Individual postdoctoral project
2011-2020
What does a neighborhood in transformation sound like? This project investigated how Lisbon’s historic Mouraria quarter was changing—not just visually or economically, but acoustically. The research examined whether sound could reveal hidden dimensions of gentrification, and whether sonic interventions could actually trigger broader urban change.
In 2011, Lisbon launched the QREN-Mouraria Action Plan to revitalize this historically working-class neighborhood. The official goals were to «open the neighborhood to the city» and «attract private investment, new residents, and tourists.» But what did this transformation sound like? And who decided which sounds belonged in the «new» Mouraria? The study revealed that Mouraria’s acoustic environment changed dramatically during revitalization—and these sonic shifts were both causes and effects of gentrification. Sound wasn’t just reflecting urban change; it was actively producing it.
The research project identified a process called «acoustic thematization»: the deliberate smoothing out of a neighborhood’s original sounds—its rowdiness, its multilingual chaos, its dissonance—into more palatable, marketable sonic environments. The fieldwork focused on three revealing transformations. First, the fado revival showed how the resurrection of traditional fado music became a tool for neighborhood branding and cultural tourism—turning «authentic» working-class culture into a strategic asset for urban renewal. Second, a public square historically associated with immigrant communities was reimagined as a «multicultural» marketplace designed to appeal to cosmopolitan urban audiences and tourists. Third, an area once known for prostitution and drug dealing was converted into a trendy nightlife destination—complete with a carefully curated soundscape.
In its second phase, the research positioned Mouraria’s changes within Lisbon’s larger ambitions to become a major international tourism destination—what scholar Mónica Degen calls joining the «global urban catwalk.» The project demonstrates that sound functions as both an indicator and an agent of urban transformation. By listening carefully to how neighborhoods change, we can understand gentrification not just as an economic process, but as a sensory one—where certain sounds (and the people who make them) are systematically erased and replaced. This research reveals how cultural policy and urban renewal operate through our senses. When neighborhoods gentrify, it’s not just rents that change—it’s the entire soundscape. Understanding these acoustic transformations helps us see whose voices, whose music, and whose noise gets valued in the «revitalized» city, and whose gets silenced.
