A visceral politics of sound

Authors

Gordon R. Waitt, University of WollongongFollow
Ella Ryan, University of Wollongong
Carol Farbotko, University of WollongongFollow

RIS ID

83275

Publication Details

Waitt, G., Ryan, E. & Farbotko, C. (2014). A visceral politics of sound. Antipode: a radical journal of geography, 46 (1), 283-300.

Abstract

Questions of bodies and embodiment are a critical focus for geographers. In this paper we advance discussion of the mobilisation of bodies that investigates the interconnections between the visceral and discursive, through paying attention to the affordances of sound. We draw on our ethnographic research of the Climate Camp parade held during October 2009 in Helensburgh, New South Wales, Australia. Using feminist theory and visceral understandings of socio-political life, we explore sounds to illustrate how people's beliefs about climate change are mobilised at this parade. We argue that visceral experiences of the rhythmic affordances of sounds—flow, pulse and beat—provide us insights as to how people are mobilised into action. Our results explore bodily judgements of sounds to illustrate how a visceral approach can help to mobilise bodies in ways that can both upset, and reproduce, particular beliefs, subjects and places.