Abstract

The article investigates the relationship between sounds and urban phenomena, in particular the material influences of sound on the organization of urban experience. The paper is situated within a debate that crosses Urban Studies, Science and Technology Studies and Organization Studies, following an approach that looks at the interplay between practices, narratives and artifacts. It takes into account the uses of spaces, noise management and regulative public policies, showing how specific regimes of sound adequacy arise. It analyzes the interplay among policies, sound practices, gentrification processes and urban marketing strategies, focusing on the socio-technical dimensions of acoustic phenomena and related devices. The article aims at understanding how sound policies organize urban space and how sound organizes administrative practices and urban life, accounting for the twofold significance of the sound discipline: considered both as regulatory work by policies and as their performative effect in defining and connoting the urban image, the planning practices and the end-use of spaces.