A curiosity driven approach to air-conditioning on the Arabian Peninsula: Comparing the accounts of three resident groups in Qatar

The assumption that people should be surrounded by air that has been cooled to meet their presumed needs encourages an undifferentiated and disengaged relationship between local climate and everyday life. It is also leading to huge, and growing, levels of energy consumption. One important research challenge is therefore to identify how existing variation in climate adaptation cultures might be harnessed in fighting the further spread of this assumption. Examining how different groups see their relationship with air-conditioning could be part of this and Doha, the capital of Qatar, provides an excellent place in which to explore the potential of such a strategy. Air-conditioning was eagerly adopted by Qataris after the nationalisation of their oil and gas reserves soon made them some of the wealthiest people in the world. In recent years, however, local officials have started to consider the social and environmental benefits of other ways of living with the desert heat. This paper reports on a project that sought to produce an engaging body of evidence by comparing how older Qatari nationals, expatriate professionals, and younger Qatari nationals spoke of their ongoing relationship with air-conditioning. In so doing, it reflects on different ways of defining the purpose of empirical research in human geography to highlight the continued value of being curious about the hitherto unknown subjectivities that await us in the field. In this case, this was despite the popularity of conceptually informed analysis in cultural studies of air-conditioning and the critical commentator position in relevant accounts of urban change in the region

Understanding air-conditioned lives: qualitative insights from Doha

This paper uses an interview study in Doha, the capital city of Qatar, to consider the role of qualitative methods in identifying how human relationships with air-conditioning are influenced. Drawing on discussions with three groups of comparatively affluent residents who spent significant amounts of time in air-conditioned spaces, it makes four points to researchers hoping to encourage less energy demanding lifestyles. The first is that ‘comfort is only one aspect’ when a premature focus on comfort obscures other potentially important analytical concerns. The second is that ‘air-conditioning changes cultures’ when valuable insights may be gleaned from what people say about how it creates, rather than responds to, local preferences and expectations. The third is that ‘comparison can be instructive’ when different groups may feel themselves to possess very different relationships with air-conditioning. The fourth is that ‘discussion can disappear’ when those hoping to influence these relationships may benefit from understanding when and how ‘conditioning conversations’ currently occur and how they could be part of processes of positive local change. After substantiating these points, wider conclusions are drawn about the promotion of less energy consumptive ways of adapting to a warming world and the value of this approach to the cultural geography of air-conditioning. PRACTICE RELEVANCE Strategies for influencing human relationships with air-conditioning stand to benefit from an appreciation of how this technology has become part of everyday life in particular places. Drawing on an interview study in Doha, this paper argues that qualitative research methods can illuminate these processes in original ways and provide fresh ideas about how life with air-conditioning is influenced. With respect to the Doha case, the paper concludes that a fuller public conversation about air-conditioning levels could spark a process of local change with the potential to result in reduced energy consumption

Weather and exercise: A comparative review and the role of geographers

As part of an argument about the value of a geographical approach to the connection between local weather and physical exercise, this paper begins with how that connection features in four areas of scholarship that have been at the forefront of exploring it so far. By comparing how each of them commonly imagines ‘the human’ and ‘the weather’ in their studies, we particularly highlight how different bodies of work illuminate different facets of the weather-exercise connection. This, we suggest, represents an opportunity for geographers to explore how these facets combine in context with a view to tackling the complex public health challenges associated with increasing human inactivity and a warming world. Building on that, we end with three promising cross-cutting themes that we think could usefully guide these endeavours: adaptation, decision-making and place

Working with the spoken word: A candid conference conversation and some original ideas

This paper introduces the collection of nine short articles that make up the inaugural special section of the journal on ‘thinking with methods’. It begins by outlining why a fuller conversation about different ways of handling talk in human geography might be worthwhile. Then it describes a series of conference sessions in which a small group of researchers in this field came together to consider some of the most intriguing excerpts of talk generated by their studies. It ends with an overview of how the following articles that came out of these sessions might productively shake up some of our current working conventions

Smartphone interactions and nature benefits: How predominant approaches picture social life and ways of advancing this work

Whether new technologies will have a positive impact on how societies experience nature depends on how particular devices and populations come to interact. This paper reviews two bodies of work that have sought to understand and influence these interactions with reference to the smartphone. The first is associated with a group of researchers interested in how smartphone apps might help people to engage with their surroundings in beneficial ways. The second comes from a set of scholars hoping to learn from the analysis of the social media datasets associated with smartphone interactions outdoors. After comparing these how these two bodies commonly see the social world, the paper considers how other approaches might augment these endeavours. We argue for more studies that explore what different social groups have to say about life with the smartphone and how norms of technology use emerge. We also suggest that this area of research might engage more fully with wider academic work on how smartphones are reshaping our societies. A free Plain Language Summary can be found within the Supporting Information of this article

Assumptions about later life travel and their implications:pushing people around?

ABSTRACTTaking four assumptions in turn, this review article considers some of the lenses through which researchers might look at later-life leisure travel and the implications of adopting each of them. First, we consider the ‘active ageing’ agenda and what this means for how leisure travel may be thought about in academia and beyond. Second, we turn to studies underpinned by worries about the appetite for significant consumption thought to typify the ‘baby-boomer’ generation and question whether these studies could inadvertently be promoting the very future they hope to avoid. Third, we explore how research on the benefits of everyday ‘mobility’ in later life may have morphed into a more general belief about the value of travel in older age. Finally, we reflect on how relevant studies of tourism are often underpinned by an argument about the financial rewards that now await those ready to target the older traveller. Our overall contention is that, though for different reasons, all four could be serving to encourage more later-life travel. Whilst for some this prospect is not at all troubling, the spectre of adverse energy demand consequences leads us to explore a more critical view.</jats:p

Managing professional jurisdiction and domestic energy use

Professionals involved in organizing and undertaking domestic works, such as extensions, maintenance and refurbishment, have an important role in influencing how homes are configured and how occupants live within them. Despite this, the professional identities of these actors, and their impact on domestic energy use, is often overlooked. In response, this paper argues that one useful way of examining their influence is to consider how professional identities shape everyday working practices in relation to clients. Data from two UK interview and observation studies are combined: one with heating installers and the other with architects. The data are analysed using concepts from Abbott’s ‘system of professions’ framework that focuses on how the routine working practices of professional groups are born of how they see themselves and the tasks for which they are responsible. This comparison provides insights into how these two groups manage their professional ‘jurisdictions’ during their client interactions and what this means for policy-makers and industry representatives hoping to influence their work in pursuit of less carbon-intensive living. It also points to the value of further in-depth studies that explore how the routine management of professional jurisdiction impacts upon domestic energy use in a range of contexts

Detection of SARS-CoV-2-specific mucosal antibodies in saliva following concomitant COVID-19 and influenza vaccination in the ComFluCOV trial

The ComFluCOV trial randomized 679 participants to receive an age-appropriate influenza vaccine, or placebo, alongside their second COVID-19 vaccine. Concomitant administration was shown to be safe, and to preserve systemic immune responses to both vaccines. Here we report on a secondary outcome of the trial investigating SARS-CoV-2-specific mucosal antibody responses. Anti-spike IgG and IgA levels in saliva were measured with in-house ELISAs. Concomitant administration of an influenza vaccine did not affect salivary anti-spike IgG positivity rates to Pfizer/BioNTech BNT162b2 (99.1 cf. 95.6%), or AstraZeneca ChAdOx1 (67.8% cf. 64.9%), at 3-weeks post-vaccination relative to placebo. Furthermore, saliva IgG positively correlated with serum titres highlighting the potential utility of saliva for assessing differences in immunogenicity in future vaccine studies. Mucosal IgA was not detected in response to either COVID-19 vaccine, reinforcing the need for novel vaccines capable of inducing sterilising immunity or otherwise reducing transmission. The trial is registered as ISRCTN 14391248