Search

Abstract Research and policy during the Covid‐19 pandemic often dovetailed with an established interest in how nearby urban nature spaces can encourage human well‐being. Yet, to define the focus upfront in this way is to overlook the many ways in which different groups may draw on experiences in diverse natural environments to get through challenging times. This paper draws on a qualitative study with 98 university students in Innsbruck, Austria. As part of a co‐production approach, and using a range of exploratory and inductive methods, we examined how they coped with lockdown restrictions and other challenges to everyday life during the pandemic between March and November 2020. The study's longitudinal design reveals how their nature relations evolved over the lifetime of the pandemic. Participants showed a strong identification with the Alpine nature surrounding Innsbruck and deeply mourned opportunities to go there during quarantine at the start. With the relaxation of restrictions, they briefly celebrated the return of access to these spaces before nature experiences were soon blended back into their everyday lives as before. The findings present an account of nature spaces being valued during the pandemic precisely because they were away from urban spaces nearby that had come to feel strange as a result of the lockdown restrictions. This leads us to reflect on the importance of how exactly people engage with local nature and how nature connections change in response to the evolving pressures and preoccupations that shape everyday life, both for young people and others. We emphasise the value of contextual sensitivity in future research and policy hoping to foster nature benefits, both during crisis situations such as these and more generally. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.

Abstract 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.

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.