Those of you who know me, know that while I have some underlying concerns in my work revolving around climate change, environmental politics, and societal adaptations, it is also true that I don’t confine myself to a particular subject to examine those things. Maybe this eclecticism is a weakness. But, I think it keeps things interesting.
And so, I have been working lately with geographer Anne-Lise Boyer, fellow Phoenician, on a publishing project around heat. Yes, that’s right - the heat. Invisible, yet one of the predominant issues where we live, where over the past few months nearly every day has been over 100 degree Fahrenheit, if not over 110. That’s more than 40 degrees Celcius, if you are interested. It’s been brutal. In 2023, an estimated 645 people died from heat related conditions. This year, that number is expected to be exceeded.
So, as we started to think more seriously about the heat, we started defining a new research agenda. Our first response has been a zine that will be coming out in September or October, when the heat finally, well hopefully finally, relents.
“Zines” are publications that are self-initiated, self-funded, and often individually made. They take a variety of forms and shapes and sizes. The point for us was to make something that was ours, and that could be a kind of drafting table or diary of our notes. As such it was a place for us to use a trial and error process of design through a social science project. For the past few years, as I have made more and more books (I have probably 3o or so I have done myself) I have become more adept at designing a page spread and covers, but am still very novice. In fact, as I wrote in my dissertation, the process of bookmaking helped me tremendously to gather my thoughts in a synthetic way, often sparking new insights. But even if I am not good at book/zine making, that isn’t going to stop me from trying. So this zine serves as a place to begin the process of systematizing our thoughts on a phenomenon we have been experiencing these past few years as the heat has become more intense.
The first issue is titled “devices.” We have theoretical reasons for using this term, which I will spare you for the moment. Michel Callon is an influence here, among others (although I am suspicious of Actor Network Theory - see this description, which I like - it’s a methodology, not a theory). Anyway, the zine concerns objects and things that make desert life possible, make the heat bearable, and perhaps, in so doing, tend towards societal un-sustainability. As residents struggling to adapt ourselves to this place, we developed a series of questions to explore, and then we started working on this zine as we actively wrote and conducted some fieldwork in the heat. The goal eventually became to produce a zine that could take the reader on a kind of “tour” of the city and ask: How do we visualize the heat? How do we deal with the extreme heat?
So, be on the lookout for the release of this work in September or October. It will be in an edition of 50 and priced as cheaply as possible. If it’s not already evident, we aren’t doing this for the money, or because we had any grant to do this. We are doing it because we felt compelled to do so, and we are stretching our own training and methods in new directions. In this way, it is as much about learning as it is about the subject matter or any pedagogical aspirations we have for the project.
We will let you know where and how to get one and we hope you will be interested!
And, as this is an ongoing research project, if you have a story about the heat or know someone who does, we would love to hear from you/them!
You can reach me at: bfoneill@uw.edu
Over and Out.
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This week’s listening
Zuma 85 by the Allah Las (2023)
Yeah, HOT in PHX. It IS the desert after all, but you are right- a more personal - "person to person" look at how the heat and change for the worse (hotter) is affecting the PHX societal norms, in general, is a great idea. Most literature on climate change is too general to be useful on an everyday basis at least. I have not seen too much in the way of "grassroots sociology" concerning the local sequelae of global warming. This look by you and Anne-Lise at local phenomena will be COOL- so to speak! Cool music selection too--- notes of Lou Reed in there.