Music scholars in society

Advancing social justice through activist music research

This Kone Foundation funded research project studies music and social justice. The study addresses music’s potential for social change. It has an activist ethos and aims to redress practices in Finnish music culture that perpetuate inequity with regards to gender, race, nationality and the environment. 

Topics investigated in the project include contemporary art music, the classical concert repertoire, and the history of women composers in Finland, the history of music in sports, the use of music in the environmental movement, course literature in musicological education, African club scene in Finland, as well as the history of Finnish migrant activist in north America and in Soviet Karelia. The research methodology combines rebellious and action-oriented research, gender and critical whiteness studies, institutional critique, ecomusicology, as well as microhistory and the history of marginalization. 

In cooperation with other actors, institutions and people within the field of music, the project 1) produces information about music as a tool for change, 2) makes music practices more socially accountable, and 3) creates new methods for activist music research. We publish research articles and popular writings, we organize conferences and research based, conversational open music events, we publish information packages, guides and song books.

Six researchers are employed in the project in different periods between 2020-2025. The researchers are:

Adjuct Professor Juha Torvinen (Principal investigator)
Adjuct Professor Susanna Välimäki (Vice-principal investigator)
Dr Kaj Ahlsved
Dr Sini Mononen
Dr Kim Ramstedt
Dr Saijaleena Rantanen

We argue that music can be harnessed as a tool for social change. This argument is tested through activist and action research, where actors, institutions and people are included in the production of knowledge and in actions for change.

Subprojects

In his sub-study, Dr. Juha Torvinen aims at transforming the ways in which contemporary art music discusses and deals with the themes of nature and society. The first part of the sub-study focuses on classical music discourse in Finland with the intention to explore the ways contemporary music contributes to negotiations about social grievances and efforts to make life better. At the same time, more eco-sensitive and societally conscious ways to talk about contemporary music are looked for. The study focuses especially on the critical dissolving of oppressive structures maintained by contemporary classical music culture. The second part or the project creates a dialogical composition with the theme of humans’ relationship to nature. This work is made together with composers Lauri Supponen and Riikka Talvitie. Wave motion – Perspectives to Nature for String Quartet, Video and Electronics was premiered in July 2021 in Tuusula, Finland, by Kamus String Quartet.

Dr. Kaj Ahlsved studies sport association’s music and singing- cultures from the perspective of equality and civil society engagement, with a special focus on context where music and sports as two vehicles for societal change interweave. The project has a historical perspective and includes, among other things, the study of the music practices of the gymnastics movement(s), workers’, and bourgeois sports associations, as well as the publication of sports-related sheet music in Sweden and Finland until 1939. The study aims to deconstruct the myth of unity and equality associated with sport, highlighting “sport music” as multifaceted tools for manifesting ideologies and identities that – especially in the context of worker’s sports – both unites and separates different strata of the population. An important aspect of the of research is to through collaboration and popularization highlight the versatile use and production of music in/for sports contexts throughout sports history.

Dr. Sini Mononen focuses in the research project on the musical practices of the international environmental movement. During the duration of two years, her project studies, for instance, what kind of music is present in the public space in Finland in the context of Extinction Rebellion Finland. By employing the methods and traditions of ethnography, cultural music research and activist music research, the study produces information on the musical styles, genres, themes, and practices in the context of the international environmental movement today. The study contributes to updating the history of the music in environmental movement and political music in Finland. 

Dr. Kim Ramstedt is in his sub-project investigating whiteness and patterns of racialization in the field of music and music research. He explores how the concept of race is used (or avoided) in (ethno)musicological research and education in Finland and how manifestations of multiculturalism in music media and in festival marketing have maintained tropes of white saviourism. Ramstedt also conducts autoethnographic research as a white DJ involved in the African club scene in Finland, where he addresses the challenges involved in implementing anti-racist practices in a club context. The aim of the sub-project is to find ways to more explicitly implement principles of anti-racist activism in the methods and pedagogics of music research.

FT, dosentti Susanna Välimäki tutkii (1) sukupuolisen tasa-arvon toteutumista klassisen musiikin konserttien ohjelmistoissa tämän päivän Suomessa, erityisesti esitettyjen teosten säveltäjiin keskittyen. Samalla Välimäki tutkii (2) Suomen klassisen musiikin naishistoriaa. Hanke kehittää sukupuolisesti tasa-arvoista konserttiohjelmointia ja musiikkikulttuuria sekä tuottaa uutta tietoa naisten säveltämästä musiikista ja sen edistämisestä yhteiskunnassa. Keskeisiä työskentelymenetelmiä ovat yhteistyö konserttijärjestäjien ja musiikki-instituutioiden kanssa, juonnetut konserttisarjat, radio-ohjelmat, mediatekstit, nuottien (kriittisten laitosten) julkaisu, museonäyttely sekä tietopakettien tuottaminen. Tutkimusartikkelien ohella Välimäki kirjoittaa yhdessä FT Nuppu Koiviston kanssa laajan ensyklopedian Sävelten tyttäret: Säveltävät naiset Suomessa pitkällä 1800-luvulla, joka esittelee noin 70 historiallista suomalaista säveltäjänaista ja heidän tuotantonsa.

MuM, FM Saijaleena Rantanen pyrkii osahankkeessaan muuttamaan ja täydentämään käsityksiämme musiikin historiasta tuomalla esille ”unohdettua” ja/tai vaiettua (musiikin) historiaa. Rantanen tarkastelee erityisesti amerikansuomalaisen työväenliikkeen radikaalien aktivistien musiikkitoimintaa Yhdysvalloissa, Kanadassa ja Neuvosto-Karjalassa 1900-luvun alusta toiseen maailmasotaan. Suomalaisista siirtolaisaktivisteista on olemassa hyvin vähän tietoa, sillä ”kollektiivinen muistinmenetys” vaikuttaa edelleen etenkin ”punaisten” siirtolaisten vaiheita ja kulttuuria koskevaan tietoon. Rantanen pyrkii tuomaan vaiettua historiaa näkyväksi ja koettavaksi arkistoaineiston ja muistitiedon sekä niiden pohjalta toteutettavien julkaisujen sekä musiikkitapahtumien, kuten konserttien, keskustelu- ja yhteislaulutilaisuuksien avulla. Aikaisemmin käyttämättömän aineiston valossa siirtolaisten historia, identiteetit ja syyt radikaaliin toimintaan näyttäytyvät uudella, todenmukaisemmalla tavalla. Erityisen huomion kohteena ovat naisaktivistit, jotka kirjoittivat ja joista myös kirjoitettiin lauluja.

Publications related to the project can be found on the Finnish version of the website.