Shifting elemental bodies in the city: Towards thermal and daylight justice

Abstract

While thermal comfort and daylight exposure are subjective and context specific, and in some cases even counterpoised, we show how individual and communal efforts to reduce exposure (in the case of heat) or increase exposure (in the case of sunlight) center the elemental as a point of struggle for just urban living and citizenship. The two examples of Delhi and London that we present demonstrate how heat and daylight are encountered in the face of changing climate realities and top-down planning and housing development. With a focus on the asymmetrical vulnerabilities of exposure within thermal and luminous milieu, we contribute to calls for urban justice amidst rapidly changing and unstable climatic futures that demand pressing attention to urban social stratification and livability.