2022 IASPM-Norden conference: “Disciplining Music Heritage”
organised jointly with the Finnish Society for Ethnomusicology
13–14 October 2022, Seinäjoki, Finland
The deadline for proposals is 31 March 2022. Please visit this website for the call and further details:
Please direct your enquiries to (discipliningmusicheritage /at/ gmail.com) <mailto:(discipliningmusicheritage /at/ gmail.com)>.
The next IASPM-Norden Conference takes on the topic of music heritage in Seinäjoki 13–14 October 2022
The two-day conference is organised jointly by the Nordic branch of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music (IASPM) and the Finnish Society for Ethnomusicology and hosted by the Seinäjoki Unit of the University of the Arts Helsinki.
Call for presentations
Music is deeply implicated in issues of intangible cultural heritage (ICH), and to further critical interdisciplinary investigation into the topic, the Nordic branch of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music (IASPM-Norden) and the Finnish Society for Ethnomusicology (SES) cordially invite all interested individuals to participate in the conference. As the title of the event evinces, a central aim is to interrogate the disciplinary boundaries, frameworks and repercussions when dealing with music as heritage. In addition to takes on academic disciplinary politics and idiosyncratic whims of scholarship, the organisers invite proposals addressing all levels and settings of music heritagisation, ranging from global organisations and national authorities to local tourist boards and municipal administration of creative industries.
Suitable themes and topics include, but are not restricted to, the following:
Theory and definitions of music heritage. Scholarly debate about music heritagisation has increased tremendously in recent years. For instance, roughly two thirds of the peer-reviewed articles that mention “music heritage” have been published after 2010. Additionally, special academic journal issues have been devoted to popular music and jazz festivals. But how exactly is music heritage defined and conceptualised in this discussion; are certain genres and repertoires deemed heritage more readily than others, and what is the weight of disciplinary settings and distinctions in the process? How do ethnomusicology, popular music studies and heritage studies interrelate as they engage with music as intangible cultural heritage? Is “heritage music”, as suggested by some, simply a new type of “popular music”, and if so, how might such a reconceptualisation affect the logic of categorising music in general?
Politics of music heritage. It may be argued that “heritage” is primarily a value, not a thing, and that instead of asking whether something is heritage or not, it is more pertinent to consider how heritage is done. Thus potentially anything can become heritage, raising immediate questions about the power relations and vested interests involved. Given the tendency to associate musical styles and genres with ethnicity, gender and subcultural formations in particular, at issue here is how music heritagisation interlinks with the construction of cultural identities. What are the ideological underpinnings at work, and how does music heritage become implicated in the dynamics of social and cultural inclusion and exclusion? What kind of explicit and implicit motivations and goals are involved when constructing music as heritage in different disciplinary environments? As heritage inevitably mobilises ideas of a common past, questions about music heritage are further tied to the dynamics of cultural memory and the disciplinary politics of music historiography; what are the social and cultural groups whose music is being remembered, historicised and heritagised, and how and why?
Music in the official lists of intangible cultural heritage. Since 2008, over three hundred phenomena relating to music and dance have been inscribed in the UNESCO ICH lists (ich.unesco.org), ranging from ones in need of urgent safeguarding such as Sega tambour Chagos of Mauritius, to globally widespread idioms representative of humanity, as Reggae music of Jamaica. Depending on definitions, the lists are dominated by forms of traditional music, alluding to questions about the importance or even dominance of ethnomusicological expertise in music-related ICH administration, and relatedly, about the role of UNESCO in sanctioning ethnomusicology as a field of heritage expertise. Also, the UNESCO framework stipulates that national heritage agencies maintain their own ICH lists.
Music heritage, tourism and local branding. Music is often used in promoting certain locales, and especially in urban contexts styles and artists of popular music are exploited as indicators of vibrant creativity. The initiative for such action may originate from municipal economic interests, but is sanctioned on a global level again by UNESCO through its Creative Cities Network. Alongside Kingston and Liverpool, the network includes forty cities ranging from Adelaide and Amarante to Veszprém and Vranje. Here, relevant avenues of scrutiny include local branding as heritagisation (or vice versa), interconnections between heritage, creative industries and urban renewal, as well as dynamics of urbanisation in general. Moreover, at issue are the ways in which music and heritage are disciplined in the context of tourism, by tourist offices and travellers alike.
Music heritage and interdisciplinarity. The levels and frameworks of disciplining music heritage are interconnected, especially through the reliance of global and national decision-making on scholarly expertise. In the field of ethnomusicology, for instance, the International Council for Traditional Music (ICTM) is in formal consultative relations with UNESCO. But does this mean that ethnomusicology is more concerned with the conventional safeguarding paradigms of heritage management than popular music studies, where the emphasis is arguably on critical heritage studies, and that there is seldom any collaboration between the fields? This leads further to questions about how the notion of heritage relates to ideals of multi-, inter- and transdisciplinarity, especially as ethnomusicology, popular music studies and critical heritage studies alike tend to be celebrated as such, sometimes even in a self-aggrandising fashion.
In addition to presentations addressing the designated conference theme, all other topics falling within the remit of IASPM or SES are welcome.
Alongside conventional conference papers, panels and posters, the organisers welcome other presentation forms as well (e.g., films, workshops). Please send an abstract of no more than 300 words, preferably as a PDF file, to (discipliningmusicheritage /at/ gmail.com), no later than 31 March 2022.
Please make sure to include in your abstract:
the name(s) of presenter(s) and their affiliation(s)
the title of the presentation
the text body, explicating the objective, materials and methods
no more than five keywords
If you are proposing a full panel with individual presentations, please include an abstract of each presentation alongside a brief summary of the panel. Notifications of acceptance will be sent by 15 May 2022.
Guest speakers and further information
The organisers are happy to announce Salwa El-Shawan Castelo-Branco (NOVA University Lisbon), Sverker Hyltén-Cavallius (Swedish Performing Arts Agency, Stockholm), Barley Norton (Goldsmiths, University of London) and Rosa Reitsamer (University of Music and Performing Arts Wien) as guest speakers at the conference.
Conference committee:
Chair: Antti-Ville Kärjä, University of the Arts Helsinki, Finland
Secretary: Anna Peltomäki, University of Turku, Finland
Jelena Gligorijevic, University of Turku, Finland
Juho Kaitajärvi-Tiekso, University of the Arts Helsinki, Finland
Mischa van Kan, Linnæus University, Sweden
Elina Westinen, University of Jyväskylä, Finland
Doctoral candidates wishing to participate may also be interested in a doctoral seminar to be held on 10–12 October 2022 at the conference venue. The theme of the seminar is the cultural study of music in all its variety.
The conference is hosted by the Seinäjoki Unit of the University of the Arts Helsinki. Seinäjoki is a regional urban centre located some 300 km north from Helsinki and served by several direct train connections daily. Details about registration, travels, accommodation and participation fees will be communicated in due course.
Enquiries about the conference should be sent to conference secretary Anna Peltomäki at (discipliningmusicheritage /at/ gmail.com).