Policing the Listening: Capitalism, Sensory Governance, and Auditory Discipline

Abstract

This article investigates the politics of listening in late capitalist societies, focusing on how auditory perception is shaped, regulated, and policed through spatial, technological, and affective regimes. Developing the concept of the policescape – a spatialized system of sonic governance – it examines how listening is disciplined in everyday life. Drawing on Henri Lefebvre’s rhythmanalysis, the article outlines a postmusicological approach that shifts attention from musical objects to the politics of listening itself. Two key mechanisms of auditory discipline are analyzed: the public/private divide and what is termed horror silentii, or the fear of silence. These mechanisms enforce acoustic hierarchies, reinforce social boundaries, and suppress collective sensory presence. Central to this disciplinary regime is the fantasy of the auditory gated community – both as a physical structure and an aspirational fantasy of control – the neoliberal ideal of absolute control over one’s sonic environment. Within this logic, unwanted sounds in private space are experienced not as mere disturbances, but as personal failures of sovereignty. Listening, I argue, is not a neutral sensory act but a political operation embedded in structures of power, rhythm, and exclusion.