Can comfort be practised?
Line Valdorff Madsen, PhD student
Danish Building Research Institute
Aalborg University, Copenhagen
SBi – 01.07.2016
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Background
• T h e Ph D p r o je c t
”Practising home and everyday life: A social
study of comfort and heating”
• Em p i r ic al s tu d y :
qualitative field study in single-family housing
in suburbs of Aarhus, Denmark
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Qualitative study
• T h e m e th o ds:
q u a l i t a t i v e i n t e r v i e w, h o m e t o u r s a n d p h o t o s
+ detailed measured data on heat consumption
• The case:
three groups of single-family housing, related to
building age, all with district heating
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What is comfort?
Te c h ni c al a p p r oach :
•
•
•
standardised norms and structures
“Thermal comfort”
an attribute
an achievement
So c io - te chn i cal a p p r oa ch:
•
•
Conventions or norms
Heating routines
A s o c ia l a p p r oa ch:
•
historical, cultural and social context
focus on everyday practice
Social, bodily and material elements
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Comfort as a social concept
• Ap p r o ach ed i n th e fr a mew ork o f th e d w e llin g a n d th e
e ve r yd ay life
•
Comfort as part of practising home and daily life
•
as part of everyday practices that vary in space and time
•
related to different meanings, competences and material
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Practice approach
”Society is seen as constituted by social practices that are produced
and reproduced across time and space.”
(Røpke, 2009)
”A practice is a routinized type of behaviour which consists of several
elements, interconnected to one another: forms of bodily activities,
forms of mental activities, ’things’ and their use, a background
k n o w l e d g e i n t h e f o r m o f u n d e r s t a n d i n g , k n o w - h o w, s t a t e s o f e m o t i o n
and motivational knowledge.”
(Reckwitz, 2002)
”(…) practices are defined by interdependent relations between
materials, competences and meanings.”
(Shove et al. 2012)
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Heating practice: comfort as the meaningful element
” ( … ) u n d e r flo or h e a ti n g, I w o u l d s a y i t i s l o ve l y, i t i s
w o n d e rfu l to w a lk a r o u n d o n th e w a r m fl o o r, b u t i t, w e l l
th e r a d ia to rs, yo u c a n tu r n th e m u p a n d th e n th e h e a t
c o m e s i n a s h o r t w h i l e , a n d th e s a m e w a y yo u c a n tu r n
th e m d o w n , a n d it w i l l b e r e g i s te red q u i c k l y, th a t i s w h a t I
h a d to g e t u s e d to ( … ) I th i n k i t i s h a r d to c o n trol ”
(Marianne,f,69, 2001)
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Comfort as a meaning element
• D i ffe r en t c o mfort a s p e cts : Wa r mth , l i g h t, fu n c ti o nal i ty,
h o m e lin ess
• C o m fo rt is a s h a r ed m e a n i n g e l e m e n t o f e ve r yd a y
p r a c tice s – g ive s m e a n i n g to d i ffe re nt p r a c ti ce s a s
h e a tin g , c o o l i n g , r e d e co rating , c le a n in g , h o me -makin g
• N o t a c o mfort p r a c ti ce - b u t b u n d l e s o f d o m e s ti c
e ve r yd ay p r a c tice s r e l a te d to c o m fort
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T h a n k yo u fo r yo u a tte n ti on –
L i n e Va l d o r f f M a d s e n : l v m @ s b i . a a u . d k
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