TY - JOUR AU - Subasinghe, Chamila PY - 2019/05/31 Y2 - 2024/03/28 TI - Not in my face please. Stress caused by the presence of smokers in places with restorative qualities JF - The Journal of Public Space JA - jps VL - 4 IS - 1 SE - Society DO - 10.32891/jps.v4i1.564 UR - https://www.journalpublicspace.org/index.php/jps/article/view/564 SP - 33-44 AB - <p>Non-smokers’ spatial transactions with smokers in semi-outdoor areas with restorative qualities have been investigated. In the process, the impact of smoking in <em>break spaces</em> on non-smokers’ behavior in negotiating mutual spatial boundaries was studied. The areas with restorative qualities were defined as places where regular visitors spend their break time to relieve work-related stress or seek temporary relaxation. Regularly used as break areas, three covered-overhead walkways located in different building precincts in the same academic setting were sampled in order to elicit narratives relating to perceived environmental deprivation among regular visitors. In-depth, semi-structured interviews had the aim of eliciting and unfolding these narratives where they emerged as a result of different modes of environmental deprivation. Discourse analysis of the transcribed interviews led to a systematic distillation of five themes associated with the presence of smokers in the studied restorative settings. The study revealed that participating non-smokers had devised both control and coping mechanisms to deal with the smokers’ behaviors, such as sending subtle non-verbal cues and repositioning their gaze. Moderated by furniture and landscape configuration, spaciousness, and visual and physical distance, smokers and non-smokers passively negotiated these spatial transactions in each of the respective walkways.</p> ER -