Scrutinising social control in the city through the senses

This chapter focuses on the intersection between social control and the senses in the urban space. In the first part of this chapter, we look at social control in the city through the senses via several examples, drawing on our previous work on “incivilities” (anti-social behaviour), urban social control and resistance to it. However, the way urban life is negotiated is not mono-sensory; rather, it often engages the totality of our sensory experiences. We address this “totality” in the second part of the chapter, where we use the example of mass tourism to show how all our senses can be conjured up in social control practices – including in shaping constructions of sensory disorder-related “problems” and their “solutions” in the city. We conclude with a short summary and reflections on potential future research in this area.