A ‘Proper Night Out’: A Practice Theory Exploration of Gendered Drinking

Drawing on the three-element model of social practice theory and key conceptualisations relating to gender performance, this article reports on an empirical study of the intersecting practices of drinking alcohol and doing gender. We present data from a 14-month research project to explore the online and offline intoxicated drinking practices of 23 young people in England framed as a ‘proper night out’. The data were analysed with a focus on three elements (the ‘corporeal’, ‘alcohol’, and ‘caring’), and the findings demonstrate how young people collectively practice gender through their intoxicated drinking practices. This operationalisation of practice theory highlights the potential value that a practice theory lens has for exploring gendered social practices and broadening understandings of notions of acceptable and suitable practice performance.

“I Tried Forcing Myself to do It, but Then It Becomes a Boring Chore”: Understanding (dis)engagement in Physical Activity Among Individuals With Type 2 Diabetes Using a Practice Theory Approach

Lack of physical activity (PA) is common among individuals with type 2 diabetes (T2D). We apply a practice theory approach to investigate PA engagement in the context of T2D. Data were collected through semi-structured individual interviews ( n = 23) and focus groups ( n = 3x6) and analyzed by deductive-inductive reflexive thematic analysis using a practice theory framework. Forty-one purposefully selected individuals with T2D (29 men) between the ages of 54 and 77 years were included. The analysis resulted in three main themes informed by five subthemes, reflecting the key elements of practice theory (i.e., meanings, materialities, and competencies). One overarching theme identified PA engagement as an unsustainable and insurmountable project in constant and unequal competition with the practice of physical inactivity. To increase PA among individuals with T2D, future PA interventions and strategies should aim to establish a stronger link between PA and everyday life practices.

Controlling the Uncontrollable! Danish Citizens’ Attitudes Towards the COVID-19 Vaccination Program – a Qualitative Case Study Employing the Lens of Bourdieu’s Practice Theory

Background: Vaccination is an effective choice to stop the COVID-19 pandemic. Vaccine hesitancy may, however, be a threat to global health. What is structuring and at stake regarding citizens’ attitudes towards COVID-19 vaccination in a society is not yet well understood. The aim was therefore to assess how the attitudes and beliefs of Danish citizens regarding the offer of a COVID-19 vaccine are expressed to make us wiser as to why people have the attitudes towards the vaccination program that they have.Methods: The study was designed as a qualitative case study including 25 citizens from different parts of Denmark and with different sociodemographic backgrounds. Data were collected through individual interviews and analyzed and interpreted through the lens of Bourdieu’s practice theory; the focus being especially on structures, habitus and capital within a health field. Findings: The findings highlight structures that regulate vaccination attitudes in the individual in which perceptions of being included or excluded in the logic of the state are particularly relevant. The individual’s usual social network seemed to have less structuring importance for their attitudes for or against COVID-19 vaccination. Participants’ health habitus was challenged by COVID-19 vaccination, and it had an impact on their attitudes whether they considered health, illness, and body as an individual or collective responsibility. The collection of health capital and positioning in relation to COVID-19 vaccination attitudes was essential, for which, however, unequal dispositions and conditions for the acquisition of knowledge were decisive.Conclusions: A belief in vaccination as a way out of the pandemic is seen in citizens who share the basic truth of the state, while holding attitudes against vaccination excludes individuals from community and society. Vaccination is for some citizens of no meaning, and they perceive receiving a vaccination as being made sick, while others highlight a collective responsibility to get vaccinated. Those who have the relevant capital, in the form of expert opinions and knowledge from highly educated people in their close social network, receive support from a collective capital, while other citizens might lack the right to express and act in relation to different approaches to knowledge.

Future Low-Carbon Transport Scenarios: Practice Theory-Based Visioning for Backcasting Studies

Backcasting is a well-established methodology particularly suitable for analyzing complex problems where the business-as-usual projection is no longer appropriate, which can be used to effectively address the challenges of climate change mitigation in transport. It is characterised by designing endpoints in the future and working backward from these visions to establish policy pathways that can achieve desired futures. The visioning phase, which involves the construction of a set of scenarios describing alternative futures, is the first phase in backcasting, and engaging different stakeholders during the visioning phase is considered an important aspect in transport studies. This paper aims to demonstrate the findings from a participatory visioning exercise carried out as part of a backcasting study on sustainable transport in the islands of Malta. It is based on a methodological approach that combines social practice theory with stakeholder workshops. The visioning exercise resulted in the development of four different scenarios: the business-as-usual scenario and three alternative scenarios for transport in 2050 in Malta; High-Tech Mobility (with a focus on clean technology); Local Mobility (with more local travel and reducing the need to travel over longer distances); and Green and Active Mobility (where active forms of travel are prioritised over motorised forms of transport). In the alternative scenarios, the elements of mobility practices and other social practices influencing mobility have been reconfigured to allow for low-carbon travel and significantly reducing GHG emissions. The results of this study demonstrate how insights from a theory of social practices approach can be utilized to provide narratives for future visions in transport backcasting studies, and how this approach could open new possibilities for the transition towards more sustainable mobility through the reconfiguration of mobility and other everyday social practices.

Cambridge Handbook of Routine Dynamics

Over the last two decades, Routine Dynamics has emerged as an international research community that shares a particular approach to organizational phenomena. At the heart of this approach is an interest in examining the emergence, reproduction, replication and change of routines as recognizable patterns of actions. In contrast to other research communities interested in those phenomena, Routine Dynamics studies are informed by a distinctive set of theories (especially practice theory and related process-informed theories). This Handbook offers both an accessible introduction to core concepts and approaches in Routine Dynamics as well as a comprehensive and authoritative overview of research in different areas of Routine Dynamics. The chapters of this Handbook are structured around four core themes: 1) Theoretical resources for research on the dynamics of routines, 2) Methodological issues in studying the dynamics routines, 3) Themes in Routine Dynamics research and 4) Relation of Routine Dynamics to other communities of thought.

Towards a General Theory of Markets: A Social Practice Theory Approach

<p>In recent years new conceptualisations of marketing have been founded in social practice theory. Markets and market boundaries, however, while debated, have not been re-theorised and definitions remain based in the neoclassical economics paradigm. Social practices theory provides a basis for defining markets and market boundaries by practices and their performances by market actors. This thesis advances the debate on a general theory of markets by theorising a new conceptual model of markets as social structures demarcated by nine specific categories of routinised practices described here as parameters. A qualitative study grounded within the social constructionist epistemology was conducted to explore the market practices model, particularly the categories of practices forming the parameters that define market boundaries. The New Zealand mobile telecommunications market provided an opportunity for a situational-specific exploration involving interviews with service providers, users, and regulators as actors performing in the market between 1990 and 2014, triangulated against 26-years of documentary evidence. The research enabled understanding of practices through the comparison of performances between progressive eras in the mobile telephone market in New Zealand. The findings supporting the market practice model not only advance new theory that extends our understanding of markets and market boundaries but also provide context for marketing academics. Furthermore, the model provides new perspectives for business strategy and policy development. The thesis concludes with a summary of contributions to the academic knowledge of markets and an overview of directions for future research and debate.</p>

Towards a General Theory of Markets: A Social Practice Theory Approach

<p>In recent years new conceptualisations of marketing have been founded in social practice theory. Markets and market boundaries, however, while debated, have not been re-theorised and definitions remain based in the neoclassical economics paradigm. Social practices theory provides a basis for defining markets and market boundaries by practices and their performances by market actors. This thesis advances the debate on a general theory of markets by theorising a new conceptual model of markets as social structures demarcated by nine specific categories of routinised practices described here as parameters. A qualitative study grounded within the social constructionist epistemology was conducted to explore the market practices model, particularly the categories of practices forming the parameters that define market boundaries. The New Zealand mobile telecommunications market provided an opportunity for a situational-specific exploration involving interviews with service providers, users, and regulators as actors performing in the market between 1990 and 2014, triangulated against 26-years of documentary evidence. The research enabled understanding of practices through the comparison of performances between progressive eras in the mobile telephone market in New Zealand. The findings supporting the market practice model not only advance new theory that extends our understanding of markets and market boundaries but also provide context for marketing academics. Furthermore, the model provides new perspectives for business strategy and policy development. The thesis concludes with a summary of contributions to the academic knowledge of markets and an overview of directions for future research and debate.</p>

Benchmarking ride-hailing regulation in global cities using mixed-method approach and social practice theory

Ride-hailing or private hire has been around the globe for a decade now but even less in Asia. Singapore has had more than three revisions to its ride-hailing regulation in the six years since the arrival of the disruptive technology, the most for an Asian city. Often quoted in the list of cities with a commendable public transport policy, Singapore still manages to find a viable and significant position for ride-hailing. Singapore, to a large extent, has formulated a successful model based on current market parameters and, more importantly, an adaptive one that evolves constantly with the continually disruptive technology. But how does this compare to cities around the globe? Global cities have formulated different policy regulations for the sector, with each one of them enjoying varying degrees of success and failure. Utilizing a mixed-methods approach using qualitative and quantitative data, Singapore’s ride-hailing sector was benchmarked with chiefly nine global cities. The qualitative data was analyzed using the 3-element model of the social practice theory as an alternative to conventional behavioral studies, thereby eliminating bias on the commuters and rather shifting focus to the practice. The findings were validated by statistical analysis of quantitative data, namely, trip information from the ride-hailing sector in Singapore and driver earnings. The unique addition of the research to ride-hailing policy is the comprehension of the commonalities and patterns across industrial and technological disruption, practice and policy irrespective of sectoral variations thanks to the utilization of the social practice theory. The first-of-its-kind policy exercise in the sector can be repeated for any city, which is a direct testament to the simplicity and exhaustivity of the methodology, benefitting both operators and investors through equitable policy formulation.