Gender, class and altered soundscapes: Following the implementation of a robotic welding system

This paper explores some of the ways in which gender and class emerge in relation to the altered soundscape that follows technological change. As such, it takes seriously not only practices of noisemaking and disruptive sounds, but also the implication of silence and different modes of listening. The findings call for an enhanced understanding of the ephemeral qualities of sound, as well as the subsequent listening practices, and how these factors contribute, both to enforce and challenge the ways in which gender and class are enacted. This paper also adds to the discipline of ethnography, the importance for an ethnographer of acknowledging production of sound as well as subsequent listening practices as part of meaning-making practices