Home Space Research Articles

The materiality of home visits at the margins of community care before, during and after the COVID-19 pandemic

ABSTRACT The emergence of COVID-19 led to restrictions in face-to-face interaction and an increase in remote contact, creating challenges, in particular for social services in which home visits are integral. This longitudinal study concentrates on one such service: community care among vulnerable adults, which aims to safeguard their housing and living in the community. Based on a re-analysis of 120 home visits before the pandemic, we demonstrate the significance of materiality in the visits, which manifest as home-space talk and body work. We then analyse data from two focus group interviews with workers to determine what happened to this materiality during and after the pandemic. During the pandemic, home visits were carried out (1) in the usual face-to-face manner in home spaces, (2) as visits in homes without the service users present, (3) as short visits on the doorsteps of homes, (4) as outdoor (home) visits and (5) contacts via phone calls and instant messaging applications. Carrying out home visits as usual or in a manner that enabled face-to-face contact or workers’ presence in homes signal the importance of materiality as well as the workers’ return to previous home visit practices after the acute phase of the pandemic.

Home and leisure accidents among children and young people up to 19 years old as an event observed in the EU-IDB surveillance system: 2012-2021 data

Abstract Paediatric injuries are widely acknowledged as a major public health issue among different medical disciplines. In the context of injuries and accidents, the surrounding environment of children and young people remains a major health concern. The present study was developed to extend current knowledge on the characteristics and magnitude of home and leisure accidents in this population. A descriptive, observational, cross-sectional study was developed under the EU-IDB (European Injury Database) collaborative network comprising up to 25 European countries and ten years of data collection (2012 to 2021). The methodology of the EU-IDB is a well consolidated standard for collecting injury data in Emergency departments, in compliance with the Eurostat methodological requirements for European health statistics. During the ten years of data collection in emergency departments, through EU-IDB surveillance 3 603 975 episodes of home and leisure accidents (HLA) were recorded at European level, involving people aged 0-19 years, constituting 34.5 % of hospital ED attendances due to HLA. Children and young people between 10 and 14 years old represented the major age group proportion of HLA(33.0%), the proportion of HLA increased across age groups until fourteen years old, being these differences statistically significant(p < 0,001). Falls were the most common cause of injuries among all age-groups, in the youngest group up to 4-years(54.4%), the 5-9years old (52.2%), the 10-14years old (46.1%) and in the oldest group between 15-19 years(37.5%), representing 47.2% of the total HLA mechanism. As regards to the treatment/follow-up, the vast majority of the HLA episodes were not admitted to hospital (92.9%). Hospital ED Injury data represent very useful information on the health burden of non-fatal injuries in this population of interest. These data could be used for the design of injury prevention policies and regulations for accidents that occur at home, school and outdoor spaces.

Laying the foundations for using generative AI images in architectural research: do images convey the intended spaces and ambiances?

The advent of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) models, such as Stable Diffusion, Open AI's DALL-E2, and MidJourney, has opened the door to a huge range of new possibilities in architectural research and practice. Before architects and researchers can fully leverage these models, it is crucial to assess their proficiency in generating images that accurately depict real spaces and ambiances. Here, we assessed the proficiency of DALL-E2 in depicting intended spaces and intended ambiances, using real photographs from Google Images as a comparative benchmark. Images of eighteen distinct home spaces, each intended to evoke three different ambiances, were generated and presented to human observers. The images were evaluated in terms of their perceived realism, their accuracy in depicting the space and ambiance intended. Findings highlight GenAI's capability in depicting spaces and point to its potential in convincingly conveying ambiances. Beyond the substantive findings, this research highlights the importance of evaluating the rapidly emerging tools enabled by recent developments in AI.

Hostile Environments: Housing and Asylum Policies as Drivers of Energy Deprivation Among UK Refugee Communities

ABSTRACT Although refugees in the UK are highly susceptible to the triad of factors – low income, poor housing and high energy bills – that produce vulnerability to energy deprivation, literature on this issue is rare. We therefore propose a framework towards understanding the role of “non-energy” policies as drivers of energy deprivation among UK refugees, using the conceptual lenses of deservingness, welfare chauvinism and domicide to demonstrate how the condition has been deliberately produced under the UK government’s Hostile Environment approach. We argue that this approach not only damages the physical materiality of housing and the emotional space of home, but also deleteriously impacts upon refugees’ ability to access adequate energy services. Energy deprivation thus emerges as a hidden consequence of policies that normalize precarious housing, a denial of rights, and inadequate incomes, in which “home” becomes a site of exclusion that achieves the Hostile Environment’s goal – making everyday life unbearable.

How does the kitchen feel in an empty nest? Mapping emotions in Polish kitchens

This paper addresses the spatial dimension of the empty nest experience. The assumption that the departure of adult children from home leaves the nest empty is challenged in this study. We delve into the lived experiences of parents left behind to reconstruct their encounters with kitchen space in a post-parental home. Drawing upon evidence from participant-generated data (138 emotion maps) and 69 map-elicited interviews conducted in the administrative provinces of Pomorze and Wielkopolska in Poland, we identify the kitchen as a key place where family relations are practised. The analysis of the material allowed us to reconstruct the relationship between ‘empty nest’ kitchen and emotions, as seen by the participants. Four themes that have emerged: bonds, memory, social roles and territorial claims account for the relationship between individuals and the spatial dynamics they navigate during this significant life transition. Through an exploration of parents’ subjective experiences, we seek to provide a deeper understanding of how kitchen space is perceived and engaged with within the context of the empty nest.

Personal noise exposure patterns and health implications in urban work environments

Noise-induced hearing loss remains a preventable occupational health concern, contingent on timely detection and mitigation of excessive workplace noise. However, the lack of effective identification of at-risk workers often results in the neglect of safety measures that could prevent hearing loss. To address this, personal noise exposure measurements, using noise dosimeters, were conducted on 50 individuals across diverse urban work environments, including work from home, offices, outdoor settings, and mixed-use spaces. The results demonstrated significant variations in noise exposure levels among different environments. Outdoor and mixed-use environments exhibited the highest average dose percentages, while home-based workers had the lowest exposure. A strong correlation between noise levels above 80 dB and increased dose percentages emphasized the need to reduce high-noise exposure times. Additionally, the study integrated quantitative dosimeter measurements with qualitative data from a questionnaire survey to provide a holistic understanding of the participants' perception on noise pollution. Traffic emerged as the primary source of noise pollution, with a substantial number of respondents experiencing stress and ear infections attributed to noise exposure. The research underscores the importance of personalized noise dosimetry in assessing health implications, emphasizing the need for awareness and preventative measures to mitigate health risks in urban work environments.

The Colonial Java Town and Beach: Chronotopical Analysis of Augusta de Wit’s Two Travelogue Chapters

When the twentieth century was around the corner, the plurality of residents and newcomers grew in numbers, forming a dynamic and heterogeneous urban society in colonial Java. Augusta de Wit was one of the Dutch authors who wrote about Java during her stay there in her book form travelogue titled Java: Facts and Fancies. Her experience in Java had left an influence on her, which is shown in her fiction works. One of them is the short story Vijandschap that portrays mostly the rural and idyllic life of a coastal community, yet includes the participation of the town (Batavia) as a commercially promising place. This qualitative study aspires to illuminate how the rural beach community reconciled with the town and to confirm what she means by natural beauty by focusing on two chapters “The Town" and “On the Beach.” It is conducted by employing a close reading method and Torop’s chronotopical analysis consisting of topographical, psychological, and metaphysical chronotopes in Augusta de Wit’s perspective while considering the notion of tropicality. This study discovers that there is a relational function of town as a dynamic marketplace to the local folks on the beach and a “space of home” for the Europeans, while the beach as fruitful home to the native beach community and a soothing recreational place to de Wit. Moreover, natural beauty is not confined to nature solely, but includes the locals alongside their character and habits, who are an intrinsic tropical part of Java.

“But on Sunday, They Are Free”

This article examines the site of the home in Baby Ruth Villarama's 2016 documentary Sunday Beauty Queen to better understand how tomboy migrant domestic workers in Hong Kong mess up and queer domesticity. By focusing on the appearances in the film of the home of Leo Selomenio, a tomboy Filipino migrant domestic helper and organizer of Sunday beauty pageants, the author explores alternative modes of care performed by tomboys that refuse respectability politics as they operate within transnational migrant labor structures. Despite the regulatory and confining modes of racialized and gendered care that structure global care work, Selomenio reconfigures and reshapes his home to operate as a site of refuge, an archive, a gathering space, and a site of resistance. Engaging in what the author terms “tomboy domesticity,” Selomenio utilizes his control over home space and time as a result of his exemption from the live-in requirement of his work to ensure collective survival in the face of labor precarity. Selomenio's performance of care ethics that refuse the state's neglect of domestic helpers articulates tomboy and diasporic Filipino life as valuable outside of its capacity to labor.

Insights into the spatial ecology of the world’s most ancient dog: high-altitude movements of New Guinea dingoes

Knowledge of an animal’s activity patterns, home range size and space use is fundamental to understanding their basic ecology, and obtaining spatial data is an important research priority for newly discovered species, data-deficient species of conservation concern, or species of great scientific or public interest. Here we report the first spatial data obtained from wild-living dingoes near Puncak Jaya, New Guinea. Based on information from four dingoes monitored with GPS tracking collars between 2018 and 2022, we report that dingo home range sizes can be up to 128km2, dingoes travel up to 56.8km per day, and they utilise rainforest and alpine habitats up to 4,630m above sea level. Dingoes at the site regularly traversed steep, rocky and barren alpine mountain crevasses to access more fertile areas at lower altitudes on the other side. These results imply that New Guinea dingoes may have physiological and genetic adaptations that enable them to live in high-altitude low-oxygen environments similar to Himalayan wolves, Ethiopian wolves, and other canids found in high-altitude areas. As the first domesticated animal and the world’s most ancient dog, and given their historic and current cultural significance, their illusiveness in the wild, and their trophic position as the largest terrestrial predators on the second-largest island in the world, we believe that further research on the ecology of New Guinea dingoes will continue to reveal important insights valuable for our understanding of human and animal ecology in this global biodiversity hotspot.

ASSESSMENT OF PASSIVE SMOKING EXPOSURE AMONG PREGNANT WOMEN

Secondhand smoke (SHS) exposure poses significant health risks to both mothers and fetuses during pregnancy. Despite global efforts to reduce smoking in public and private spaces, SHS exposure remains prevalent, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. Objective: The study aimed to assess the extent of passive smoking exposure among pregnant women in various settings, including their homes, workplaces, and public spaces, and to examine the frequency and potential health risks associated with SHS exposure during pregnancy. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted among 150 pregnant women attending a tertiary care hospital in Pakistan between January and June 2024. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire that captured demographic information and SHS exposure across different environments, including home, workplace, and public spaces. Descriptive statistics, including frequencies and percentages, were used to summarize the data. Results: Among the participants, 60.7% reported SHS exposure at home, with 30% experiencing SHS exposure 6-10 times weekly. Additionally, 61.3% of the women reported exposure at work, with 52.7% exposed 11-15 times monthly. Public spaces also contributed to significant SHS exposure, with 86% of participants affected. Notably, 37.3% of women reported spending 15-30 minutes daily inside a car with someone smoking. Demographically, most participants were aged 25-28 years (46.7%) and had a matric-level education (36.0%). Conclusion: This study reveals a high prevalence of SHS exposure among pregnant women, particularly at home, work, and public places. The findings underscore the urgent need for public health interventions, such as stricter smoke-free policies and public awareness campaigns, to reduce SHS exposure and safeguard maternal and fetal health.

Islanding as a vernacular creative response to crisis: Emotional geographies of pandemic musicianship

Emotional geographies of creativity during disruptive crises have received scant attention yet are deeply entwined with unfolding spatial reconfigurations. Drawing upon ethnographic research on the shifting geographies of creative work in the post-pandemic city, we highlight and discuss one distinctive emotional-geographic experience: what Wakefield (2021) calls ‘islanding’, a ‘retreat’ among creative workers to home spaces, consolidating activities and finding ways to inhabit upheaval. Describing the case of four male musicians who play together regularly in Sydney, Australia, we show how, in response to forced lockdowns, collaboration shifted from dispersed networks to home spaces of rehearsal, composition, production and performance. Within these reworked home spaces, creativity and sociality were reassembled. The emotional dimensions of music-making, support from family and friends, gender nuances, and bonds of collective creativity, acquired heightened significance. Pandemic upheaval afforded unforeseen opportunities to experiment, while ‘islanded’ spaces proved vital, socially, as the musicians faced multiple health, employment, and psychological challenges. Transcending masculine tropes, gathering at home to play music proved an avenue to perform care work, share the joys of music, express love and admit vulnerability. We conclude that emotional, gendered, and spatial dimensions must figure more prominently within analyses of creative responses to crisis, including post-pandemic discussions of the creative sectors.

Segregated by whom? Examining triple neighbourhood disadvantages and activity spaces in Seoul, South Korea

This study explores the potential mechanisms by which neighbourhood isolation is created and reinforced in non-home activity locations. The existing discussion on neighbourhood isolation, its consequences, and the subsequent reproduction of interactions between individuals and their environment has focused on their residential locations. However, the vitality of a neighbourhood depends not only on its own socioeconomic conditions but also on the conditions of the other neighbourhoods its residents visit and are visited by. Residential locations are only one of the many spaces in which individuals engage in their activities; therefore, to fully comprehend people’s everyday experiences of integration and isolation, it is imperative to look at interactions within both home and non-home activity spaces. Building on this extended perspective, we examine: (1) whether residential neighbourhood isolation is intensified by socioeconomic conditions individuals’ encounter in consumption and commuting activity spaces; and (2) which socioeconomic group drives the association between residential neighbourhood isolation and activity spaces—whether both disadvantaged and privileged groups contribute to isolation through the differential use of urban space or either group predominantly leads this association. We use Seoul as a case study, characterised as a city that is highly populated, contains multiple economic centres, functions with a highly affordable and efficient public transportation system, and suffers from increasing socioeconomic segregation. The results suggest that mobility patterns in activity spaces tend to reinforce neighbourhood isolation through potential forces driven by neighbourhood homophily. Isolation in the use of urban spaces appears to be driven mainly by the self-seclusion of the most advantaged neighbourhood group, while neighbourhoods in the lower socioeconomic status groups indicate broader cross-interactions across status groups, probably because of Seoul’s transit-friendly environment. Our study contributes to enhancing the understanding of spatial-societal inequalities in Korea and beyond and could assist in formulating policies for a more balanced provision of diverse urban social services and infrastructure.

Moderators of movement behaviour changes among Canadian toddlers and preschoolers throughout the first 2 years of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Primary objectives were to examine: (1) changes in movement behaviours (i.e., outdoor play (OP), organized physical activity (PA), screen time (ST), sleep) across the first 2 years of coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) among Canadian toddlers and preschoolers, and (2) intrapersonal, interpersonal, community, and policy moderators of change in movement behaviors. Participants were 341 Canadian parents of children (start of study: 1-4 years; 48% female). Participants completed online questionnaires regarding their children's movement behaviours and intrapersonal, interpersonal, and community factors at five time-points before and throughout the pandemic (T1-T5). Data from government websites were also used for some community and policy factors. Linear mixed models were conducted. Compared to pre-COVID-19 (T1): OP was on average 30 min/day higher at T2 and T3; organized PA was on average 62, 44, and 37 min/day lower at T2, T3, and T4, respectively; ST was on average 67, 17, 38, and 52 min/day higher at T2, T3, T4, and T5, respectively; and sleep was on average 30, 36, and 82 min/day lower at T3, T4, and T5, respectively. Significant moderating variables were observed for OP (parental education, parental work inside home, COVID-19 restriction severity), organized PA (children's sex, started kindergarten, nonparental care, parental education, household income, parental employment status, house type, indoor home space and support for PA), ST (nonparental care, parental marital status) and sleep (children's T1 age group, started kindergarten, parental place of birth, parental employment status). All movement behaviors changed across the first 2 years of COVID-19 but patterns and moderators were behaviour-specific. Children from lower socioeconomic status families had the least optimal patterns.

Betwixt and between in an ‘unreadable city’: Chinese students' urban citizenship and belonging in pandemic-era Amsterdam

As newcomers to Amsterdam, Chinese international students arriving during 2020 – 2021 had to navigate a peculiar urban landscape shaped by the Covid-19 pandemic. Rather than the pandemic's direct impacts, we highlight the unique spatiotemporal context it mediated – a period characterized by its liminality, or in-betweenness, further marked by ambiguity and uncertainty. The study draws on narrative interviews to investigate the students' urban experiences and socio-spatial engagement, focusing on their sense of belonging and urban citizenship. Citizenship is conceptualized as a ‘lived’ that is practiced and contested, making it affective and contextual. We argue that citizenship is inextricably linked to belonging and center feeling belongingness and familiarity as proxies claiming urban citizenship. The interplay of individual subjectivities, socio-spatial practices, and transnational identities helped produce reflexive spaces of home and recontextualized Chinese dynamics in Amsterdam, demonstrating the transcendent nature of the ‘urban’ beyond physical boundaries. We find that interlocutors often attached meanings to micro-spaces rather than the city as a whole. Experiencing liminal transience and racialized (micro)aggressions impacted, to varying degrees, the participants' desire and ability to become familiar with their urban environments and build citizenship.

Domesticating WhatsApp: Female fertility society performers and health promotion in the Gambia

In the Gambia, female fertility societies known as kanyeleng are made up of women who have experienced infertility or the death of a young child. They employ musical performance and fertility ritual practices to support members and promote the health of women and babies. This paper examines the changing forms of creativity and connection practiced by kanyeleng performers through engagement with social media in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Drawing on interviews, focus group discussions and participant observation conducted in person and online (2021–2022), we show that while WhatsApp provided an opportunity for kanyeleng to build new social connections and experiment with new forms of musical creativity, it also presented challenges, including inequities in access, and increased misinformation and mistrust of health workers. Going beyond formulations of domestication of technology within private home spaces, we theorise kanyeleng domestication as a process of incorporating social media into their existing ritual practice of claiming public space and power. Finally, we argue that understanding changing forms of communication and connectedness in the Global South demands new methodological approaches to engage participants whose voices are often marginalised in research on social media.

The everyday competitive mothering of tourists: global tourism competition, homestays, and mothering labour

ABSTRACT Global tourism competition has entered home and family space. Drawing upon ethnographic research in Guatemala, this paper investigates the postcolonial gendered politics that shape (and are shaped by) global tourism competition, homestays, and mothering labour. It shows how Guatemalan women turn to hosting as an economic strategy and, in doing so, become part of a complex power relationship between Spanish schools and their (primarily Western) language tourists (or ‘students’). Spanish schools only work with ‘host-mums’ deemed capable of meeting their students’ needs, desires, and expectations of homestays as affordable, enjoyable, pedagogical experiences of ‘real’ family. To achieve this, Guatemalan women become cosmopolitan, competitive subjects who devise and enact strategies to commodify, transform, and perform their mothering labour and homes/families in ways that appeal to their Western students. Far beyond creating desirable touristic experiences, the everyday competitive mothering of tourists is having widespread consequences at the personal, local, and global levels.

Sustainability of the Housing Market: Post-COVID-19 Effects on Housing Preferences in Cyprus

After the announcement of the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, people around the world had to adopt online education, working from home and social-distancing policies in an effort to stop the spread of COVID-19. The lockdowns and home isolation brought to the surface the current limitations of the existing housing stock as people needed to re-organize their home space to host various daytime functionalities. Therefore, one could question whether the priorities of potential homebuyers have been changed due to technology, health, and socialization alteration? This study explores the preferences for housing attributes and trends in Cyprus post-COVID-19 pandemic and compares these against the views of real estate professionals who represent the Cypriot residential demand prior the pandemic. Data were gathered via qualitative surveys from 117 potential homebuyers and 36 real estate professionals from across Cyprus. A survey methodology with questionnaires was used to analyze the changes in the real estate demand between the pre- and post-COVID-19 periods. Descriptive statistics were used to determine the mean importance of the housing attributes and to compare the results from the pre- and post-COVID-19 pandemic periods. The analysis found a shift toward houses rather than apartments, and the results suggest that new housing should contain more capacity for private use spaces, and at the same time, it should be designed with flexible and adaptive layouts to accommodate more activities. This study discusses whether these shifts are likely to be temporary or permanent and the implications for real estate professionals.

Development of the Home Environmental Scale of Accessibility Instrument for Spain.

Universal accessibility is one of the most active lines of intervention for people with disabilities and older adults. This accessibility has become a topic of growing interest regarding home access and use. Therefore, the main objective of this study was to create and validate a home assessment tool: the HESA II. The study was conducted in four phases: (1) agreement on variables by an expert panel; (2) development of 90 items according to the AOTA framework; (3) pilot test with n = 20; and (4) final study with 156 subjects where confirmatory factor analysis was performed. The tool consisted of 85 items divided into five subscales related to each of the main spaces of Spanish homes: living room; kitchen; bedroom; and bathroom. The tool demonstrates good psychometric properties of reliability. The HESA II assesses home accessibility based on limitations in activity and participation restriction of the evaluated person as per the International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health rather than on a diagnosis, making it applicable to a wide range of groups.

Optimization of older adults’ home spaces to enhance their physical activity level and minimize sedentary behaviour: A qualitative study

There is a lack of studies focused explicitly on the impact of the home environment on older adults’ sedentary behaviour (SB) and physical activity (PA). The present study aims to investigate older adults’ perception of their home environment and its impact on their PA and SB. A qualitative exploratory research design was employed to conduct 33 in-depth interviews (IDIs) and five focus group (FGs; n=16) with older adults (mean age 71.7 ± 5.2 years). Using reflexive thematic analysis as an inductive coding approach, four themes were generated from the data set and were interpreted using the socio-ecological model (SEM): (I) Home layout and PA, (II) Space designation within the home, (III) Electronic equipment, furniture and material within the home space, (IV) Changing infrastructure within the home space. The findings highlight the significance of person-environment interaction at different layers of the SEM. Older adults have a significant influence on the physical environment of the home and how it is organized in terms of allocating space and equipment. However, utilization of space, and its intentional use (for active or sedentary behaviour) is also crucial, emphasizing individuals’ autonomy, freedom and control within the home environment. Moreover, both interpersonal and intrapersonal factors act as facilitators or barriers regarding necessary modifications within the home space to promote a conducive environment for PA. The current findings provide insight into the interaction of personal, social, community, and physical environment factors to these older adults’ PA and SB in their homes. Moreover, motivating older adults to develop more intention to have positive control over their environment is important. Further, promoting the notion of ‘think small for large effects’ within the home space will enable older adults to map out small-scale activities (such as avoiding screens in the bedroom or moving PA equipment to a convenient place) instead of making large-scale, less realistic infrastructure changes.

Identifying how pre-existing resources combine to shape the experiences of work and family life of a diverse sample of working parents with at least one child in primary school in Scotland during COVID-19 pandemic-related social restrictions: a qualitative descriptive design

ObjectivesThis study aimed to identify factors that shaped working parents (WPs’) experiences of COVID-19-related social restrictions and analyse the relationships between those factors.DesignA qualitative descriptive design was used to collect...