CfA: IASPM Journal, Special Issue: Gender Equality and the Nordic Popular Music Industries: Research, Policies, Practices, Deadline: 08.06.2026
The Nordic region is often imagined from the outside as a coherent entity, celebrated for gender equality and progressive cultural policies grounded in the welfare state (Bille & Lindeloff 2025; Duelund 2003; Martinsson, Griffin & Nygren 2016; Melby, Wetterberg & Ravn 2008). Yet beneath this image lie significant differences in how (in)equality is addressed through policies, regulations, and institutional strategies. Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, as well as Kalaallit Nunaat/Greenland, the Faroe Islands, the Åland Islands, and Sámi territories, each carry distinct histories, welfare-state trajectories, cultural infrastructures, and colonial legacies that shape both how intersectional inequalities are politically managed and how they are experienced across the region. This challenges the idea of a unified “Nordic” approach to gender equality – both within society at large and within the popular music industries. Furthermore, despite the region’s international reputation for equality, music-industry reports consistently reveal persistent gender imbalances and discrimination across Nordic popular music industries (e.g. Musiksverige 2017; KVINFO & Analyse & Tal 2022; DR 2022; NOPA 2021; TONO 2021; GramArt 2021; Seye 2018; Vastakaiku OY 2023).
We are inviting article submissions for a special issue on gender equality with a focus on the Nordic music industries. This special issue aims to bring together research examining how gender equality is conceptualized, practiced, and contested within Nordic popular music industries today. By examining practices and initiatives as well as critically interrogating the meaning of key concepts like the Nordic, (gender) equality, and the music industry, it considers how research can contribute to meaningful change within the field.
The special issue will be edited by: Þorbjörg Daphne Hall (Iceland University of the Arts, Reykjavik, Iceland) Professor in Musicology, Veronika Muchitsch (Uppsala University, Sweden) Researcher in Musicology, Kristine Ringsager (University of Copenhagen, Denmark) Associate Professor in Music Anthropology and Popular Music Studies, and Sam de Boise (Örebro University, Sweden) Senior Lecturer in Musicology.
Please send an abstract of no more than 250 words to Þorbjörg Daphne Hall thorbjorghall[at]lhi[dot]is by 8th June 2026. Article submissions may be focused on the following (amongst other things):
Conceptual and practical interrogations of “the Nordic”, including the limits of the welfare-state model in addressing structural inequalities in the popular music industries
Comparative approaches between Nordic and non-Nordic countries
Intersectional, decolonial, and Indigenous critiques of gender equality in Nordic popular music
Organizational, infrastructural, and cultural analyses of equality work and music-industry practices
The welfare state and policy frameworks in shaping music institutions, access, and equality agendas
Case studies from the Nordic music industries, including music schools, conservatories, unions, venues, festivals, and digital platforms
Historical perspectives on gendered and intersectional unequal infrastructures in Nordic music life
Technological change in relationship to gendered music practices and labour conditions, including the platform economy, algorithmic technologies, and developments in AI music
The uses, limits, and politics of statistics in gender equality and diversity policy-making
Media narratives, public debates, and knowledge circulation on gender equality across the Nordic region
Methodological and theoretical reflections, including ethnographic, digital, archival, participatory, posthumanist, postqualitative, and activist approaches
The role of research in informing policy, institutional change, and feminist/queer activism
Full articles will follow IASPM Journal’s instructions for authors and Style Guide and Template and will be subject to double-blind peer review.
If your abstract is accepted, we expect to receive the full submission uploaded into the online submission by 1 December 2026 at https://iaspmjournal.net/index.php/IASPM_Journal/about.
See the journal site for further information regarding Submissions.
NOTE: In order to submit to IASPM Journal you must be an IASPM member and registered as an author on the site. If membership is a financial barrier for any contributor, please discuss this with the editors and we could perhaps try to arrange some sort of funding.