The Auditory Culture Reader

The first edition of The Auditory Culture Reader offered an introduction to both classical and recent work on auditory culture, laying the foundations for new academic research in sound studies. Today, interest and research on sound thrives across disciplines such as music, anthropology, geography, sociology and cultural studies as well as within the new interdisciplinary sphere of sound studies itself.

This second edition reflects on the changes to the field since the first edition and offers a vast amount of new content, a user-friendly organization which highlights key themes and concepts, and a methodologies section which addresses practical questions for students setting out on auditory explorations. All essays are accessible to non-experts and encompass scholarship from leading figures in the field, discussing issues relating to sound and listening from the broadest set of interdisciplinary perspectives.

Inspiring students and researchers attentive to sound in their work, newly-commissioned and classical excerpts bring urban research and ethnography alive with sensory case studies that open up a world beyond the visual. This book is core reading for all courses that cover the role of sound in culture, within sound studies, anthropology, sociology, cultural studies, history, media studies and urban geography.

Michael Bull is Professor of Sound Studies at the University of Sussex, UK. He has published widely in the field of sound studies. He is a founding member of The European Association of Sound Studies and is the editor and co-founder of the journalsThe Senses and Society and Sound Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal (both Bloomsbury).

Les Back is Professor of Sociology at Goldsmith's College, University of London, UK. He has written and edited numerous books on race, music and multiculturalism.