Music, Identity and Multiculturalism: A study of the role of music in ethnic-based associations

Music Identity and Multiculture is an ethnographic project that uses a multidisciplinary approach to examine the functions of music for participants in ethnic-based associations. The overall aim is to explore how music influences cultural identity formation and also serves as a means of effecting social change for ethnic minorities in Sweden. Does ethnic music making distance minority groups from Swedish society, or does it have the potential to promote dialogue with the surrounding community? What tensions between these two outcomes might exist? 

The research questions are: What is the significance of music for the associations’ participants? Who participates, why, and what meaning does music have for them? What power structures exist within the associations, and how are these related to age and gender? What importance do music and the association hold in relation to other group memberships held in wider social or cultural contexts? How are global diasporic musical influences represented within local, urban, and national contexts? To what extent is intra-group identity strengthened and do cross-border meetings take place? 

This project uses a critical ethnography approach and methods for the empirical data collection are participant observation, individual interviews, and focus group interviews. The fieldwork will be conducted within a number of different associations located in three cities: Gothenburg, Malmö, and Stockholm.