Environmental and Social Aspects of Domestic Bathing - Ethical Engineering for International Development and Environmental Sustainability - page 199

Aesthetics Lupton and Miller's ( 1992 ) The Bathroom the Kitchen and the Aesthetics
of Waste: A Process of Elimination has much of interest to architects and engineers.
Aside from the aesthetics of equipment and rooms, the aesthetics of our bodily appear-
ance, unclothed and clothed, has always been important (Faxon 1998 , pp 110-115)
and can remain so, whilst the adverse impacts of consumption are minimised.

Pleasure Slavin and Petzke's ( 1997 ) The Art of the Bath is a paean to luxurious
bathing, but there is no recognition of outer realities. Likewise, Witberg and Field's
( 2000 ) Clean and Serene: Meditations for the Bath betrays a solipsistic concept of
pleasure. Part of the aim of the present chapter is to argue that varied mindful bath-
ing habits would still be pleasurable in a just and sustainable world.

Health and Impairment This chapter is concerned with promoting hygienic and
pleasurable bathing for all whilst using much less water, energy and toiletries than
are used in prosperous countries today. This may be regarded as a small part of a
grand project, in which humanity changes from an ethos of domination and exploi-
tation to an ethos of sharing our earthly home with its other living and nonliving
parts. Part of this is understanding and special help for people with physical and
other/or impairments, particular illnesses or health issues. These can be extremely
varied, and therefore no attempt will be made in this chapter to specify what
responses might be best for this or that condition. In any case the person herself or
himself has the right to decide, and usually has the best insight into, what suits them.
All the suggestions in the following are subject to the consideration that what may
suit most does not have to suit all. This remark takes on a special signifi cance in the
present world of global technical design and production. One of the many chal-
lenges for the conscientious engineer working for a better world is to combine effi -
cient production for gigantic markets without squeezing out specialist markets.
Products for the latter will be more expensive, but this should be minimised as far
as technical design allows. The late Meredith Thring was one of the fi rst engineers
who 'challenged engineers to provide a decent quality of life for the disabled and
underprivileged' (Crookes 2007 ; Fitzgerald 2006 , Ch 8 of Thring 1980 , Ch 10 of
Thring and Blake 1973 ).

5 Learning Together

I prefer this expression to 'education'. By learning together I mean skill sharing,
knowledge sharing and wisdom sharing. In this dysfunctional world, adults have
much to learn from babies and children. Young and old need a functional intellec-
tual, practical and emotional environment, something that could exist in what Ted
Trainer ( 1995 ) called a conserver society. Whether education remains conventional
or gains a learning together character, connected written expositions will remain
important. I present now a potted review of current and earlier topics on washing.
They give an understanding of where we are now, in respect of bathing values,
technology and practices, and of how we got to this place.