Playing the system: ‘Race’-making and elitism in diversity projects in Germany’s classical music sector

Kristina Kolbe*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

7 Citations (Scopus)
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Abstract

This paper explores to what extent diversity initiatives in the Western classical music sector can be associated with progressive institutional change, or the reproduction of elite formations and processes of ‘race’-making. Drawing from interview and ethnographic data, I examine a self-described ‘intercultural’ children's choir project, which has been developed by an established classical music institution in Berlin. Set against the project's institutional setting and its political context, where the legacies of German imperialism and racialised guestworker policies continue to manifest, I interrogate how diversity is negotiated in the organisational and social workings of the choir. My analysis documents the ambivalent ways in which diversity becomes commodified into a strategic approach to cultural recognition, social mobility and the remaking of white elitism, leading to the continuous construction of racialised others whose (symbolic) labour is extracted for the reproduction of classed and raced hierarchies. The paper therefore shows how diversity initiatives in the Western highbrow sector, even when pushed for with genuine intentions of institutional change and social justice, operate on a hierarchical terrain and risk being turned into an elite-making and ‘race’-making endeavour which secures privileged positions of middle-class whiteness.
Original languageEnglish
Article number101532
JournalPoetics. Journal of Empirical Research on Culture, the Media and the Arts(online)
Volume87
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Aug 2021

Research programs

  • ESHCC A&CS

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