On Mediation: Ethnographic and statistical analysis of an Indian helpline for reporting "Sound abuse in public spaces"
Résumé
It is nearly impossible to characterize the nuisance associated with neighborhood noise in India. There is no centralized administration to gather noise complaints, and non-profit and civic groups do the little monitoring there is. This study concerns one such program, NISS (National Initiative for Safe Sound) in Kerala (southern India), where one of the authors conducted ethnographic research. One of NISS’s main actions is running a telephone helpline for residents "to report sound abuse in public spaces." It provides the population with its first opportunity to speak out about the disturbing noises they endure, and is an invitation to nurture sonic citizenship via intermediation with noise-makers. Unlike governmental services that gather data in pre-established categories, the helpline foregrounds the fundamentally sociological aspects of sound annoyance. As part of its telephone exchange, the helpline maintains a register recording some personal information, details on the context of the noise, and the indicated sound sources. Ethnographic and statistical analyses are combined to precisely identify the social and geographical origin of callers, categories of sound sources, and the nature of the conflicts that emerge from relations of disturbance. This paper describes local singularities and remarkable differences with comparable, earlier studies based on "official" noise complaints in other countries. We favored an anthropological approach, offering an initial analysis of the profile of people calling in with complaints, and their highly conflictual relationship with the sounds entering the public space from places of worship.
Origine | Fichiers éditeurs autorisés sur une archive ouverte |
---|