Sounds are specific to space, yet much of the critique of urban space within social theory fails to address the social and cultural significance of sound in the shaping of spatial practices. This thesis provides an in-depth argument for the inclusion of sound as formative in the social construction and shaping of urban spaces, and mobile mediation practices within the urban. This thesis: (1) advances theories of sound within sociology; (2) contributes new data on sound in urban development and spatial use; (3) interrogates the role of mobile mediation in navigating spaces of regeneration, and (4) explores these concepts with young teenagers. This research examines sound and the urban using Lefebvre’s theory of space, particularly his theorization of symbolic spaces. It also offers a critique of the politicizing and policing of noise within the EU, as well as Ireland’s adoption of quantitative models to measure sound. The study examines the Smithfield area in Dublin, Ireland by using a triadic methodological approach (combining sound mapping, soundwalking and focus groups) to explore the urban soundscape of young teenagers. The outcome of this sociological investigation is that: teenagers employ mobile technologies to enhance their experiences within silent spaces, urban spaces are defined as participatory and engaging only if they contain the sounds of consumption, and that silence, within a city, is defined as problematic and dangerous - a symptom of poverty and the current recession.

As a privileged vehicle for expressing the protean diversity of resistance without endangering the consistency of its politics, culture (and activist culture even more so) stands as a core foundation of struggle, the hidden arena of contestation, and a fertile terrain for reconfiguration of activism in France. Yet the pivotal political role culture may play in the age of globalisation has tended to be overlooked by recent academic research on contemporary social movements in France. Numerous monographs, articulated around studies of specific social movements, cultural trends or genres, have undertaken to partially analyse this ’culturalist’ evolution of politics: studies detailing the ethos of specific instances of the altermondialiste movements taken in their cultural context; studies of cultural movements (such as the Creole cultural movement); or of sub-cultures such as French hip hop placed in their social context. And yet the study of the broader dynamic remains an overwhelmingly underexplored area of scholarly research. This thesis undertakes an analysis of the inter-penetration between some contemporary musical forms and political resistance to neoliberalism, inscribed in a more global logic of cultural resistance to domination and oppression. One of its main purposes is to address the reasons why and the extent to which political resistance in contemporary France has taken an almost irremediable cultural turn. It presents a study of the dynamic of re-appropriation of symbolic power at stake in the emergence of a counterculture of resistance. The underlying concern of this project lies in identifying the extent to which musical practice is a particularly relevant form of political appropriation, or of re-appropriation of social identities, especially in areas of exclusion wherein the latter are very often denied or stigmatized, or at least generally essentialised by a variety of dominant narratives and discourses. Thus, it explores musical practices of resistance to neoliberal domination in socially marginalised areas of France, often associated with postcolonial communities. The aim is to better understand the kind of impact musical resistance has in the shaping of social identities in postcolonial France through their relation to political activism.

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This thesis presents a professional/organisational analysis of popular music journalism in the UK. It considers the conditions under which consumer music magazines are produced (at the level of both the newsroom and the publishing organisation) and how music journalists deal with their main point of informational contact, the press officer. Drawing on original interview and participant observation research, the thesis considers: the economic and bureaucratic forces within magazine publishing organisations; how titles are positioned both individually and collectively as part of portfolio of niched titles; how market forces condition how and why titles are launched, redesigned and folded; and, ultimately, how all these factors impact upon and shape the socio-professional and cultural conditions under which editors and their staff work. The thesis then considers the music press officer (both in-house and independent and their office/departmental hierarchies) in terms of how they exist and operate at the meeting point of three distinct groups: the artists they are employed to represent; the artists' record companies; and the press (and their attempts to reconcile these often divergent needs). Having considered the music press and music journalists in isolation (in terms of power structures as well as their collective and individual goals) and press officers in isolation (in terms of their position within wider music industry promotional strategies and how they build, develop and revise a roster of artists) the thesis then moves on to analyse how these two distinct professional groups (journalists/editors and press officers) work together, how they professionally and organisationally define their goals and objectives and the steps they take to meet these goals and objectives, negotiating quantitatively and qualitatively the coverage of artists. A complex relationship of conditional power and mutual dependency links these two sets of professionals in both their formal activities and their socio-cultural activities. Breaking from previous studies that have described a uni-directional flow of power and influence of press officers over the press, the thesis argues that the relationships that tie these groups together (in terms of gatekeeping within the hierarchy of the newsroom and a tilting balance of power) are much more complex that has previously been assumed.

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Introduction to the Thesis and Show: In this thesis I argue the merits of an educational show serving as an introduction to medieval music. By placing differing forms of music in a given context e.g. ceremonial, military, sacred, song, mime and dance, the show helps to clarify the diversity of medieval music making. It is aimed at a general audience rather than early music specialists, and younger people in particular. I envisage the show either being performed entirely by a professional company, or through workshops by a student based ensemble. To this end I have devised a show entitled 'The Green Man'. The story unfolds against a score of arranged medieval music and new interpolations composed in period style. I outline the practical need for such a show by reference to developments in the early music movement, practical experience of teaching situations and general concerns. I then justify the arrangement of medieval music for theatrical purposes through historical precedence. Drawing on liturgical drama, court entertainments and early plays I show that my medieval predecessors reused music and used it for dramatic purposes. A section on the visual arts describes how this material can be used as a source for show design and a reference to notions of performance practice. The arrangement of the score and scenario are examined with regard to medieval compositional practices and literary sources. The score is included with an accompanying demonstration recording in CD format. The final section contains reports of the work in progress including the sound recording, drama workshops based upon sections of the show, and a music workshop utilising some of the work. A DVD supplement should be viewed in association with these.

The focus of my thesis is on the development of an Urban Art Music; urban in the sense that it reflects the character and events emanating from my experience of post-globalization urban society. The Commentary demonstrates how my approach has evolved and changed substantially from a starting point of deploying very specific and challenging but, to some extent, theoretically-based compositional techniques through to my current approach which is more spectrally-influenced and focuses on the utilization of physically recorded sounds from my urban environment as direct and indirect compositional source materials. I describe various means by which I have attempted to capture features of this society within the construction of musical works, whether by using contrasting strands of movement and stasis to reflect events and behaviours or by physically recording and manipulating actual urban sounds so that snapshots of my immediate environment play a direct part in shaping the music. Originality has remained important throughout the period of this work too. As such, I have tried to remain consistent in postulating a musical language that is ethereal in quality, perhaps reflecting both the vagueness of how events truly play out in current urban society and the sense of detachment and suspended reality I sometimes feel when relating and responding to a complex, unpredictable world; one I sometimes struggle to understand but nonetheless try, in an abstract sense, to comment on through my music. The contents are divided into three distinct parts. Part One seeks to explain how and why I compose music and elaborates on the socio-political aspects. Part Two focuses on the forms, structures and techniques that are the foundation of my music and highlights those specific pieces which demonstrate important, frequently deployed features. Part Three is a series of commentaries on the individual compositions included in the portfolio.