Politics of Feminist New Materialisms at Music Playschools

Politics of Feminist New Materialisms at Music Playschools: Musicking in the Middle examines how feminist new materialist politics unfold within diverse music playschool practices in Finland. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork across five distinct groups - including sessions for babies, asylum seekers, deaf and hard-of-hearing children, and children with disabilities - the book explores how affirmative politics intersect with restrictive forces of power. By analysing the simultaneity of limiting and empowering forces of power, it situates feminist new materialisms within ongoing conversations about intersectionalities, their dynamic transformations and mutual impact of human and more-than-human elements in the formation of differences. The study discusses the concepts of the middle and middling as methodological and political tools by attuning to human languages, movement, silence, vibrations, and rhythms within musical encounters. Politics of Feminist New Materialisms at Music Playschools: Musicking in the Middle is of interest for scholars and students in feminist theory, gender studies, new materialisms, (ethno)musicology, ethnographic methods, childhood studies, and early music education.

Taru Leppänen is Professor of Gender Studies at the Åbo Akademi University, Finland. Her research interests include music and sound, feminist new materialisms, intersectionality, and children's musical practices.

1. In the Middle of Intersectionalities and New Materialisms at Music Playschools; 2. Babies as Sites of Forces; 3. Musical Citizenship and Asylum Seekers; 4. Aural Diversity among Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Children; 5. Rhythms and Refrains of Children with Disabilities; 6. Conclusion.