Urban air pollution perception through the experience of social practices: Talking about breathing with recreational runners in London.

This paper examines how interviews with outdoor recreational runners can help us understand how urban air pollution insinuates itself into the consciousness of those who may be breathing more polluted air than most. It begins by making the case for why studies of air pollution perception might turn to the subjectivities associated with taking part in relevant social practices. Then, with reference to debate about the extent to which groups of exercisers are thinking about certain aspects of what is physically happening during their exercise, we examine how outdoor recreational runners in London talk about the air that they breathe when running. We might imagine that this group would be particularly alive to urban air pollution in view of a presumed interest in physical performance and a personal history of running through various bodies of city air. However, through close scrutiny of their running talk, this paper documents how and why the suggestion of breathing polluted air is often placed beyond the realm of conscious thought for them during their runs. These findings point to particular strategies for encouraging healthy urban lifestyles and illustrate the potential of further studies on how social practices shape pollution perceptions.

On lenses and blind spots in qualitative exercise and environment research: A Response to Stephanie Coen.

Qualitative research focused on how people experience the social and material environments in which they exercise has the potential to inform public health agendas in all sorts of ways. This commentary takes up the claim made by Stephanie Coen that such research should begin with an 'equity lens' and place a greater emphasis on 'critique' than we did in the 'Exercise and Environment' special issue to which she responds. At its best qualitative research reveals new ways of thinking about the social and material contexts at hand. As such, it has the potential to highlight important dimensions of the lived experience of popular fitness practices that may have hitherto been relatively overlooked. Always starting with the overt aim of applying an 'equity lens' truncates the possibility of discovering such dimensions. Furthermore, being too wedded to an overtly critical stance may end up hindering, rather than encouraging, the most positive dialogue between those studying the cotemporary exercise experience and those involved in public health.

Exercise and environment: New qualitative work to link popular practice and public health.

The health benefits of physical activity are many and well known. Those hoping to promote public health are therefore understandably keen on encouraging physical exercise. This commentary considers the role of qualitative research in this undertaking, given a context in which medical researchers have more commonly taken a quantitative approach to the motivations that are thought to underpin exercise. Our core argument is that studies concerned with how particular environments are inhabited by particular groups of exercisers could play a more central part in public health promotion. In making this case, and by way of an introduction to this Health and Place special issue, we present a series of statements that we think could usefully guide the further development of this work. Specifically, we argue for further attention to: the ways in which different material settings play into the exercise experience; how many of the exercise practices that we may hope to understand sit rather uneasily with the idea of sport; the subtleties of how sociality features in contemporary exercise practices; the physical pleasures that come from exercise; and how exercise practices are both acquired by individuals and evolve as a whole. In so doing, the aim is to encourage relevant researchers to engage more directly in conversation with health promoters instead of either being indifferent to, or critical of, them.

How 'social' is recreational running? Findings from a qualitative study in London and implications for public health promotion.

Recreational running is increasingly widespread and could therefore be seen as the obvious target for those hoping to encourage greater public health through exercise. Existing qualitative research on this topic has, however, tended to focus on groups of highly committed runners. It is accordingly unclear whether their findings can be extrapolated to the much larger population of comparatively casual runners. This existing work has also tended to emphasise the social nature of the activity in particular ways. Whilst much recreational running happens alone, most commonly these studies have centred on the establishment of shared identities and group subcultures. Drawing on a study involving accompanied runs and interviews with recreational runners who do not belong to running clubs in London, this paper presents an alternative account. These respondents were relatively uninterested in the idea of proper running technique, ambivalent about the presence of others when running, and reticent about being pulled into a more committed collective practice. In view of how these more casual runners may be of particular interest to public health promoters, this finding suggests future campaigns might do well not to focus too greatly on the potential enjoyments of running community membership and start instead with a different set of social dynamics.

'Only old ladies would do that': age stigma and older people's strategies for dealing with winter cold.

Concerns over the welfare of older people in winter have led to interventions and advice campaigns meant to improve their ability to keep warm, but older people themselves are not always willing to follow these recommendations. In this paper we draw on an in-depth study that followed twenty one older person households in the UK over a cold winter and examined various aspects of their routine warmth-related practices at home and the rationales underpinning them. We find that although certain aspects of ageing did lead participants to feel they had changing warmth needs, their practices were also shaped by the problematic task of negotiating identities in the context of a wider stigmatisation of older age and an evident resistance to ageist discourses. After outlining the various ways in which this was manifest in our study, we conclude by drawing out the implications for future policy and research.