Association of American Geographers (AAG), Annual Meeting
April 8-12th 2014 in Tampa, Florida.
Organized by Lars Böcker (Utrecht University) and Mario Cools (University of Liège)
Intuitively, weather plays an important role in everyday life. How often do we not expose ourselves to cold, heat, sun, rain, snow or wind, or do we refer to these same elements at the coffee table or when writing post cards from a holiday address. Recently, weather has also emerged as an important policy aspect, with climate change, urban microclimates, health, accessibility, livability and subsequent aims to reduce car mobility and promote healthy but weather-exposed transport modes and physical activities high on the agenda. Yet although the influence of weather on daily life has been pervasive and its societal relevance never more pronounced, current interdisciplinary scientific debate on how weather shapes everyday life still requires further research to complete the areas that are under-investigated and provide additional empirical evidence to support policy-making. We thus seek to organize a session (or sessions), which address(es) the role of weather in daily life in its broadest sense, including behavioral or psychological responses to weather by diverse societal groups in a diverse range of geographical, cultural and climate contexts. We welcome submissions that examine topics including but not limited to:
- Theoretical, conceptual and methodological issues in studying weather
- Weather and transport modes, destinations and (physical) activity patterns
- Weather, travel distance and travel time (variability)
- Weather, moods and emotions
- Weather perception and place perception
- Subjective thermal comfort
- Effects of weather in urban and rural areas
- Weather and everyday life in the arctic or the (sub)tropics
- Role of weather forecasts
- Impacts of weather on shopping behavior
- Weather and media consumption
- The meaning of work place, home and garden under various weather conditions
- Local knowledge, meaning and conceptualizations of weather and climate change
- Weather and health
- Gender and weather
- Weather and embodiment
- Cultural and ethnic differences in experiencing weather
- Role of weather and seasonality for tourism and leisure
- Policies related to weather and urban microclimates
Please submit a title and a 250-word abstract to Lars Böcker (l.bocker@uu.nl) or Mario Cools (mario.cools@ulg.ac.be) by October 18th 2013. Selected abstracts will be accepted by October 20th in order to allow participants to meet the early bird registration deadline (October 23rd). If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Lars or Mario.