By Saska Petrova
Petrova S, Gentile M, Mäkinen I H, Bouzarovski S, 2013, Perceptions of thermal comfort and housing quality: Exploring the microgeographies of energy poverty in Stakhanov, Ukraine. Environment and Planning A 45(5): 1240-1257
This paper explores issues of thermal comfort in the home, based on a large-scale survey undertaken in Stakhanov in Ukraine. It investigates the relationship between a range of sociodemographic, housing, and health-related factors, on the one hand, and self-reported perceptions of thermal comfort in the home, on the other. The reviewed evidence stresses the need for developing research agendas that can adequately consider the place-specific and people-specific features of inadequate domestic thermal comfort in spatial contexts where this condition is pervasive and severe.
Petrova S, Posová D, Sýkora L, House A, 2013, Discursive framings of low carbon urban transitions: The contested geographies of ‘satellite settlements’ in the Czech Republic. Urban Studies 50(7): 1439-1455
This article explores the manner in which climate change and sustainability narratives have been implicated in the development of ‘satellite settlements’ – a specific form of sprawl present in the Czech Republic. The paper scrutinises the extent to which lessons learnt from the post-communist transformation can also be extended to low carbon transitions as such. The authors of the study argue that change is most effectively enacted not by experts, but rather by local people and municipal governments. The paper has been published in the Urban Studies special issue on Cities, Urbanisation and Climate Change.
People and Energy Collective 