Doctoral Dissertation Research: Noise Regulation, Municipal Planning, and Urban Development

该项目对研究生进行实证性、科学性的数据收集和分析方法的培训，探索在新的城市背景下噪音管制与市政规划之间的关系。我们从以前的研究中了解到，声学标记可以使社会文化和生态关系成为可能并为其提供信息。但问题仍然是，市政规划和噪音监管能在多大程度上改变城市的管理方式。作为世界上城市化速度最快的地区，全球南部是探索声音在城市发展中作用的实验室。世界银行、人居署和城市联盟等机构已经宣布二线城市是全球经济的未来驱动力，特别关注引导这些城市在全球南部的有序发展。因此，了解声学因素可能或可能不会促进复原力，对于实现可持续发展目标至关重要。杜克大学博士生Joella Bent将在Louise Meintjes博士的指导下进行为期13个月的人种学研究，以调查快速城市化背景下噪音投诉、城市声音知识和实践以及市政规划之间的联系。这项研究将在乌干达的古卢进行，这是世界银行资助的城市基础设施发展项目支持的14个有抱负的二线城市之一。由于城市化不仅是这些官方发展努力的结果，也是城市居民日常活动的结果，研究方法将侧重于与规划专家、音频制作人和交通机械师进行参与式观察研究，古鲁城市声景观的录音和测绘，以及讨论原始和编辑的声景观录音的小组聆听会议。通过专注于对这些群体的声音的技术和方言评估，这项研究涉及到告知和促进城市化轨迹的社会实践，并促进居民、文化领袖和政策制定者之间的对话。因此，这项研究为实际上重新思考非洲和其他地区的城市规划提供了工具。

This project, which trains a graduate student in methods of empirical, scientific data collection and analysis, explores the relationship between noise regulation and municipal planning in new urban contexts. We know from previous research that acoustic markers can enable and inform sociocultural and ecological relations. But the question remains as to what extent municipal planning and regulation of noise can transform how cities are managed. As the fastest urbanizing area of the world, the global south functions as a laboratory for exploring the role of sound in urban development. Institutions such as the World Bank, UN-Habitat, and Cities Alliance have declared secondary cities the future drivers of the global economy, taking special interest in guiding the orderly development of such cities in the global south. Therefore, understanding how acoustic factors may or may not promote resilience will be critical for achieving goals of sustainability. Duke University doctoral candidate, Joella Bitter, supervised by Dr. Louise Meintjes, will undertake 13 months of ethnographic research in order to investigate linkages between noise complaints, urban sound knowledge and practice, and municipal planning in a context of rapid urbanization. The research will take place in Gulu, Uganda, one of the 14 aspiring secondary cities receiving support from World Bank-funded urban infrastructural development programs. Since urbanization occurs not only as a result of these official development efforts, but also through the daily activities of urban residents, the research methods will be focused on participant-observation research with planning experts, audio producers, and transport mechanics, audio recording and mapping of Gulu's urban soundscape, and group listening sessions to discuss raw and edited soundscape recordings. By focusing on both technical and vernacular evaluations of sound across these groups, this research engages the social practices that inform and facilitate the trajectory of urbanization and promotes dialogue between residents, cultural leaders, and policy makers. This research therefore provides tools with which to practically rethink city planning in Africa and beyond.