By Sandra Kopljar, Phil Dodds, Mark Grimshaw-Aagaard, Sanne Krogh Groth, Clara Gustavsson, Marie Koldkjær Højlund, Krisoffer Mattisson, Dalia Mukhtar-Landgren & Enrico Ronchi

Abstract

With this audio paper, our aim is to explore the connection between sound and democracy. Recognizing the multifaceted nature of this field, we approach it through the notion of care and an empirical analysis of the democratic implications of trying to regulate sound in public spaces. We examine ISO standards as one example of the many attempts to control sound in both public and private spaces. Standards are used to categorize, govern, and control. They are also tools to assess and characterise. As policy tools, they raise democratic questions relating to who developed them and to when and how they are used. Using the example of a shopping mall, we explore the democratic values reflected in the standards through an inter-disciplinary perspective. We move from discussing the process of developing the soundscape standards to applying them in a real-world setting, ultimately exploring the consequences of such standards from the perspective of democratic values. In doing so, we address the question of sonic citizenship and how public space is enacted, negotiated, and experienced through sound. The audio paper is a result of weekly exploratory processes and discussions during the authors’ nine-month affiliation at the Pufendorf IAS (Institute for Advanced Studies), Lund University.  

Audio paper