Lifestyle mobilities and urban environmental degradation: Evidence from China

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Abstract

Building on the intersection of lifestyle mobilities, changing environments and climates, and practice theories, this paper explores how lifestyle mobilities are mobilised in response to the pervasive environmental and climatic stress in China. Grounded in an ethnographic study conducted in a lifestyle destination with lifestyle travellers moored across multiple domestic nature-based destinations, this paper finds that the motivations towards lifestyle mobility are rooted in how people relate their health and desired ways of life with the natural environment through previous travel experiences, everyday practices both at original homes and destinations, and the mobility practice itself. The consistent movements of human bodies, objects, and skills enable lifestyle travellers to further perceive, understand, and respond to the changing climates, embodying alternative ways of indoor climate control. Rather than focusing on identity construction or the sense of belonging, we provide a different way to conceptualise lifestyle mobilities by appreciating the sensitivity and reflexivity that an emerging Chinese mobile population develops when living with environmental crises, climate change, and changing climates across various indoor and outdoor spaces. This paper concludes by reflecting on the potential of intersecting practice theories with mobilities paradigm and pollution perception studies and suggesting policy intervention on lifestyle mobilities in a rapidly industrialising and highly mobile era.
Original languageEnglish
JournalMobilities
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Sept 2022

Research Beacons, Institutes and Platforms

  • Sustainable Consumption Institute

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