A theoretical approach to agentivity and race in the social performance of music

Beata Kowalczyk, "A theoretical approach to agentivity and race in the social performance of music". 

Panel 2 : Son et représentations ethniques / Sound and ethnic representations 

Sociologists of music and cultural production have found that racial inequalities are deeply embedded in the structures and institutions of the arts and cultural industries and consistently disadvantage certain racial groups. These researchers have shown that artists struggle to overcome racial oppression, but that their efforts often inadvertently lead to further reification and perpetuation of racial segregation in the cultural and creative industries. In my talk, I present a theoretical model that can help to better understand how artists and creative workers respond to racial oppression in contexts where racial meanings are activated. Inspired by cultural pragmatics, I theorise five types of performative response to racial stigma and marginalisation, ranging from denial of the importance of race in the arts, through respect for artists’ racialised representations, to an attempt to emancipate themselves from these representations. I argue that a more detailed analysis of the way in which actors in artistic and cultural production deal with difference is fundamental to understanding the social and cultural processes of change and the reinforcement or mitigation of inequalities. The theoretical insights gained may be applicable to other contexts in which professionals are vulnerable to stigmatisation and marginalisation and where this is reinforced by the intertwined axes of difference: race, gender, age, class and disability. 

More informations: https://mshbordeaux.hypotheses.org/10930 

Colloque "Le Japon sonore : modernité, constructions sociales, rapports de force / Japan and sound: modernity, social constructs and power relations" 14-16 novembre 2024