CITYSONIC

The aim of CITYSONIC project is to examine the ways in which the Greek and other states and societies in Southeast European periphery experienced, encountered and dealt with the modern sonic transformation of the urban environment during the 20th c. Following their Western and Central European counterparts, the capitals and major cities of Southeastern Europe experienced in the course of the 20th century a multifaceted growth (demographic, spatial, functional, technological/infrastructural), which posed for the first time in acute terms issues of noise and sonic disturbance and raised questions of control and regulation of the common acoustic environment. The study of the sonic dimensions of urban modernity in Greece and the Balkans has been hitherto extremely fragmentary and underdeveloped. To mention just one serious gap (and the concomitant challenge), we still lack a systematic account of the development of the legal framework for dealing with sonic phenomena in the public space in Greece and the Balkans during the 20th c. CITYSONIC’s interdisciplinary team of established scholars working on social and urban history (PI), sound studies, history of urbanism and science and technology studies, with the help of graduate students and Ph.D. candidates combining Balkan language skills and experience in historical and legal research, will examine for the first time systematically and comparatively the advent of urban sonic modernity in SE Europe in its various legal/administrative, cultural, social, and political dimensions. Through basic empirical research and a multi-disciplinary approach CITYSONIC will map this new field of research in Greece and the Balkans. Apart from its academic significance, CITYSONIC will also contribute to the sensitization of the general public as far as the urban soundscape is concerned and provide the necessary historical depth and theoretical elaboration to contemporary discussions on sonic phenomena in the public space.