Journal of Popular Music Education
CALL FOR PAPERS – EXTENDED DEADLINE
Special Issue: 'Popular Music Education in Europe' (to be published summer 2025)
Guest Editors
Lucy Green (Emerita Professor of Music Education, UCL, UK)
Avra Pieridou Skoutella (CCRSM Cyprus Centre for the Research and Study
of Music)
Europe is comprised of over 50 sovereign states and dependent territories which,
within and between themselves, have multifarious cultures, sub-cultures, ethnic and
religious groups, along with rich and diverse cultural heritage, values and customs,
turbulent histories, and struggles of nationalist movements. Some of its contemporary
states and people have been trying for decades to unite the European people under
the European Union's umbrella against the continuous influences of fragmentation,
economic interests, histories, nationalism, and ideological and political dilemmas.
The current times pose challenges, with wars, financial crises and intense immigrant
phenomena. On the one hand, such circumstances largely leave European people
limited or blocked by various forms of disadvantage from which they must constantly
strive to liberate themselves. On the other hand, they empower people's motivation
for connection and connectivity, for expression and resistance, for empathy and
solidarity, for surviving and thriving. In developing this Call for Papers, we are already
faced with critical questions that we hope will be explored in the ensuing issue. What
is popular music in contemporary Europe? Where did it come from? Who is Europe
today, musically? How do the different musical ecosystems of European countries,
cultures and sub-cultures influence and/or reflect popular music education? To what
extent does music education in Europe acknowledge such influences? What is the
relationship between music education and popular music in different educational
systems of each country? To what extent can we talk about 'European popular music',
or shall we talk about 'Popular music in Europe'? Many more questions such as these are
imaginable.
Music education in Europe is a diverse musical beehive (or beehives) which embrace
a vast, colourful, fluid and vibrant spectrum of musical styles, cultures, and practices
departing from folk, religious, cross-over, and composed music, to popular music in
all its manifestations. It produces, reproduces, negotiates, articulates, and transforms
values, ideas, customs, functions and uses, and major critical issues at each moment.
In Taranto Italy, one of the largest open-air music festivals takes place yearly that
blends tradition, history, folk melodies and rhythms with syncretic and hybrid music
performances. Street Parade, the World's Largest Techno Party, takes place every
August in Zurich, Switzerland, and big electronic music festivals happen in the
Netherlands, Belgium, and Romania, to mention a few. The UK hosts one of the
largest popular music festivals in the world at Glastonbury. During the last several
years, the music and practices of immigrants and refugees who have inhabited the
continent in large numbers have added to the picture. How does all of this reflect in
different music education contexts?
The topic is complex and vast, and this issue aims to provide a forum that can bring a
range of perspectives from different European contexts together into one publication.
We invite contributions on, but not limited to, the following themes:
•Current situation of popular music education in different European countries
•Comparative perspectives across European countries and/or regions
•Cultural heritage, identities, belongingness, and popular music education in Europe
•Historical dimensions of popular music education in Europe
•Popular music education and European citizenship
•Critical issues of music education and popular music education (social justice, human
rights, democracy, solidarity)
•Popular music education's critical purposes for the creative future of European music
•Music ecosystems and community in Europe
•Immigrants and refugees to Europe and the role of popular music education in their
lives
•Influence of European or global music industry and media on music education
•Interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary practices in European popular music education
•Creativities and technologies in European music education
•Popular music in European Higher Education, schools and other learning-and-teaching
contexts
•The future of popular music education across European countries
Authors should submit manuscripts of between 4,000 and 6,000 words, although
longer articles up to 8,000 will be considered (double-spaced, Times New Roman,
font size 12, including references). Please refer to the Intellect style guide when
preparing a submission.
Full papers should be uploaded via the journal's website at www.intellectbooks.
com/journal-of-popular-music-education or using the submissions portal via the
JPME website by 1 January 2025. Article which are accepted will be published in the 'Online
First' section of the journal, with a view to collating all articles relevant to the special issue for
publication in hard copy in 2025.
Enquiries are welcome, and should be emailed to the issue's guest editor Dr Avra
Pieridou Skoutella, at
avraps@crsm.org.cy