Howling Winds: Sound, Sense and the Regulation of Noise

• In Event: Conspiracy, Controversy, and Doubt: Consequences of Knowing and Unknowing

Abstract

This paper looks at the ways in noise is governed in North America and uses the current debates over the impact of wind turbines on human health as a site for examining the politics of noise regulation. I address a number of key questions: First, how has noise been legally defined and how have these definitions changed over time? Second, what role has science and technology played in shaping law’s understanding and sensing of noise and its impact on the human body? Lastly, how have we tried to control noise and on what grounds have we done this? Particular attention will be paid to the different ways that noise is problematized and regulated in urban versus rural settings. Drawing on literature from the field of Sound Studies, I argue that our conceptions of noise and how we regulate it cannot be disentangled from the broader social, political, cultural, economic, and technological contexts in which these discussions take place.

Author

• Michael S Mopas