Harada, Theresa Dr

• Climate change knowledge and household behaviours
• Mobility and identity
• Mobile methodologies
• Sound as a research methodology

My research focuses on the intersection of climate change knowledge and household behaviours. It investigates why increasing awareness and knowledge of the impact of climate change has not significantly altered domestic household practices especially in the light of modes of personal mobility. I explore the connections between identity, mobility, place and sustainable practices by attending to the embodied dimensions of mobility and in particular, affective and emotional relationships that people have with their cars. My interest in how novel participatory and mobile methodologies can engage participants in collaborative and creative explorations of meaning and connection to place has drawn on, performative, affect-based, non-representational geographies. As such I am interested in sensory methods which pay attention to sound, touch, taste, smell and texture.

My interest in creative research methodologies is underpinned by the desire to critically engage with contemporary debates about the environmental sustainability. Currently sonic methods are underutilised as a sensory methodology. Sonic methodologies work on the assumption that while sounds are coded within particular ideologies, the processes of hearing and listening are embodied and therefore do not work to a given script or preconfigured world. More than simply representing places, communities or identities, everyday sounds (including music) give insights into how connections (or disconnections) in and to place, are mediated by emotional and affective relationships. This approach moves beyond sound as representation to explore sound as a process.