5th ISA Forum of Sociology (6-11 July 2025)

In varying contexts of dense urban living across cities in the world, sensory encounters have become more pronounced, divided, or contested by different communities or stakeholders. Urban density and spatial proximity require a combination of sensory tolerance, boundary-making, as well as legislation in order to ensure that social actors negotiate and agree on spatial use and sensory governance. In these respects, the panel probes into manifold sources or avenues of urban sensory governance, and how they are invoked, contested, and altered over time. How are urban spaces, sensory encounters and varying contexts approached and analysed? What methodologies or conceptual notions can we deploy to appraise sensory encounters in the city through the lens of legislation or jurisprudence? What would sensory governance entail, and might there be cultural differences when we juxtapose a variety of sensory-related legislation? How would social and legal responses to perceived sensory transgressions intersect with various lines of sociocultural and economic differentiation?