What we know today as ”globalization” is formative to the production of culture. Flows of people, goods, ideas and money are at the heart of this process. Cultural hybridization seems to be one intrinsic aspect of these flows. Nationalism and ethnicity as well as transnational and diasporic forms are other such aspects. But can these flows and forms really be understood within the sedentarist, nation-state theoretical framework (methodological nationalism)?
These issues are important in my research on Nepal’s musical life. You cannot do research on music without finding yourself entangled in questions of cultural authenticity and cultural hybridization, of nationalism and nation-building, and – especially in Nepal! – ethnic identity and ethnic mobilization.
At the Department of Ethnic Studies (tema E) in Linköping and at Ceifo in Stockholm I’ve been able to develop this research further. Ethnic and migration studies (IMER), including those of diasporas and transnationalism, typically study down. The researcher is from a Western university, the subjects are less privileged. (Like here.) What happens if we turn the searchlight 180 degrees? Isn’t there also a white diaspora of anthropologists, journalists, aid & development personnel, tourists, and so on, who travel, work and live in ”the Third World”?
Publications
Vit diaspora - tredje världen som möjlighetsrum. In Erik Olsson et al, eds, Transnationella rum. Diaspora, migration och gränsöverskridande relationer, p. 327 - 356. Umeå: Boréa, 2007. Review 1. Review 2. Publisher’s presentation.
Rooting and routing in South Asian popular music: the role of Kathmandu. Paper presented at INTER: A European Cultural Studies Conference in Sweden 2007.
Music under development: children’s songs, artists, and the (pancayat) state. Studies in Nepali history and society (SINHAS) vol 10 (2005) no. 2 p. 255 - 293
Western transnationalism in the Third World. Paper presented at Kulturstudier i Sverige – nationell forskarkonferens, ACSIS, Norrköping, 2005.
The Soundscape of the Radio. Engineering Modern Songs and Superculture in Nepal. In Paul D. Greene & Thomas Porcello (eds), Wired for Sound: Engineering and Technologies in Sonic Cultures, p. 222–44. Middletown, Conn.: Wesleyan University press. 2005. Review 1. Review 2. Review 3. Publisher’s presentation. In Google book search.
Musikern - en evig migrant. I & M : invandrare & minoriteter vol 30 (2003) no. 5 p. 40 - 42
”Our pale-eyed guests”. Notes on a Westerner diaspora and its hosts. Paper presented at Staden och staten. Etnicitet, migration och medborgarskap. IMER-konferensen 2002.
Bofasthetens operativsystem. Imer- och globaliseringsforskningen om livsformer och global rörlighet (Erik Olsson & Ingemar Grandin). Kulturella perspektiv : svensk etnologisk tidskrift - Vol 8 (1999) p. 33 - 48
Bofasthetens bojor. Funderingar utifrån en professor i rörelse (Ingemar Grandin & Erik Olsson). In Ullabeth Sätterlund Larsson & Kerstin Bergqvist, eds, Möten - en vänbok till Roger Säljö p. 275 - 295. Linköping : tema Kommunikation, 1999
Raga Basanta and the spring songs of the Kathmandu Valley: a musical Great Tradition among Himalayan farmers? European bulletin of Himalayan research 1997 p. 57 - 80
"To change the face of this country." Nepalese progressive songs under pancayat democracy. Journal of South Asian literature vol 29 (1996) p. 175 - 189
One song, five continents, and a thousand years of musical migration. Saragam sangitik traimasik vol 1 no 1 (1995) p. 56–65.
Modernisation and revival in a Newar tradition: the songs of Ram Krishna Duwal. In M. Juntunen, W. L. Smith & C. Suneson (eds), Sauhrdyamangalam. Studies in Honour of Siegfried Lienhard on his 70th Birthday, p. 117–39. Stockholm: The Association of Oriental Studies, 1995.
Nepalese urbanism: A musical exploration. In Michael Allen (ed), Anthropology of Nepal: People, problems and processes p. 160 - 175. Kathmandu: Mandala Book Point, 1994. Publisher’s presentation. Publisher’s presentation.
När en musiktradition medialiserar. Nepal i förändringarnas tidevarv. In Ulf Hannerz (ed), Medier och kulturer p. 171 - 205. Stockholm: Carlssons, 1990.
Varför skulle vi sjunga utländska sånger? Om moderna sånger, medier och traditionell nevarimusik i Nepal. In Owe Ronström (ed), Musik och kultur p. 21 - 64. Lund: Studentlitteratur, 1990
Music and media in local life. Music practice in a Newar neighbourhood in Nepal. Linköping, 1989. (Second edition forthcoming from Mandala Publications, Kathmandu.)
Jhamsikhel, Lalitpur, October 2008