dominant hegemonies.

Music, mediation and tourism
The commercial success of musical industrialisation in the age of globalisation is partially made possible through the way in which the music industry mediates difference and exoticism, reducing music to a marketing category that trades and promises a particular kind of experience to its consumers who share an escapist desire for ‘aural tourism’. Under this theme, submissions are invited that discuss and critique the mediated commercialisation of musical tourism, be it through the commodification of world music or world beat in print; the selling of musical difference and exoticism in film; the marketing of ‘ethnic’ musical tourism in advertisements; or similar. Questions may address, for example: How do ideas of essentialism, ethnocentrism and demands for musical authenticity and exoticism impact on the mediated commercialisation of ‘the local’ in music? What is the role played by nostalgia in constructing and mediating authentic musical experiences for tourist consumers? Or, what is the impact of the fetishisation of difference and the exotic on people and cultures locally?

New approaches to ethnographic enquiry and research methods
The world has undergone and currently is undergoing rapid change. Much of this change is associated with the development of new technologies. These have impacted on the ways in which we talk to each other, view news and documentaries, revisit history, and share the experiences of other social groups. Technologies have enabled us rapidly to traverse the globe physically, transmit information almost instantaneously, and send goods around the world in hours or days. Indeed, technologies have reduced the effects of space and time not just in everyday life, but also in the conduct of ethnographic enquiry and research methods. Within this context, papers are invited that consider how the new media technologies have impacted on ethnomusicological enquiry and research. Questions may consider, for example: What is the impact of new technologies on ethnographic inquiry in cyber- or virtual spaces? What are the affordances brought by digital and other newer communication technologies to ethnographic fieldwork? Or, what are the methodological challenges faced by ethnographers who have applied new approaches in their research?