Principal investigator: Prof. Dr. Denis Laborde (CNRS Research Director, Centre Marc Bloch Berlin)

Funding agency: CNRS (IRN – International Research network)

Project partners: CNRS, Centre Marc Bloch ; University of Cape Coast, Music and Dance Department Cape Coast (Ghana) ; Columbia University, The Department of Music, New York (USA); London University, King’s College, London (Great Britain); University College London, African Studies Research Center, London (GB); University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research, Amsterdam (The Netherlands); Center for World Music, Universität Hildesheim (Germany); Université de Lausanne, Institut de Sciences Sociales des Religions Anthropole, Lausanne (Switzerland); Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea, Saint-Sébastien (Basque Country, Spain); Sociology Department, Universidad de Chile, Santiago (Chile); Haizebegi Festival, Bayonne (France)

Duration: 2023-2027

The great challenge of IRN Musi-Mig is to bring together distant fields of research related to “music” in a shared dynamic of questioning. We bring them together here in the context of the power of music - or, more precisely, of making music together - to affect social bonds in situations of forced migration. We believe that brought together in a shared questioning, these distinct themes can produce the unexpected and be a source of renewed thinking on the role of cultural practices in situations of forced migration on a globalized scale.

We, therefore, target the reasons for acting "in the name of music" and the differentiated modalities of engagement in situations of music making. The basis of the project is a point of method that we have tested in our previous work: an observation work carried out in a contextualized and situated way, which also mobilizes the resources of filmic analysis.

The objective of the IRN

Four work axes are privileged, which draw as many situations or "institutional characters" as we analyze by case. In this context, the disparity of the situations is an asset to think this casuistry and trying to organize a rise in generality from these multi-situated observations, which aim to integrate into our analyses the internationalization of the question of asylum:

- (i) Activist commitments: What is acting in the name of the music? Here we compare situations in which NGOs propose musical activities in conditions of great precariousness: refugee camps (Moria, Zaatari, Kakuma), various CADAs, and reception structures for victims of natural catastrophes (New York). What does the musician's action in common do in these cases? How is the question of musical repertoires considered? Is music a tool for resilience, training, or a tool for cultural domination that would involve the establishment of a process of vicariousness?

- (ii) Cultural facilities have been built to accommodate (and produce) musical diversity. This is the case with the great festivals of Cape Coast, Rudolstadt, Hanover, New York. It is also the case of the buildings dedicated to fabricating a multicultural society. The Fort d'Aubervilliers is a paradigmatic case: an entire urban renovation program is built around the theater, programming, and mediation activities of the Villes des Musiques du Monde festival, which the public authorities have turned into a tool for social inclusion.

- (iii) Creative networks, most of them informal, are creating new urban dynamics centered on the reception and integration of asylum seekers in innovative participative approaches. What impact does this solidarity activism have on the lives of migrants who get involved in a musical project? And how does the social world that accompanies them change? The case studies are in New York, London, Berlin, and San Sebastian.

- (iv) Institutional arrangements. This time we shift our attention to institutions, focusing on the integrative force of cultural and educational policies, considered from the point of view of emotional mobilizations and musical capabilities but also the point of view of the status and legal frameworks of integration through artistic practice.

On each occasion, we examine how music is used to act on situations, to transform them in an inclusive, participatory, and virtuous way. Let us specify that these virtues are not to be sought in the music "itself" (which can also be an instrument of torture) but in the action in common and in the disposition in which the participants find themselves to believe in the virtue of the musical practice (it is up to the researchers to evaluate the criteriology and the forms of implementation in the situations).

The strength of the team

Internationally renowned scientists are part of this network. All the researchers involved in the network have already worked together, and the fieldwork is carried out within the framework of projects that have already been funded. The serialization of these case studies should allow us to lay the foundations for a generalization that will allow us to better grasp the importance of cultural practices in situations of forced migration and to grasp them in a reflexive form that questions the sustainability of social inclusion policies on a now globalized scale.

Activities

We privilege five modes of operation: 1. meetings of the Scientific Council (the project leaders of each team) twice a year at the ARI Institute; 2. an introductory conference explicitly devoted to questions of method and epistemology; 3. four other annual conferences devoted to each of the four themes of this project, organized by the partners; 4. An annual meeting on the theme of Art and Social Sciences to organize the international cooperation that will accompany the broad scientific program to create an incubator for artistic and scientific projects aimed at creating a framework for the ERC Synergy Grant project.

Objective

The IRN will strengthen the incubator for scientific research and artistic creation for cultural projects with a social vocation that is being created in Bayonne. It will ensure an international influence, not only in terms of visibility but also in terms of replicating the modalities of doing research experimentally. The IRN MusiCap will produce: (i) 11 publications over the next 5 years; (ii) a dedicated website with Pic-Digital (France Relance project with the company Pic-Digital); (iii) an involvement in the Haizebegi Festival in order to make this work known (www.haizebegi.eu); (iv) the ARI Institute has a documentary film team under the direction of Alexandra ENA (director, CNRS Image). Short films (5 min.) will be put online on the website, and a 52 minutes documentary film will be made on the project (funding acquired)

 The IRN is an unrivalled tool for allowing an internationalization of research for units that are far from the major centers of scientific production.

Team members & Institutes:

FRANCE – Prof. Denis LABORDE, Social Anthropology, Centre Marc Bloch, Berlin ; GHANA – Dr. Eric Debrah OTCHERE, Ethnomusicology, University of Cape Coast, Music and Dance Department Cape Coast; USA – Prof. Alessandra CIUCCI, Ethnomusicology, Columbia University, The Department of Music, New York, USA; GREAT BRITAIN - Prof. Martin STOKES, Ethnomusicology, London University, King’s College, London; GREAT BRITAIN - Dr. Hélène NEVEU KRINGELBACH, Anthropology, University College London, African Studies Research Center Gower Street, London; THE NETHERLANDS – Prof. Robert KLOOSTERMAN, Economic Geography, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research, Amsterdam; GERMANY – Dr. Habil. Michael FUHR, Ethnomusicology, Center for World Music Universität Hildesheim (Germany); SWITZERLAND – Prof. Monika SALZBRUNN, Ethnology, Université de Lausanne, Institut de Sciences Sociales des Religions Anthropole, Lausanne (Suisse) ; SPAIN – Dr. Aitzpea LEIZAOLA, Ethnology, Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea, Saint-Sébastien ; CHILE – Dr. Marisol FACUSE MUÑOZ, Sociology, Universidad de Chile, Santiago de Chile.