The Research On Soundscape——the Journal Of Acoustic Ecology

In this thesis,I take the English journal of acoustic ecology--Soundscape--as a research subject.Acoustic ecology reflects on the relationship between organisms and their surroundings through sounds.The field of ethnomusicology is presently concerned with the study of soundscapes which uses the perspectives of acoustic ecology. The journal, Soundscape, is an English language publication of the World Forum for Acoustic Ecology (WFAE). It is conceived as the ecological study of soundscape. So far to my knowledge,nobody has taken this journal as an object of ethnomusicological analyse.In this thesis, I attempt to analyse two research methods used in the journal--i.e. listening and soundwalk. Based on texts, interviews on the Internet, and participant-observation of the activities of sound artists in the Shanghai area, this study uses the perspective of ethnomusicology and analyze the journal, Soundscape, within the framework of acoustic ecology. All of the above are taken together and put towards understanding the journal in terms of its history scholar-writers’ background, topics, the presentation of the journal’s website, etc.Through the analysis of this journal, this thesis introduces the methods of acoustic ecology in the study of sounds and its relationship to the natural and social environment in order to broaden the scope in which ethnomusicological studies could take.