Arts-based pathways for sustainable transformation towards a more equal world
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.7577/ar.5159Keywords:
transformative education, agents of change, music and gender, curriculum transformation, arts-based methods, SDG 5 gender equality, SDG 10 reduce inequalitiesAbstract
The cultural sector is a potential instigator of change due to its experimental, performative, and relational nature. However, like everywhere else, the cultural sector re-enacts and thus conserves inequalities of various kinds through its outreach to wider audiences and its deep engagement in socio-cultural practices. By taking our actions within the ERASMUS+ project ‘Voices of Women’ as a creative catalyst, this paper scrutinizes a set of items for further discussion of arts-based pathways for sustainable transformation towards a more (gender) equal world. We discuss the ability of the arts to engage, educate, and transform power relations through three pathways towards sustainable transformation: 1. Canon critique; 2. Decolonization; and 3. New materialism. We argue that all three pathways enable novel forms of knowledge creation and actions in arts-based research, arts education, the cultural sector, and beyond.
Cover image: Still picture from film: Music and Gender in Balance (Mittner and Bergli, 2018)
References
Ahmed, S. (2017). Living a feminist life. Duke University Press.
Alaimo, S., & Hekman, S. (2008). Material feminisms. Indiana University Press.
Balansekunstprosjektet (2023). What does Norwegian cultural life look like? https://www.balansekunstprosjektet.no/statistics
Bathelt, H., Malmberg, A., & Maskell, P. (2004). Clusters and knowledge: Local buzz, global pipelines and the process of knowledge creation. Progress in Human Geography, 28(1), 31-56.
Beauvoir, S. de. (1972). The second sex. Penguin Books. (Original work published 1949.)
Becher T. & Trowler P. R. (2001). Academic tribes and territories: Intellectual enquiry and the culture of disciplines. The Society for Research into Higher Education and Open University Press.
Behr, A. (2021, 18th May). Arts education is facing massive cuts – yet its value is felt everywhere. The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/arts-education-is-facing-massive-cuts-yet-its-value-is-felt-everywhere-160844
Bennett, J. (2010). Vibrant matter: A political ecology of things. Combined Academic Publishers.
Benneworth, P., Gulbrandsen, M., & Hazelcorn, E. (2018). The impact and future of arts education research. Palgrave. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-40899-0
Benneworth, P., Maxwell, K., & Charles, D. (2022). Measuring the effects of the social rural campus. Research Evaluation. https://doi.org/10.1093/reseval/rvac027
Bey, M. (2022). Black trans feminism. Duke University Press.
Biagioli M. (2009). Postdisciplinary liaisons: Science studies and the humanities. Critical Inquiry 35(4), 816–833. https://doi.org/10.1086/599586
Biggs, M. (2010). The Routledge companion to research in the arts. Taylor and Francis.
Blix, H. S., & Ellefsen, L. (2021). On breaking the ‘citational chains of gender normativity’ in Norwegian art and music schools. In S. V. Onsrud, H. S. Blix, and I. L. Vestad (Eds), Gemder issues in Scandinavian music education (pp. 156–179). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003038207-8
Boler, M. & Zembylas, M. (2002). Discomforting truths: The emotional terrain of understanding difference. In P. P. Trifonas (Ed.), Pedagogies of difference: Rethinking education for social justice (pp. 115–138). Routledge.
Born, G. & Devine, K. (2015). Music technology, gender, and class: Digitization, educational and social change in Britain. Twentieth Century Music 12(2), 135–172. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1478572215000018
Bourriaud, N. (2002). Relational aesthetics. Presses du réel.
Branlat, J., Velasquez, J., & Hellstrand, I. (2022). Tentacular classrooms: Feminist transformative learning for thinking and sensing. Journal of Transformative Education, 21(1), 26–40. https://doi.org/10.1177/15413446211068556
Canton, W. (2022). I spit therefore I am: Rap and knowledge. Interfere: Journal for Critical Thought and Radical Politics (3), 58–81.
Charles, D. (2016). The rural university campus and rural innovation – conflicts around specialisation and expectations. Science and Public Policy 43, 763–773.
Christensen-Redzepovic, E. (2019, 14th May). Gender equality: Gender balance in the cultural and creative sectors. Voices of Culture. https://voicesofculture.eu/2019/05/14/gender-balance-in-the-cultural-and-creative-sectors/
Citron, M. (1993). Gender and the musical canon. University of Illinois Press.
Csikszentmihalyi, M. & Robinson, R. E. (1990). The art of seeing: An interpretation of the aesthetic encounter. Getty Publications.
Crenshaw, K. (1991). Mapping the margins: Intersectionality, identity politics, and violence against women of color. Stanford Law Review 43(6), 1241–1299. https://doi.org/10.2307/1229039
Cusick, S. (1994). Feminist theory, music theory, and the mind/body problem. Perspectives of New Music, 32(1), 8–27. https://doi.org/10.2307/833149
Deleuze, G. & Guattari, F. (1987). A thousand plateaus: Capitalism and schizophrenia (B. Massumi, Trans.). University of Minnesota Press. (Original work published 1980.)
DeNora, T. (2000). Music in everyday life. Cambridge University Press.
Dewey, J. (1934). Art as experience. Perigee Books.
Ege, S. (2021). Chicago, the ‘City We Love to Call Home!’: Intersectionality, narrativity, and locale in the music of Florence Beatrice Price and Theodora Sturkow Ryder. American Music 39(1), 1–40.
European Commission, Directorate-General for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture, & A. Menzel (2021). Towards gender equality in the cultural and creative sectors: Report of the OMC (open method of coordination) working group of Member States’ experts. https://data.europa.eu/doi/10.2766/122208
Eriksen, K. G., Goldschmidt-Gjerløw, B., & Jore, M. K. (Eds.). (2022). Kontroversielle, emosjonelle og sensitive tema i skolen. Universitetsforlaget.
Ewell, P. (2020). Music theory and the white racial frame. Music Theory Online 26(2). https://doi.org/10.30535/mto.26.2.4
Ewing, S. (2022). Decolonizing research methods: Practices, challenges, and opportunities. In A. Day, L. Lee, D. S. P. Thomas, and J. Spickart (Eds), Diversity, inclusion, and decolonization: Practical tools for improving teaching, research, and scholarship (pp. 125–139). Bristol University Press.
Figueroa, M. A. (2020). Decolonizing ‘Intro to world music’? Journal of Music History Pedagogy 10(1), special issue, Decolonization, 39–57. http://www.ams-net.org/ojs/index.php/jmhp/issue/view/27
Fjørtoft, K. (2020). Fra hverdagspraksis til strukturell urettferdighet. Tidsskrift for kjønnsforskning 44(1), 39–52. https://doi.org/10.18261/issn.1891-1781-2020-01-04
Freire, P. (1972). Pedagogy of the oppressed. Penguin.
Frodeman R. (Ed.) (2010). The Oxford handbook of interdisciplinarity. Oxford University Press
Goehr, L. (2002) [1992]. The imaginary museum of musical works: An essay in the philosophy of music. Clarendon.
Green, L. (1997). Music, gender, education. Cambridge University Press.
Haraway, D. (2016). Staying with the trouble: Making kin in the Chthulucene. Duke University Press.
Haselmann, L., Klok, J., & Mittner, L. (2021). Autumn talk and ocean songs. Dramatic assemblage – methods and relevance of performative historiography. In A. Langenbruch, D. Samaga, and C. Schupp-Maurer (Eds), Musikgeschichte auf der Bühne—Performing music history (pp. 375–398). Transcript Verlag. https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783839457467-021/html
Hawkins, S. (Ed.) (2017). The Routledge research companion to popular music and gender. Routledge.
Holdhus, K. & Murphy, R. (2021). Conceptualising music education as ‘craft’: Responses to an invitation. In K. Holdhus, R. Murphy, and M. I. Espeland (Eds), Music education as craft: Reframing theories and practices (pp. 13–24). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-67704-6_2
hooks, b. (1994). Teaching to transgress: Education as the practice of freedom. Routledge.
hooks, b. (2003). Teaching community: A pedagogy of hope. Routledge.
Hovland, E. (Ed.) (2012). Vestens musikkhistorie. Fra 1600 til vår tid. Cappelen Damm.
Karlquist A. (1999). The meanings of interdisciplinarity. Policy Sciences 32(4), 379–383.
Kontturi, K.-K. & Tiainen, M. (2007). Feminism, art, Deleuze, and Darwin: An interview with Elizabeth Grosz. NORA - Nordic Journal of Feminist and Gender Research, 15(4), 246–256. https://doi.org/10.1080/08038740701646739
Kopnina, H. (2016). The victims of unsustainability: A challenge to sustainable development goals. International Journal of Sustainable Development and Ecology 23(2), 113–121. https://doi.org/10.1080/13504509.2015.1111269
Kurikka, H., Kolehmainen, J., & Sotarauta, M. (2018). Constructing regional resilience in a knowledge economy crisis – the case of the Nokia-led ICT industry in Tampere. In P. Benneworth (Ed.), Universities and regional economic development: Engaging with the periphery (pp. 163–179). Routledge.
Landwehr, A. (2020). Diesseits der Geschichte: Für eine andere Historiographie. Wallstein Verlag.
Lave J. & Wenger E. (1991). Situated learning: Legitimate peripheral participation. Cambridge University Press.
Leavy, P. (Ed.). (2018). Handbook of arts-based research. The Guildford Press.
Losleben, K., Maric, F., & Gjærum, R. G. (2023). Learning for sustainable transformation. In K. Flørtoft, K. Losleben, and M. Duarte (Eds), Gender, diversity, equity, and inclusion in academia: A conceptual framework for sustainable transformation (pp. 261–270). Routledge. http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9781003363590-28
Lotherington, A. T. (2023). Gender awareness and feminist approaches in dementia studies. In J. R. Fletcher & A. Capstick (Eds), A critical history of dementia studies. Routledge.
Macarthur, S. (2016). Dialoguing with the divided self as the outline of a becoming-woman in music. Australian Feminist Studies, 30 (86), 386–401. https://doi.org/10.1080/08164649.2016.1148065
McClary, S. (1991). Feminine endings: Music, gender, and sexuality. University of Minnesota Press.
McGee, K. A. (2009). Some liked it hot: Jazz women in film and television, 1928–1959 (Illustrated edition). Wesleyan University Press.
Maxwell, K. (2023). Excellence. In Flørtoft, K., Losleben, K., and Duarte, M. (Eds), Gender, diversity, equity, and inclusion in academia: A conceptual framework for sustainable transformation (pp. 108–117). Routledge. http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9781003363590-28
Maxwell, K. & Benneworth, P. (2018). The construction of new scientific norms for solving grand challenges: The Norwegian Idélab programme. Palgrave Communications 4. Special collection: Scientific Advice for Governments. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41599-018-0105-9. http://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-018-0105-9
Maxwell, K. & Fosse Hansen, S. (2022). Decolonizing music history in Scandinavia: Reflections from the chalkface. Danish Musicology Online. Special issue: European Music Analysis and the Politics of Identity, 107–114. https://www.danishmusicologyonline.dk/arkiv/arkiv_dmo/dmo_saernummer_2022/dmo_saernummer_2022_european_music_analysis_06.pdf
Meghji, A., Tan, S., & Wain, L. (2022). Demystifying the ‘decolonizing’ and ‘diversity’ slippage: Reflections from sociology. In A. Day, L. Lee, D. S. P. Thomas, and J. Spickart (Eds), Diversity, inclusion, and decolonization: Practical tools for improving teaching, research, and scholarship (pp. 31–47). Bristol University Press.
Meling, L. K., Mittner, L., & Fadnes, P. F. (2023) (forthcoming). Decolonizing higher education: Rationale and implementation from the subject of music history. In E. Angelo, M. F. Duch, S. S. Kolaas, and O. B. Øien (Eds), MusPed:Research. NOASP, Cappelen Damm Akademisk.
Meling, L. K. (2005). Kvinnelige komponister i skyggen av tradisjonell musikkhistorie. AmS Varia 41, Feministisk teori, kvinne- og kjønnsforskning i Rogaland, 83–92.
Meling, L. K. (2012). Instrumentalmusikk 1600-1800. In E. Hovland (Ed.) Vestens musikkhistorie. Fra 1600 til vår tid (pp. 84–125). Cappelen Damm.
Mittner, L. (2016). Möglichkeitsräume. Studien zum kulturellen Handeln komponierender Frauen des 19. Jahrhunderts in Norwegen. Wehrhahn.
Mittner, L. (2018). ‘Students can have a really powerful role…’. Understanding curriculum transformation within the framework of canon critique and critical pedagogy. Journal for Research in Arts and Sports Education 2(2), 62–74. https://doi.org/10.23865/jased.v2.928
Mittner, L. (2023). Gender balance. In Flørtoft, K., Losleben, K., and Duarte, M. (Eds), Gender, diversity, equity, and inclusion in academia: A conceptual framework for sustainable transformation (pp. 232–238). Routledge. http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9781003363590-28
Mittner, L., Blix, H. S., & Gürgens, R. G. (2022). Sustainable Gender Equality. Opening the black-box of quality assessment in higher arts education. In A. Skjerven & M. Fordham (Eds.), Gender and the sustainable development goals (pp. 83–98). Routledge. http://doi.org/10.4324/9781003174257-8
Mittner, L. & Bergli, T. (2018). Music and gender in balance film. Gender Balance in Art Education Project / RESULT at UiT The Artic University of Norway. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNBwkiAvOGc
Mittner, L., Haselmann, L., & Klok, J. (2020). RESCAPE manifesto. https://site.uit.no/rescape/manifesto/
Mittner, L., Meling, L., Klok, J., & Smith, B. (2022). Knowledge base for the ERASMUS+ project Voices of women (VOW). Septentrio Reports, 1, Article 1. https://doi.org/10.7557/7.6569
Moen, S. N. (2019, 29th October). Orkestrene spiller gammel musikk av menn. Ballade.no. https://www.ballade.no/kunstmusikk/orkestrene-spiller-gammel-musikk-av-menn/
Morton, T. (2021). All art is ecological. Penguin.
Mreiwed, H., Carter, M. R., & Mitchell, C. (2020). Art as an agent for social change. Brill Sense.
Nochlin, L. (1971). Why have there been no great women artists? ArtNews, January. Republished 2015 at https://www.artnews.com/art-news/retrospective/why-have-there-been-no-great-women-artists-4201/
Onsrud, S. V., Blix, H. S., & Vestad, I.- L. (Eds) (2021). Gender issues in Scandinavian music education: From stereotypes to multiple possibilities. Taylor and Francis. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003038207.
Østern, T. P., Jusslin, S., Nødtvedt Knudsen, K., Maapalo, P., & Bjørkøy, I. (2021). A performative paradigm for post-qualitative inquiry. Qualitative Research, 21 (3), 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1177/14687941211027444
Ronan, J. & Davies, P. F. (2018). Queer encounters: Bitextuality and comics. Sequentials 1(2). https://www.sequentialsjournal.net/issues/issue1.2/davies-ronan.html
Smith, L. M. (2012). Knowledge transfer in higher education: Collaboration in the arts and humanities. Palgrave Macmillan.
Solie, R. (1995). Musicology and difference: Gender and sexuality in music scholarship. University of California Press.
Spivak, G. C. (1988). Can the Subaltern Speak? Die Philosophin, 14(27), 42–58. https://doi.org/10.5840/philosophin200314275
Spaiser, V. Ranganathan, S., Swain, R. B., & Sumpter, D. J. T. (2017). The sustainable development oxymoron: Quantifying and modelling the incompatibility of sustainable development goals. International Journal of Sustainable Development & World Ecology 24(6): 457–470. https://doi.org/10.1080/13504509.2016.1235624
Stimeling, T. D. & Tokar, K. (2020). Narratives of musical resilience and the perpetuation of whiteness in the music history classroom. Journal of Music History Pedagogy 10 (1), special issue, Decolonization, 20–38. http://www.ams-net.org/ojs/index.php/jmhp/issue/view/27
Stige, B. (2021). Artistic citizenship and the crafting of mutual musical care. In K. Holdhus, R. Murphy, & M. I. Espeland (Eds), Music education as craft: Reframing theories and practices (pp. 89–104). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-67704-6_8
Tiainen, M., Leppänen, T., Kontturi, K., & Mehrabi, T. (2020). Making middles matter: Intersecting intersectionality with new materialisms. NORA - Nordic Journal of Feminist and Gender Research, 28(3), 211–223. https://doi.org/10.1080/08038740.2020.1725118
Uhrmacher, P. B. (2009). Toward a theory of aesthetic learning experiences. Curriculum Inquiry 39(5), 613–636. http://www.jstor.org/stable/20616455
Walker, M. 2020. Towards a decolonized music history curriculum. Journal of Music History Pedagogy 10(1): special issue, Decolonization, 1–19. http://www.ams-net.org/ojs/index.php/jmhp/issue/view/27
Wang, M. (2017). The socially engaged practices of artists in contemporary China. Journal
of Visual Art Practice 16(1), 12–38. https://doi.org/10.1080/14702029.2016.1179443
Wenger, E. (1998). Communities of practice: Learning, meaning, and identity. Cambridge University Press.
Werner, A., Gadir, T., & de Boise, S. (2020). Broadening research in gender and music practice. Popular Music, 39 (3–4), 636–651. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0261143020000495
Wekker, G. (2016). White innocence: Paradoxes of colonialism and race. Duke University Press.
Wollenberg, S. (2021). ‘Where Are We Now?’: Teaching and studying women composers post-Citron. In R. Mathias (Ed.), The Routledge handbook of women’s work in music (pp. 19–25). Routledge.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2023 Lilli Mittner, Lise Karin Meling, Kate Maxwell
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).