The Sense of the City research network is a recognized network within SUNTA. It’s focus is the sensory experience of the city. Our members are demonstrating in various ways how these experiences are embedded and interpreted with a wider cultural framework, specifically the ways and means that sensory experiences in urban spaces are made meaningful through social processes. This might include the full range of the sensorium: sight, sound, texture, taste, smell, pressure, temperature, humidity, surface, height/depth, and movement. Our goal is to illuminate how these stimuli become the basis for identity, organization, conflict, social movement, and judgments about the “[un]comfortable,� the “livable,� the “sustainable,� the “beautiful,� and the “sublime.�
We maintain a where members publish descriptions of current research projects, offer resources for the other network members, float ideas for conference panels, announce publications and grants, and exchange professional information. Anyone interested in these research topics is invited to join the forum.
The Sense of the City research network has a face-to-face meeting once a year at the annual American Anthropological Association meetings, usually in the early evening on Saturday.