The sounds of who we are: rethinking divided cities through sound

Abstract

In scholarly analyses, popular representations, and professional responses, the image of the city, divided along ethnic and religious lines, is encoded in dualistic metaphors of “us and them” and “our side and their side of the city”. Those imaginations of divided cities are based on the assumption that the city dwellers of different ethno-religious groups do not share a sense of togetherness and community. In this paper, we cross-fertilize literature on divided cities and sound studies to demonstrate how sound functions as a lens to explore senses of separation and togetherness among city dwellers in a divided city. By using examples of calls to prayer, church bells, and ways in which music is performed and consumed, we argue that developing an attentiveness to soundscapes in contexts of ethnic conflicts helps not only to rethink binary definitions of divided cities but also to challenge taken-for-granted urban planning strategies in ethnically divided cities.