The City of the Senses, the Senses in the City

Zara Pinto-Coelho · Helena Pires

Feb 2022 · UMinho Editora/CECS

About this ebook

Urban-oriented sensory analysis has a long tradition within the social sciences. However, in communication and cultural studies research, the sensorial orientation is still incipient. This publication is part of an ongoing call by Passeio, the platform for the study of art and urban culture of the Communication and Society Research Centre, for an organicist vision of the city, underlining the need to re-signify the role of the senses in the experience of everyday contemporary urban life. This book includes theoretical and/or empirical contributions from researchers in sociology, communication and cultural studies, who explore three fundamental questions: (a) the effects of the tourist era under the COVID-19 pandemic, (b) the role of music in the production of places and socialities; and (c) the importance of ambiances in the constitution of a carnal relationship with the city.

About the author

Zara Pinto-Coelho is an associate professor in the Department of Communication Sciences at the University of Minho. Her research interests include discourse theories and their critical applications in media studies and cultural studies, in issues related to public participation, public health, gender and heterosexuality, art and urban culture, among others

Helena Pires is an associate professor in the Department of Communication Sciences at the Institute of Social Sciences, University of Minho. She is a PhD in communication sciences, in communication semiotics, at the University of Minho (2007). She teaches in advertising, art and communication, having participated, in the last years, in the direction of the master in communication, art and culture of the University of Minho, where she has also taught. For 4 years, until November 2019, she was the coordinator of the advertising working group of the Portuguese Association of Communication Sciences. She has published and developed research work on the semiotics of the (urban) landscape and in communication, art and visual culture. She is a research member at the Communication and Society Research Centre. She is currently co-coordinator of the Passeio – Platform for Urban Art and Culture, a research project of the Communication and Society Research Centre.