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Journal of Material Culture
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Air Conditioning and the Material Culture of Routine Human Encasement

The Case of Young People in Contemporary Singapore

Russell Hitchings

University College London, UK, r.hitchings{at}ucl.ac.uk

Shu Jun Lee

University College London, UK, shujun{at}gmail.com

There are many factors shaping the relationship between human bodies and their immediate environments and the mechanical control of ambient thermal conditions is playing an increasingly important part. It is with this in mind that this article travels to the tropical island of Singapore where the assumption that the air surrounding people should generally be cooled has quietly become entrenched. Specifically we focus on the young people we find in this country and consider how the presence of air conditioning has become implicated in particular combinations of social practice and sensual expectation amongst this group. The conclusion we draw is that it is only by attending to the contextual interplay of bodies, clothing and immediate climate that we gain the fullest sense of the processes underwriting a much wider retreat into indoor social spaces where these elements could be usefully understood as the material culture of routine human encasement.

Key Words: adaptation • air conditioning • bodies • clothing • comfort • Singapore

Journal of Material Culture, Vol. 13, No. 3, 251-265 (2008)
DOI: 10.1177/1359183508095495
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