Power relations in Higher Music Education – expert paper

I was delighted to be asked to deliver an expert paper to the Power Relations in Higher Music Education (PRiHME) network. PRIhME is a strategic partnership of 9 institutions who examine the issue of power relations in the higher music education (HME) sector, funded by the European Commission’s Erasmus+ programme.

They have agreed to allow me to share the paper publicly. You can download it here. The paper draws on my research as well as wider work in the field from Rosie Perkins, Geoff Baker, and Christina Scharff, among others, to introduce the concepts of power relations and hierarchies in higher music education institutions. It then explores how these intersect with social inequalities and are reproduced through invisible practices. Finally, it outlines challenges and ways forward for addressing them.

Many thanks to David-Emil Wickstroem and all his colleagues in the PriHME for their important work and for inviting me to be involved in the conversation.