Professor Jan Doering and advocate Clare Kumar explore why our responses to sound are highly subjective and how this often creates tension in urban life. Sound can delight one person and distress another. Hearing is a sense we cannot turn off, making sound a constant shared experience. Noise is more than volume. Tone, rhythm, repetition, and cultural meaning all shape how people react. Every day sounds, from traffic to music, can energize some while overwhelming others.
Doering and Kumar also show that noise reflects culture and can serve as a form of power or resistance. Sounds expressing identity or community can clash with others’ need for rest, sometimes leading to frustration or aggression. They call on municipalities, planners, and designers to treat sound as a matter of well-being and accessibility. Promoting neurological safety and reducing sensory stress can help create more peaceful and inclusive urban environments.
Listen Here: Happy Space Podcast: Sound and Social Conflict with Jan Doering
Jan Doering is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Toronto. His research explores social control and conflict in urban neighbourhoods, as well as how individuals experience and respond to discrimination. He has received research funding from the National Science Foundation, the Fulbright Commission, and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Councils. His first book, “Us Versus Them: Race, Crime, and Gentrification in Chicago Neighborhoods” (Oxford University Press, 2020), examines the dynamics of community conflict and identity during the era of Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown.