Review: Diminished Faculties: A Political Phenomenology of Impairment, by Jonathan Sterne

Abstract

Book Review| June 01 2023 Review: Diminished Faculties: A Political Phenomenology of Impairment, by Jonathan Sterne Jonathan Sterne. Diminished Faculties: A Political Phenomenology of Impairment. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2022. 304 pages. Michele Friedner, Michele Friedner University of Chicago Michele Friedner is an associate professor in the Department of Comparative Human Development at the University of Chicago. Email: michelefriedner@uchicago.edu Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Ailsa Lipscombe Ailsa Lipscombe Ailsa Lipscombe Victoria University of Wellington Ailsa Lipscombe is a post-doctorate research fellow in the School of Information Management, and a teaching fellow in the Department of Music, at Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington. She holds a Ph.D. in music from the University of Chicago, and her research draws together sound studies, ethnomusicology, and critical disability studies to amplify disabled knowledge and/or embodied forms of listening praxes. Email: ailsa.lipscombe@vuw.ac.nz Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Email: michelefriedner@uchicago.edu Email: ailsa.lipscombe@vuw.ac.nz Journal of Popular Music Studies (2023) 35 (2): 119–122. https://doi.org/10.1525/jpms.2023.35.2.119 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Cite Icon Cite Search Site Citation Michele Friedner, Ailsa Lipscombe; Review: Diminished Faculties: A Political Phenomenology of Impairment, by Jonathan Sterne. Journal of Popular Music Studies 1 June 2023; 35 (2): 119–122. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/jpms.2023.35.2.119 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentJournal of Popular Music Studies Search First things first: we write this review as disabled ethnographers working in the field of sound studies. Michele Friedner is a deaf anthropologist who writes about deafness in India and overlaps with sound studies, deaf studies, and disability studies. Ailsa Lipscombe is a blind ethnomusicologist who writes about traumatic listening, hospital acoustemologies, and intersections between sound studies and disability studies. This review draws from a Zoom conversation we had while Ailsa ran a scheduled nutrition infusion through her peripherally inserted central catheter (PICC) line, which she affectionately calls “Piccadilly the Third,” and Michele attempted to ignore her child, who kept on asking for a snack. We utilize a conversational style in this review of Diminished Faculties, Jonathan Sterne’s multi- and inter-disciplinary text written in the form of five substantive chapters and a conclusion that is a whimsical “user’s guide” to impairment theory. The book’s first chapter, “Degrees of Muteness” introduces... You do not currently have access to this content.