Music, Power and Inequity

Music has been used to create and maintain differences and boundaries between people, nations, and cultures. Policy makers have lobbied for national “cultural canons” and are increasingly claiming control over cultural institutions and expressions. At the same time, entities such as the EU have declared music to be an essential component of cultural diversity, stating that music has the power to “bring positive changes in society”. These seemingly paradoxical views of music highlight how it intersects with power and exclusionary tendencies in subtle ways. This raises questions of how power relations condition music in society, and how the power of music conditions societal relations.

The purpose with the project is to consolidate the existing research environment in Musicology, Music and Human Beings, which has been built up along interdisciplinary lines since 2004. The intention is to develop and strengthen the environment further by advancing research around the research program Music, Power and Inequity (MPI). 

The research program has two main objectives:

• MPI will foster a new generation of research leaders capable of promoting and designing inclusive large-scale research projects and agendas, involving research environment members in a more unified way than hitherto possible.

• MPI will operate as a prominent node in a network of research on music, power and inequity, capable of attracting international attention and collaboration.

MPI will have two leaders, Sam de Boise and Nadia Moberg. They will be supported by a steering committee (including a research coordinator) and an international reference group. The overall management responsibilities will rotate, and each leader will lead for 18 months and co-lead for 18 months. The proposed shared leadership is strategically important for the development of junior scholars’ careers as well as for developing a more cohesive, interdisciplinary research environment that integrates a wide variety of research interests relevant to the research program.