Higher Music Education and Employability in a Neoliberal World

This open access edited collection shows how neoliberalism continues to shape higher music education institutions, curricula design and learning cultures, as well as the various ways of transitioning from education to work and the world of uncertainty and job insecurity currently being experienced by a younger generation of musicians. The book brings together empirical studies, activist voices, theoretical reflections and autoethnographic studies from a broad range of disciplines, work contexts and geographical regions. These contributions examine how race/ethnicity, gender and class pervade the creation, performance and teaching of music and create the context for the reproduction of social inequalities. They also illuminate the notions of employability, entrepreneurialism and meritocracy that underpin higher music education and the music labour markets in Italy, Portugal, the Netherlands, Sweden, Estonia, Hungary, Finland, the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada and China, and provide insights into the strategies used by musicians to manage their precarious working lives. Finally, this collection specifically highlights alternative pedagogical approaches and activist tactics for moving forward in the era of Black Lives Matter, #StopAsianHate and #MeToo.

The ebook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence on bloomsburycollections.com. Open access was funded by University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna.

Rosa Reitsamer is a Professor and Head of the Department of Music Sociology at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, Austria.

Rainer Prokop is a sociologist and researcher in the Department of Music Sociology at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, Austria.