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Paper short abstract

Building on ethnographic research, this paper demonstrates how older adults living in Warsaw experience urban heat. It showcases how they feel heat in their bodies, readjust their daily routines and how their affective relationship with the city changes during the summer.

Paper long abstract

Europe is one of the fastest heating continents due to anthropogenic climate change and environmental shifts. While southern Europe faces unprecedented temperatures, it has been culturally more used to heat. In contrast, cities in central-eastern Europe have historically adapted to cold temperatures and now have to completely re-adjust, learning how to cope with and adapt to heat. And within such cities, there are groups of people who are particularly vulnerable to heat stress, due to a combination of social and physiological factors. Older adults, above 65 years old, are such a group, often more isolated and at risk of dehydration or heat stroke, forced to re-learn how to live in an urban environment in the summer.

This paper builds on ethnographic research conducted in Warsaw, Poland, in 2021-2022, that consisted of long-term participant observation and interviews with 10 people above 65 years old, focus groups with 81 people and participatory workshops with a group of 15 older adults. It demonstrates how older adults living in Warsaw experience urban heat, showcasing how they smell, see and feel it, how they adjust their daily routines and how they narrate and explain the changes they have noticed happening in the weather, their city and their bodies, throughout their lives. Theoretically focusing on the framework of embodiment, the paper discusses how older adults’ affective relationship with the city is mediated through heat.