Dear colleagues and friends of isaResearch,

we are pleased to invite you to the public guest lecture within the framework of the very first isaResearch Summer School, taking place on campus of mdw from 21-23 July 2025 and entitled "Sound, Politics, and the Urban Laboratory" in the framework of isa - International Summer Academy.

After 10 successful years of isaScience conferences, the research track of isa is relaunching as a summer school to offer even more bespoke support and nurture for international early-stage researchers from all of mdw's disciplines. We are delighted to establish this new format within isa and would like to thank the members of the academic advisory board, Scott Edwards, Lisa Gaupp, and Magdalena Fürnkranz, for their support in developing this year's theme and program.

Please join our international participants and team on 22 July, 18:00, for an evening of discussion with Kai Ginkel following his lecture “‘Noise Not Music’? Urban Sound Between Participation and Disturbance” and for the reception afterwards. 

Looking forward to seeing you there!

Your isaResearch team,

Therese Kaufmann and Kathrin Heinrich, mdw Research Support

Public Guest Lecture 

“‘Noise Not Music’? Urban Sound Between Participation and Disturbance”

Kai Ginkel (Anton Bruckner Private University Linz)

Followed by discussion and reception, as part of the isaResearch Summer School

Environmental noise is not simply a ‘background feature’ of urban life, nor merely a by-product of industrial activity or traffic. Rather, it is a central element of how urban environments are experienced and negotiated. Across metropolitan regions in Europe, cities are increasingly challenged to reconcile their vibrant cultural activities with residents’ demands for rest and quality of life. In this context, sound and its regulation become a field in which questions of justice, inclusion, and urban futures are actively contested.

Focusing on music-related sound, the presentation draws on a qualitative pilot study of sound-related negotiations around the Arena music venue in Vienna. It explores how music-generated sound is perceived, classified, and contested as either ‘music’ or ‘noise’. As sound operates as both a medium of community and a trigger of exclusion, it raises the broader question of whose voices are heard – literally and politically – and whose voices are subject to marginalisation. In this sense, the talk will conclude by outlining future directions for sociological research on music-based environmental noise in urban spaces.

Kai Ginkel (Dr phil.) is postdoc researcher at Anton Bruckner Private University Linz. His project Unwanted Sound was funded by the City of Vienna (MA7 Department of Culture) in 2024. Former research activities include a position in the international project Popular Music and the Rise of Populism in Europe (Volkswagen Foundation) at the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz. His monograph on the social distinction between music and noise (Noise – Klang zwischen Musik und Lärm. Zu einer Praxeologie des Auditiven) was published by Transcript in 2017. His key research areas are sound and music, qualitative methods, and practice theory.