ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the concept of aural counterpublics to articulate how communities at the margins of society amplify their grievances and right to exist through the use of performative sound. It briefly surveys literature on the politics of listening so as to lay out the theoretical foundation for the anti-racist, ethical, and self-reflexive modes of listening. The chapter defines the concept of aural counterpublics and clarifies how such alternative discursive spaces work to unsettle white normative listening modes and what Dreher describes as hierarchies of attention. It focuses on the Clichy-sous-Bois uprising of 2005 but listen to it alongside the Indigenous-led Idle No More movement's use of traditional round dances and drumming in shopping malls as a mode of sonic disobedience. The chapter highlights how the subversive deployments of noise via aural counterpublics help elucidate philosopher Michel de Certeau's concept of the tactic.
