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Struggling for integration : universalist and separatist discourses within El Sistema Sweden

Bergman, Åsa ; Lindgren, Monica and Sæther, Eva LU orcid (2016) In Music Education Research 18(4). p.364-375
Abstract

This article focuses on the El Sistema programme, which started up in Sweden in 2010 with the objective to deal with segregation problems typical for Swedish urban areas. The purpose of the article is to examine how promoting integration through music and music education is constructed within El Sistema as a way to help children growing up in multi-ethnic suburbs participate in Swedish society. The empirical material used derives from two different ethnographic research studies conducted in Gothenburg and Malmö. The results show that integration is constructed through two antagonistic discourses competing for hegemony. In the first, the idea of integration is based on a rhetoric of similarities between people playing music together, a... (More)

This article focuses on the El Sistema programme, which started up in Sweden in 2010 with the objective to deal with segregation problems typical for Swedish urban areas. The purpose of the article is to examine how promoting integration through music and music education is constructed within El Sistema as a way to help children growing up in multi-ethnic suburbs participate in Swedish society. The empirical material used derives from two different ethnographic research studies conducted in Gothenburg and Malmö. The results show that integration is constructed through two antagonistic discourses competing for hegemony. In the first, the idea of integration is based on a rhetoric of similarities between people playing music together, a rhetoric drawing on the modernist idea of humans as universal and alike. In the second, integration is articulated through a rhetoric of differences related to cultural affiliation.

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Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
discourse analysis, El Sistema Sweden, ethnography, integration, postcolonial theory
in
Music Education Research
volume
18
issue
4
pages
12 pages
publisher
Routledge
external identifiers
  • wos:000390574900004
  • scopus:84992028453
ISSN
1461-3808
DOI
10.1080/14613808.2016.1240765
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
94aa5b94-c77e-4476-bbb1-2e2eb0c31eb3
date added to LUP
2016-11-16 07:58:52
date last changed
2024-06-28 19:05:24
@article{94aa5b94-c77e-4476-bbb1-2e2eb0c31eb3,
  abstract     = {{<p>This article focuses on the El Sistema programme, which started up in Sweden in 2010 with the objective to deal with segregation problems typical for Swedish urban areas. The purpose of the article is to examine how promoting integration through music and music education is constructed within El Sistema as a way to help children growing up in multi-ethnic suburbs participate in Swedish society. The empirical material used derives from two different ethnographic research studies conducted in Gothenburg and Malmö. The results show that integration is constructed through two antagonistic discourses competing for hegemony. In the first, the idea of integration is based on a rhetoric of similarities between people playing music together, a rhetoric drawing on the modernist idea of humans as universal and alike. In the second, integration is articulated through a rhetoric of differences related to cultural affiliation.</p>}},
  author       = {{Bergman, Åsa and Lindgren, Monica and Sæther, Eva}},
  issn         = {{1461-3808}},
  keywords     = {{discourse analysis; El Sistema Sweden; ethnography; integration; postcolonial theory}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{10}},
  number       = {{4}},
  pages        = {{364--375}},
  publisher    = {{Routledge}},
  series       = {{Music Education Research}},
  title        = {{Struggling for integration : universalist and separatist discourses within El Sistema Sweden}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14613808.2016.1240765}},
  doi          = {{10.1080/14613808.2016.1240765}},
  volume       = {{18}},
  year         = {{2016}},
}