Mediterranean Byways. Music Across Borders Between Western Europe and the Maghreb
Posted: December 24th, 2024 | Filed under: Calls for Papers | Comments Off on Mediterranean Byways. Music Across Borders Between Western Europe and the MaghrebTransposition no. 14 (2026): “Mediterranean Byways”
Call for papers
Edited by Talia Bachir-Loopuyt and Karim Hammou
Approaches to music, whether in the field of musicology or the social sciences, tend to construct their objects and analyses in accordance with the divisions promoted by nation-states. Such a “methodological nationalism” (Wimmer and Schiller 2003) is not without limitations. It can even result in intractable deadlocks, particularly when examining cultural phenomena that, although constrained by political borders, may also transcend them to varying degrees and in different ways. Paul Gilroy’s proposition (1993) – to construct the Atlantic space as a relevant scale for analysing Afro-diasporic cultural and political practices – and the discussions and research it has inspired have demonstrated the value of considering alternative divisions (Agudelo et al. 2015, Aterianus-Owanga 2024). The term “byways” in the title of this call is borrowed from René Gallissot, a historian specialising in the Maghreb, whose work sought to explore the “transnationalisation at work beneath the model of the nation-state” (Gallissot 2000: 149).
Although based on different premises, examinations of “mobilities” converge with Gallissot’s approach and represent a pivotal theme in contemporary ethnomusicology and music history. They have demonstrated the fruitfulness of discussions focusing on the “Mediterranean” space, as well as the need to question the appropriations of such a notion in music-related fields (Cooper and Dawe 2005, Reynolds 2009 and 2021, van Orden 2021). Historical studies have subjected the “Mediterranean” prism to critical scrutiny (Dakhli 2017), particularly through a renewal of research on (and from) the Maghreb (Dakhlia 2023). Historians, anthropologists, and sociologists are now emphasising the need to analyse approximations and shifts of meaning in both scientific literature and common practice – for example from the “Maghreb” to the “Arab” or “Arab-Muslim” world (Dakhlia 2001). Confronting various perspectives, they suggest, allows to appreciate the interweaving of different scales and spaces – from the scale of cities such as Paris (Ben Boubaker 2024) or Tangiers (Stoneman 2019) to the French, Moroccan, European or African spaces – as well as different types of social boundaries (determined by class, gender, ethnicity, religion, language, etc.).
1 For a comprehensive overview, please refer to his blog: https://milianihadj.wordpress.com
This issue of Transposition seeks to examine the effects and limitations of “national understanding” (Sayad 1991: 294) – the use of analytical categories modelled on the national divisions promoted by state practices. The study of the circulation of music between Western Europe and the Maghreb is proposed as a particularly relevant entry point into this topic. Until now, these circulations have often been approached through those between France and Algeria, as illustrated by the prolific work of Hadj Miliani1, a keen observer and analyst of the musical dynamics on both shores (Miliani 2015; 2018). In the wake of this body of work, researchers from various disciplines have begun establishing a history of musical knowledge. One illustrative example is the much-studied (and debated) collaboration between the French musicologist Jules Rouanet, the Jewish Algerian musician and composer Edmond Nathan Yafil, and the Muslim Algerian musician and composer Mohamed Ben Ali Sfindja (Bouzar-Kasabdji 1992; Miliani 2004, 2018; Théoleyre 2016), towards what is considered one of the first efforts to preserve the North African musical heritage associated with an imagination of “Andalusia” (Pasler 2015; Glasser 2016). Other studies have looked at the role of multinational recording companies (Da Lage Py 2003; Yahi 2009; Ouijjani 2012), the networks of musicians and producers based in France (Yahi 2008; Suzanne 2009; Miliani 2015), the relations between Jews and Muslims in the Maghreb (Silver 2022), etc.
There have also been numerous studies on the dissemination of “Maghreb music” in France at the end of the twentieth century, the emergence of certain genres such as rai or rap (Daouadi and Miliani 1996; Gastault 2016), and the repertoires linked to immigration struggles (Lebrun 2012; Gaulier 2015; Hanus 2015). Many of these studies focus on the French space, without considering the contrasting receptions and perspectives prevailing on other Mediterranean shores. There is also a tendency – common in migration studies – to favour the vocabulary of ethnicity or interculturalism, without sufficiently questioning the legacies of these repertoires (Amselle 2001; Dakhlia 2006; Keyhani 2014; Juteau 2015; Bertheleu 2021).
While building on these precedents, this upcoming issue aims to take a fresh look at the subject by opening it up to other objects and gathering contributions stemming from different schools of thought. Papers may draw inspiration from the various strands mentioned above, as well as from ideas that have emerged from “transimperial” history (Oualdi 2023), connected history (Chaulet Achour et al. 2021), or the historical anthropology of “continuous worlds” (Dakhlia and Kaiser 2013). They may focus on one or more of the following three lines of inquiry.
1. The interweaving of power relations
Analysing the circulation of music implies paying attention to sociopolitical configurations and power relationships that are in flux, and nonetheless generate “unequal communication” (Chevaldonné 1981). A multitude of concurrent and changing processes come into play, encompassing local, imperial, colonial, national, diasporic, federal, and other dynamics. The musical practices and repertoires that emerge in these contexts, on both the northern and southern shores of the Mediterranean, intersect with negotiated representations of the East and the West (Abdel-Malek 1963), of Latinity (Mazari 2011), of Arabness (Danielson 2008; Dakhli 2009; Puig 2011), and so on. Papers may focus on these configurations and their embeddings or points of tensions. They may focus on musicians, but also on the various mediations and intermediaries involved in music through recording, dissemination (via concerts, radio and digital circulation), or heritage-making. Which conceptual and methodological tools may be used to describe and question the historicity of sociopolitical borders (Lamont and Molnár 2002) and the issues of “complex inequality” (Bilge 2010) that unfold in each situation?
2. Connected spaces
Secondly, recent research in the field of Maghreb studies prompts us to consider the contributions and limitations of an examination focused strictly, for example, on mobilities between France and Algeria. It is frequently the case that the circulation of musicians and musical practices, whether between France and Algeria, or Spain or Italy and Morocco (Ciucci 2022), involves mobilities beyond these two locations and interactions with players from other spaces (the Mashriq, the Near East, Eastern Europe, the Sahel, the Atlantic…). This phenomenon has been identified in studies on record labels such as Baidaphon (Scales 2010; Theoleyre 2016), on radio broadcasting before and after a country’s independence (Asseraf 2019), and on the tours of pop stars from Aznavour to Soolking or Warda. In what ways does the study of musical practices, understood in the broadest sense (non-professional and professional musicians, audiences, commercial intermediaries, public policies, etc.), lead us to rethink these spaces, or even to adopt the “Maghreb-Europe space” (Gallissot 2000: 351) as a relevant scale?
3. Representations and constraints relating to mobility
Circulations are based on structures inherited from a long history of mobilities, whose highly diverse contexts and workings also have an impact on musical practices and forms. Some mobilities are linked to collective violence and the resistance to it (Le Foll-Luciani 2015; Asseraf 2022), or to forced migrations providing the material and impetus for various music projects (Laborde/Charles-Dominique 2019). Others have to do with commercial interests (Harlaftis 2007; Rada Nasser 2015), training possibilities (Vermeren 2002), family, and so forth. In some instances, mobility serves a career already launched in the individual’s country of origin, while in other cases, the aspiration to become an artist only emerges after the migration process, or even among the heirs of migrant families, with music becoming a vehicle for the reclamation of cultural identities. These various backgrounds have an impact on the representations made visible and audible in musical practices. Unequal access to mobility, or even the impossibility of migrating, may also be addressed, for example in songs touching upon the transnational representation of “border burners” (Salzbrunn et al. 2015, Souiah 2020). How do artists, intermediaries and audiences negotiate these representations of mobility and the conditions of access to mobility – what François Héran (2018) has described as “the asymmetry between the right to emigrate and the right to immigrate”? How do they express their attachment to multiple territories and groups, musically and otherwise?
The objective of this dossier is to offer a broad, interdisciplinary examination of the circulation of music between Western Europe and the Maghreb. In doing so, it aims to situate this circulation within the broader context of epistemological and theoretical debates questioning the relevance and limitations of the sub- and supra-national divisions which the various contributions will explore. While these may stem from a wide array of disciplines, we expect them to rely on sources, materials and/or precise empirical observations (Revel 1996; Passeron and Revel 2005; Passeron 2006), and to bring to light the interweaving of different issues and spaces through the examination of situated cases and dynamics.
Terms of submission
Proposals may be submitted in French, English or Spanish (approx. 1500-2500 characters including spaces and excluding bibliography) by 15 February to [email protected]. The authors whose proposals are accepted will be notified by 1 March 2025.
The deadline to send the papers will be 1 October 2025.
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Notes
1 For a comprehensive overview, please refer to his blog: https://milianihadj.wordpress.com, accessed December 17, 2024.