Dissonant Sounds: The Alternative Cultural Politics of Diaspora
By (Author) Michael Bull
Edited by Malcolm James
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Bloomsbury Academic USA
19th March 2026
United States
Tertiary Education
Non Fiction
History of music
Nationalism and nationalist ideologies and movements
Ethnic groups and multicultural studies
448
Width 152mm, Height 229mm
What is the role of sound in nationalism and decolinisation This book is framed around sound and conviviality.
Culturally focused but with regard to the materialities of sound, it evaluates speech, everyday life, media, computation and music. It does not simply map these phenomena but looks at them as convivial formations in the contexts of global capitalism, nationalism and racism.
With contributors based-in and discussing areas across the globe including South America, North America, the Caribbean, West Africa, Europe, South Asia, East Asia, and the Middle East and from fields including anthropology, sociology, geography, history, ethnomusicology, and sound studies, the collection presents a diverse range of spaces and voices. It assesses the ways in which forms of ordinary cultural interactions, through sound, convey and exceed the dominant racial politics of the moment.
Michael Bull is Professor of Sound Studies at the University of Sussex, UK. He is co-founder and editor of the journal Senses and Society, founding editor of Sound Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal, and series editor for the book series The Study of Sound (Bloomsbury). He is author of Sirens (Bloomsbury 2020) and co-editor (with Marcel Cobussen) of The Bloomsbury Handbook of Sonic Methodologies (Bloomsbury 2020). He is also co-editor of The Auditory Culture Reader (Bloomsbury 2003, 2016) and editor of The Routledge Companion to Sound Studies (2018).
Malcolm James is Senior Lecturer in Media and Cultural Studies at the University of Sussex, UK. He is author of Sonic Intimacy (Bloomsbury 2020), Urban Multiculture: Youth, Politics and Cultural Transformation (2015), and co-editor of Regeneration Songs: Sounds of Investment and Loss in East London (2018).