Organizing the sensory

Ear-work, panauralism and sonic agency on a forensic psychiatric unit

Bibliographic Data

ID9888446
AuthorsSteven D Brown (0000-0003-2880-9242, Nottingham Trent University, corresponding author), Ava Kanyeredzi (0000-0002-6746-4921, University of East London, corresponding author), Laura Mcgrath (0000-0002-9121-9870, The Open University, corresponding author), Paula Reavey (0000-0002-0903-9097, London South Bank University, corresponding author), Ian Tucker (0000-0002-1314-2222, University of East London, corresponding author)
Year2020
Volume73
Issue11
Pages1537-1562
Publication date2020-11-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueHuman Relations (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0018-7267 • E-ISSN: 1741-282X
PublisherSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/0018726719874850
OpenAlexW2972306334
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited54

How are relations of care and security between hospital staff and patients organized through sound? This article argues that a shifting distinction between meaningful sound and noise is fundamental to the lived experience of immersion in an organizational acoustic environment. Based around a qualitative study of listening practices and ‘ear-work’ at a medium-secure forensic psychiatric hospital, using interview and photo-production methods, the article positions the organizing of the sensory as central to formal organization. Analysis of empirical material demonstrates how the refinement of key listening practices is critical to the ways in which staff and patients orient to the hospital setting. It also details how the design process for the unit has undermined the capacity to manage and control through sound, or ‘panauralism’, rendering it as a reversible and contested struggle to make sense of the acoustic environment, and describes the attempts by patients to create alternative acoustic spaces and exercise ‘sonic agency’. We contend that ‘acoustic organizational research’ offers an experience-near means of mapping organizational space and power relations and invites a renewed questioning of the role of the sensory as form of organizing in itself

Active listening · Agency (philosophy · Participant observation · Perception · Political science · Public relations · Sociology · Space (punctuation) · Communication · Computer Science · Empathy and Medical Education · Mental Health and Psychiatry · Music Therapy and Health · Psychology

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