Speaker: Professor Maria Westvall (Rhythmic Music Conservatory (RMC), Copenhagen)

Activities based on cultural expressions, such as singing, playing and dancing, seemed to have considerable social impact, and the ethnic-based associations played an important part in the cultural variety of cities, often functioning as broad platforms for social engagement and inclusion. These diasporic experiences of association members can become explorative tools, specifically through explicit processes of musicking as described by Small (1998).  

Drawing from these findings, this presentation discusses how these forms of musical participation and cultural production inform the concept of citizenship – signified in this case by active public engagement and agency, rather than on formalised membership to a nation-state.