Sounding the revanchist city

<p>Gentrification and its displacements have been the focal point of much recent academic andactivist praxis. The transformations induced by these economic, social and aestheticprocesses have often been understood in relation to the visual. Cafes, delis and restaurants areseen to open. Abandoned warehouses are seen to become galleries, studios and workshops.Waterfront recreational developments become visible; while the ‘before’ and ‘after’ picturesof blogposts and news articles illustrate the transformation of an area. This paper examinesthe accompanying auditory politics of gentrification with reference to three examples: thenoisy ambivalence of music venues in the ‘creative’ city; the use of music as an audioaffectivedeterrent in privately owned public space; and the sonic disruptions of antigentrificationprotests. I suggest that the resistive and displacing noise of processes ofgentrification both raises crucial questions around sound, power and urban space; andpresents important challenges to acoustic ecology’s ‘aesthetic moralism’.</p>