An Acoustic Turn? Recent Developments and Future Perspectives of Sound Studies

Abstract

Since the late 1960s, but particularly since the beginning of the twenty-first century, sound studies have experienced increasing attention in several scholarly disciplines. This development has to be welcomed but, following all the different turns in cultural and social studies, it should not lead us to proclaim a new “acoustic turn.” What we do need is a continuing integration of sound studies into the study of the senses as an “area of attention” and, more generally, into the cultural and social studies. Sound studies should be pursued in an interdisciplinary way with a cross-cultural globalized perspective.

Keywords

• sound studies
• music
• hearing
• perception
• acoustics
• studies on technology
• social studies