White, L. orcid.org/0000-0002-6704-4054 (2021) ‘I have to know where I can go’: mundane mobilities and everyday public toilet access for people living with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). Social & Cultural Geography, 24 (5). pp. 851-869. ISSN 1464-9365
Abstract
‘Public’ toilets are crucial to our social and geographical landscape, and access to them has become prominent in recent public and academic debates. Drawing on a qualitative study based on 25 daily diaries and follow-up interviews with people living with the common health condition irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), this paper explores toilet access through the lens of mundane mobilities. Planning journeys, mapping toilets, a reliance on commercial toilets and intersections with travel were key themes emerging from the study. Through the lens of IBS, we see how navigations of seemingly everyday mobilities are problematised through the bodily precarity of unpredictable symptoms intertwined with the availability, comfort and knowledge of ‘public’ toilets. This paper works at demonstrating the interdependency between everyday mobilities and toilet access. IBS offers a particularly useful insight in which the common but often hidden nature of the condition demonstrates the multiplicities of ‘public’ toilet access and how the unpredictability of access meets with, and is embodied, by those with the condition. This paper contributes to interdisciplinary toilet scholarship by engaging in mundane and embodied geographies and centralises toilets as a site of connection for those studying everyday mobilities.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2021 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
Keywords: | Toilet; mobilities; everyday life; irritable bowel syndrome (IBS); access; travel |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Social Sciences (Sheffield) > Department of Sociological Studies (Sheffield) |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number ECONOMIC & SOCIAL RESEARCH COUNCIL ES/V009397/1 University of Sheffield University of Sheffield |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 11 Oct 2021 13:17 |
Last Modified: | 25 Jun 2024 08:33 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Informa UK Limited |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1080/14649365.2021.1975165 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:178956 |