Geographies of Urban Sound

Traffic music language and nature help to create unique soundscapes that are essential to the place-based character of each city. Taking into account both the urban soundscape and the impacts of sound on the urban dweller this book examines sound not as a by-product of urban life but as a fundamental part of the urban experience that is crucial to understanding the city´s sense of place. Illustrated by case studies from Europe and North America these range from on-site measurements to the construction of audio tours for local tourism from media analysis of popular culture audio drama to sound-identity and city branding and from the classification of noise in city planning to a consideration of the complex relationship between sacred sound and the creation of a sense of place. Taking a social geographic perspective the book focuses on the effects of sounds on the individual and how they influence the ways s/he engages the city as place especially in their daily routines. In doing so it uncovers the socio-scientific potential of sound in the urban environment based on the understanding that sound cannot and must not be seen as detached from the urban landscape but rather as a constituting element. Sound exists not only ’within the city’: it ’is’ the city.