Representation, Recognition and Repositioning of Identities

: A multi-sited, qualitative study into the ways in which identity features in the accounts of participants and providers of music-making programmes for people who have emigrated seeking asylum from war or persecution

Abstract

People who emigrate from war or persecution, seeking asylum in a new country, often face long and challenging processes of bureaucracy and adaptation; both of which raise questions of identity. These challenges are compounded by prevalent discourses that represent people with migrant identities in reductive and generalised terms related to the threats they pose or the needs they have. Such acts of representation, manifested through media representation as well as political rhetoric and policy, function to establish and sustain relations of power (Foucault, 1980a, 1980b). One response to these issues of identity and social positioning has been the establishment by practitioners and organisations in the humanitarian field, of participatory music-making programmes.

A systematic search and conceptual analysis of literature revealed the prevalence of identity concepts, which often inform the rationale for intervention designs and findings in this academic field. However, there was a lack of cohesion found between conceptual approaches, and a need was identified for a theoretical basis to better understand the concept of identity as it features in participatory music-making groups with this population group. A multi-sited qualitative research study was undertaken in the UK and the Netherlands of participatory music-making programmes that actively invite or are targeted towards people who have migrated as refugees. Using grounded theory based thematic analysis of ethnographic interviews with music facilitators and organisers, and constructing illustrative stories from group members’ accounts, identity was found to feature across the data in relation to processes of representation, recognition and repositioning. By affording opportunities for recognition and repositioning, participatory music-making is framed as a representational act, capable of disrupting oppressive discourses. At the same time, caution and reflexivity are implied, as the potential was also found for music facilitators to replicate the same problematic hegemonic discourse.

Date of Award	Dec 2020
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Winchester
Supervisor	June Boyce-Tillman (Supervisor) & Norma Daykin (Supervisor)