Overview

"How does the state separate music from noise? How can such filtering apparatus shape the content and form of sound production in the city? As a marker of co-presence to the hearing body, sound is always open to (or rather opens up) the politics of shared existence. In the throes of the post-dictatorship period, Brazil's legislative and executive branches implemented a series of sweeping measures to address quality of life concerns, including environmental pollution and urban inequality. In São Paulo, noise control became a recurrent controversy, growing in size and scale between the 1990s and 2010s. Together with the much-debated fear of crime and the socioeconomic and cultural tensions between the rich urban center and the poor peripheries, such ecological agendas against noise as a harmful pollutant have reconfigured the presence of environmental sounds in the city. In this book, Cardoso argues that the framing of specific sounds as unavoidable, unnecessary, or as harmful ""noise"" has been an effective strategy to organize spaces and administer group behavior in this rapidly expanding city. He focuses on two interrelated processes. First, the series of institutional regulatory mechanisms that turn sounds into the all-embracing ""noise"" susceptible to state intervention. Second, the constant attempts of interested groups in either attaching or detaching specific sounds (musical events, industrial noise, traffic noise, religious sounds, etc.) from regulatory scrutiny. Sound-politics is the dynamics that emerges from both processes - the channels through which sounds enter (and leave) the sphere of state regulation."

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9780190660093

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Reviews

Subtly navigating at the cross-road of sound-studies, of Science and Technology Studies and post-ANT authors, and of urban policies and post-Foucaldian studies, this is a brilliant study on the 'paradox of control'. * Antoine Hennion, Centre de sociologie de l'innovation, MinesParisTech / CNRS, France * In this remarkable and innovative book, Leonardo Cardoso expands the conversation about cities and citizenship by taking his readers into the soundscapes of urban Sao Paulo and exploring the complexities of 'sound-politics.' Sound-Politics in Sao Paulo opens up a whole new arena for analyzing struggles over the urban environment, and for considering the often irreconcilable expectations that city dwellers harbor regarding the quality of urban life. * Barbara Weinstein, Professor of History, New York University *

This is a well-written book on a most interesting and important subject. ...This study incorporates voluminous references, and the figures and tables are highly informative and clear. It represents a welcome addition to the literature on noise pollution and especially its definition, control, and regulation. ... Recommended * CHOICE * The work is rigorously historical as well as anthropological, and the methods match the argument. Sound studies needs this kind of scholarship, which feels fresh and urgent. * Benjamin Tausig, American Anthropologist * Sound-Politics in Sao Paulo offers a novel approach to sound studies by delving into the interrelations between the ontology of sound and legal issues in one of the largest cities in the world. Through his thoughtful approach to sound and noise in Sao Paulo, Cardoso offers an equally grounded scholarly work, opening up new ways for studying governmental bureaucracies, citizenship issues in Brazil, and sound as it relates to legal settings. * Patrick Murphy, Ethnomusicology Review * This is a study of one major city's modernizing approach to conquering the problem of sound, complete with all of the tumult and prejudice that always accompany capital-P politics. The work is rigorously historical as well as anthropological, and the methods match the argument. Sound studies needs this kind of scholarship, which feels fresh and urgent. * American Anthropologist * Cardoso offers a concise and practical analytical framework that extends and enriches discussions about urban sounds, connecting sound-making and governance while positioning noise and noise control within the sphere of state-building, political bargain, and citizenship [...] Sound-politics in Sao-Paulo illustrates how perspectives coming from the Global South could enrich discussions within sound studieswhile also making a significant contribution to different fields like urban history, urban studies, Latin American Studies, and cultural geography. * Sound Studies * In this remarkable and innovative book, Leonardo Cardoso expands the conversation about cities and citizenship by taking his readers into the soundscapes of urban Sao Paulo and exploring the complexities of 'sound-politics.' Sound-Politics in Sao Paulo opens up a whole new arena for analyzing struggles over the urban environment, and for considering the often irreconcilable expectations that city dwellers harbor regarding the quality of urban life. * Barbara Weinstein, Professor of History, New York University * Subtly navigating at the cross-road of sound-studies, of Science and Technology Studies and post-ANT authors, and of urban policies and post-Foucaldian studies, this is a brilliant study on the 'paradox of control'. * Antoine Hennion, Centre de sociologie de l'innovation, MinesParisTech / CNRS, France *

Author Information

Leonardo Cardoso is an assistant professor in the Department of Performance Studies at Texas A&M University.

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