Conceptualizing connections

Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 2020

Tapping into and creating broad networks is integral to connecting communities and destinations to wider flows of tourists and ensuring local benefits from tourism development. However, little research has probed how communities build these connections. This article examines how tourism stakeholders perceive and practice the work of networkbuilding and assess the challenges they face in pursuing this work in regional tourism development. Drawing on survey and focus group data from Atlantic Canada, we identify “collaboration gaps” between the perceived value of network-building and related social practices. Social practice theory is used to analyse tourism network-building and explain why collaboration gaps exist and persist. Our analysis found three gaps: between meaning and practice; vertical collaboration gaps related to the scale of network-building; and horizontal collaboration gaps related to the range of actors involved in tourism networks. These collaboration gaps can be addressed through a focus on meaning, competencies, and materials as means to foster successful collaborations and overcome gaps.

Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space

Behind the roll-out of smart metering technologies lies a belief that personalised, fact-based information enhances energy awareness and allows consumers to modify their behaviour. Amongst others, practice theoretical accounts have shown that this belief stems from a linear, individualistic and unrealistic interpretation of behaviour change. However, in emphasising how energy use is grounded in socio-material realities of everyday life, practice-based studies have not fully considered the role and potential of information in reconfiguring domestic practices. This article takes a smart grid pilot project in the Netherlands as a case to analyse the interrelatedness of policy interventions, information flows and domestic practices. We argue that the effects of policy interventions on domestic practices can be better understood when seen as part of a configuration of heterogeneous practices. This helps in understanding when and how information is accomplished and put-to-work, and in identifying what can be done to improve smart grid interventions.

Time & Society

There is broad agreement that the need to decarbonise and make better use of renewable and more intermittent sources of power will require increased flexibility in energy systems. However, organisations involved in the energy sector work with very different interpretations of what this might involve. In describing how the notion of flexibility is reified, commodified, and operationalised in sometimes disparate and sometimes connected ways, we show that matters of time and timing are routinely abstracted from the social practices and forms of provision on which the rhythms of supply and demand depend. We argue that these forms of abstraction have the ironic effect of stabilising interpretations of need and demand, and of limiting rather than enabling the emergence of new practices and patterns of demand alongside, and as part of, a radically decarbonised energy system. One way out of this impasse is to conceptualise flexibility as an emergent outcome of the sequencing and synchronisa...

Infrastructuring Publics, 2019

This volume focuses on the ongoing accomplishments entailed in the mutual making of infrastructures and publics. In doing so, it reframes the relation of publics and infrastructures as praxeological, exploring them from two different angles: (1) When, under which conditions and by what means are publics cooperatively produced, practically embedded and socio-technically infrastructured? (2) When, under which circumstances and how are infrastructures perceived as such, being debated in various publics, critically and explicitly examined for how they are used, shaped and which effects they have? These questions imply a reconception of the traditional understanding of both the public realm and infrastructures. Rather than as different fields or systems, we have to treat them as intertwined aspects of socio-technical organisation and study them through a practice theory lens.

Sustainability: Science, Practice and Policy

Transitions toward more sustainable mobility are necessary and involve changes in complex constellations of mobility-related practices. To understand opportunities for moving in this direction, there is a need to explore both the consumption side of sustainable mobility practices and the perspective of stakeholders that provide products, services, infrastructures, and policies required for such practices. This article contributes to a discussion of critical aspects of sustainable mobility practices in relation to the responsibilities and concerns of stakeholders with power to influence these practices. We present four sets of design concepts for supporting car-free living which were formulated and co-created based on a practice-oriented analysis of a one-year study of three families in Stockholm, Sweden that replaced their cars with light electric vehicles. The design concepts bring forward elements of sustainable mobility with a focus on: trying out new mobility practices, cycling infrastructure, childfriendly public transport, and transporting stuff. Furthermore, we discussed the concepts with public and private sector stakeholders and examined their interests in particular practices. Also considered are how the responsibilities of different stakeholders may clash. Finally, we suggest that practice-oriented design concepts can support discussions and increased knowledge about responsibilities and potential conflicts related to sustainable practices, as well as provide means for supporting learning about sustainable practices among decision makers.

Energies, 2016

The provision of energy infrastructure is essential for economic growth, social cohesion, and environmental sustainability. Understanding the multiple functions and services it provides us requires firstly a deeper understanding of the factors that influence energy infrastructure itself. This paper focusses on the factors that influence the evolution of energy infrastructure in Nigeria. By studying different eras of energy use according to the technologies that were being implemented, resources that were available, and the political practice of the time it is possible to better frame the drivers of energy infrastructure. The paper explores the transitions of how Nigerians managed to obtain the vast majority of energy from food calories and traditional biomass, to the broad portfolio of energy sources that is in use today.

Handbuch Kultursoziologie

Die Praxistheorie bietet einen kultursoziologischen Ansatz, das sinnhafte menschliche Tun in seiner Alltäglichkeit und Vielfältigkeit zu analysieren und dabei Fehlschlüsse anderer sozialtheoretischer Perspektiven zu vermeiden, indem insbesondere die Relationalität, Zeitlichkeit, Räumlichkeit, Körperlichkeit und Materialität des Sozialen anerkannt werden. Der Beitrag zeichnet die Entwicklung der Praxistheorie und ihre Konstitution als Theoriebewegung nach, fasst einzelne praxeologische Positionen zusammen und arbeitet die Charakteristika der Praxistheorie systematisch heraus. Abschließend wird auf aktuelle Debatten und Forschungsfelder verwiesen. Ein Schwerpunkt liegt dabei jeweils auf den Bezügen zur Kultursoziologie.

Sustainability

Drawing on Alfred Schütz’s thought, as well as on a number of modern pragmatists and practice theorists, we theorize incomegetting—referring to practices of getting income, typically salaried work—as the paramount structurer of everyday life and, therefore, also the chief mediator of the human–nature metabolism. Even though the pragmatics of everyday life as an aggregate underlie the bulk of environmental impacts, these insidious impacts impose little immediate influence on everyday life, in particular in the urban Global North. In other words, the pragmatic dimension of everyday activities—principally, work—that takes place within a vastly complex and globally interlinked productive world system, has most often no immediate connection to the “natural” environment. While parts of the populations are directly dependent in terms of livelihoods on the “natural” environment, these populations are typically pushed to the margins of the global productive system. The understanding formulat...

European Journal of Futures Research, 2018

No contemporary major city is sustainable, with current population and levels of consumption, beyond the fossil fuels which have facilitated what has appropriately been called "high-energy modernity." At present, there appears to be no realistic possibility in any major city of replacing most of the energy from fossil fuels with renewable energy. Even in cities which could get most of their electricity from renewables, there is still a heavy reliance on motorized transport of people, goods, and food into and around the city. There does not appear to be a way to power and reproduce these fleets of vehicles solely with renewable energy, and most cities are not sustainable at their current size and density without them. But cities and regions vary in sustainability depending on local renewable energy sources, hinterland food production, population, extent of urban sprawl, and access to water-borne transportation. This paper identifies the features of more sustainable versus less sustainable cities, with examples from Asia, the Americas, and Europe. Case studies of two cities-Hong Kong and Vancouver, B. C.-are used to illustrate the analysis.

Sustainability Science, 2021

Energy, food, or mobility can be conceptualized as provisioning systems which are decisive to sustainability transformations in how they shape resource use and because of emissions resulting from them. To curb environmental pressures and improve societal well-being, fundamental changes to existing provisioning systems are necessary. In this article, we propose that provisioning systems be conceptualized as featuring integrated socio-metabolic and political-economic dimensions. In socio-metabolic terms, material stocks—buildings, infrastructures, and machines, for example—are key components of provisioning systems and transform flows of energy and materials into goods and services. In political-economic terms, provisioning systems are formed by actors, institutions, and capital. We loosely identify and closely analyze, from socio-metabolic and political-economic perspectives, five phases along which provisioning systems are shaped and in which specific opportunities for interventions...

Urban Studies, 2020

Technologies called infrastructures are often considered to be inherently and opaquely political, but how they exert their politics has been both empirically and conceptually debated. Infrastructure studies have largely focused on (in)visibility or ‘infra’ qualities as central criteria for assessing who and what is included and excluded, and when. In this paper we argue that this binary is unproductive and propose the concept of interstructure to highlight the connective and aesthetic qualities of technologies as well as their political features. These features may be quite transparent but also ambivalent, which we demonstrate by analysing an elevator for cyclists in Belgrade, Serbia. We draw on material semiotics to unpack the practices, the sense-making and the political work of this elevator in relation to its design and use. The analysis is based on interviews and an observation study. It shows that the elevator elicited substantial articulation work among most users as well as ...

Psicologia & Sociedade, 2018

Partindo do pressuposto de que a crise ecologica exige mudancas nao apenas politicas e economicas, mas tambem culturais, foi realizado um estudo de caso em uma ecovila. O objetivo foi explorar as possibilidades e dificuldades encontradas no processo de mudanca cultural proposta pelo grupo. As principais dificuldades encontradas foram a modificacao de automatismos corporais e disposicoes incorporadas e a criacao de novos equipamentos culturais. A mudanca das praticas nao decorre diretamente da mudanca de valores, mas envolve tambem uma mudanca corporal. Descobriu-se que a vida em ecovila propoe a intensificacao da experiencia sensorial e promove uma redefinicao das necessidades de seus membros. Este artigo sugere que a sensacao de pertencimento a um grupo solidario e a existencia de ideologias ou visoes de mundo articuladas e compartilhadas sao fatores que podem facilitar o processo de mudanca cultural.

Journal of Consumer Culture, 2016

This article connects existing mobility biographies research with social practice inquiries into the dynamics of consumption and examines the potential of a biographic, practice-centred approach for researching everyday practices. Following a critical review of the benefits and limitations of existing research on mobility biographies, the article explores some key ways in which a practice theory approach can be employed to reframe and extend how dynamics of mobility over the life course can be conceptualised and analysed. A key feature of the discussion is a consideration of the ways in which the concepts of practice and career can broaden investigations of practice biographies to include various perspectives and scales. The article then outlines the development and application of a biographic, practice-centred methodology which was employed in an ongoing mobility biographies study based in Ireland. In demonstrating the potential of this approach for researching practice careers acr...

Anthropology Today, 2016

Household technology frequently appears as a set of objects and practices that aim to save time. From cooking to communications, novelties enter the home accompanied by claims of increased efficiency and convenience. The effects of new technology are, however, multidimensional and unanticipated: apart from saving time, they impact on the division of labour, create new expectations and require supportive actions such as maintenance and service (Schwartz Cowan 1983). In this article, we suggest that rhythmicity is a key effect of technology. We employ recent advances in theories of social practice (Shove et al. 2012), according to which, both technology and time are resources that are integrated in particular ways through enacting practices in everyday life. Our approach is also informed by the claim of Lefebvre ([1974] 1991: 206) that social practice is made up of rhythms of different scales. When combined, these perspectives suggest that energy infrastructures can be understood and analyzed through the rhythmicity that they produce and are embedded in. We thus argue that energy infrastructures organize time and produce collective rhythms. We begin by defining the concept of an infrastructure and developing approaches to the temporality of infrastructure provisioning. Using these approaches, we move on to discuss the use of electricity grid services and of more isolated domestic wood-based heating systems. In both cases, the normal operation of the system yields particular routinized temporalities which stand in contrast to those that are enacted in the event of failure and underservice by the infrastructure. The use of electricity, the consequences of eventual blackouts and the measures taken to ensure high quality grid services depend on installed energy technology and its sociotechnical context. We mainly draw on recent data from Finland on which we have previously reported (Rinkinen 2013, 2015; Silvast 2013) but which we now revisit with an eye for the rhythmic effects of energy infrastructures. The main research methodology we used to gather information on security, risk and interruptions in the electricity infrastructure in Finland was multi-sited fieldwork. Our empirical materials include interviews with experts (30 persons) and Finnish lay people who have experienced extended blackouts (15 persons), a consumer survey (115 respondents), and participant observation carried out in two electricity control rooms and electricity security seminars in Finland. Additionally, we draw on around 50 infrastructure and security policy documents, mainly from Finland and Scandinavia, to gain more information about infrastructure risk management practices, especially in the electricity industries. Concerning the routinization of domestic heating work, the data come from a large set of pre-collected diaries kept at the ethnological archive of the Finnish Literature Society. Of these, we have analyzed approximately 1,000 single diaries, each ranging from 1-10 pages. In addition, we have also drawn on Finnish time use survey data. From large-scale to distributed infrastructures The notion of large-scale technical systems, and particularly infrastructure, informs this article. Hughes, in his classic study of the history of electrification, defines a system as consisting of interconnected parts and components that are connected by a network or structure (Hughes 1983: 5). This simple definition implies that systems are composed of parts that can be managed and steeredfrequently centrally. However, this definition excludes those elements that exist in the environment but cannot be steered. Thus the electricity grid is composed of physical components such as transformers and transmission lines, organizations such as utility companies, scientific components such as university education and research programmes, laws and regulation as well as natural resources such as mines (Hughes 1989: 51). Research on large-scale technical systems began in the 1980s and placed a new emphasis on the key social role of systems such as energy provision (van der Vleuten 2004: 399). One of the central observations emerging from this research was that dispersed technical systems are layered. Technologies shape many other parts of society and adjust to them: it is, for example, feasible to think that organizations, institutions, laws and scientific programmes emerge and are shaped together with those technologies that they aim to govern. Over the past 10 years, several scholars have sought to readdress the premises of this research on large-scale technical systems, but prefer to use the notion of infrastructure. While systems tend to be diffuse, changing little over time, infrastructures are scaled down and locally adapted. As Edwards et al. (2009: 370) claim, 'the actual infrastructures of people's real work lives always involve particular configurations of numerous tools used in locally particular ways'. Practices as manifestations of infrastructures The theory of social practice is an increasingly prominent way to account for human action that is structured by sociotechnical systems and infrastructures (e.g. van Vliet et al. 2005). Social practices such as dwelling, working, and getting from one place to another are activities that human beings enact in pre-given ways. Accordingly, technical systems enable and prompt particular ways and courses of action and inhibit others. End users are more or less strictly connected to infrastructures via social practices that constitute the taken-for-granted ways of going about everyday life (Southerton et al. 2004; Shove et al. 2015). On the one hand, we have highly regulated and technically structured practices and infrastructures, such as air travel, for example. On the other hand, as a less coercive structure, a practice may offer merely a way of evaluating situations and reasoning proper conduct. Thinking about our empirical case here, the range of options availablefrom district heating to off-grid solutions for domestic heatingoffer alternative ways to relate to public infrastructures and time.

Energy Research & Social Science, 2020

Active energy citizens are leading energy transitions, co-producing new cultures, practices and structures of production and consumption. This article aims to understand if prosumerismthe collective participation of prosumers in energy projects with social, economic and environmental benefits to societycan be referred to as a social movement. The article draws on a review of Social Movements Theory and applies thematic analysis to characterize 46 prosumer initiatives in Europe. The collective identities, socio-political opponents, knowledgemaking activities, collective learning, and collective action aspects of these prosumers are described. The results show that prosumer initiatives converge towards a transformative social movement. This movement upholds decentralized renewable energy production and consumption, and presents itself as a socially inclusive, transparent and participatory energy model, replicable across the globe, in what can be described as a collective action towards a decentralized democratic energy model. The discussion highlights relationships between prosumerism and framings such as energy justice (including energy poverty and gender issues), energy democracy, climate change action and anti-nuclear movements, to reach a conclusion considering the relevance of calling prosumerism a social movement, while opening up some avenues for future research.

Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, 2018

Despite being considered a fundamental issue in the design, use, and appropriation of digital technologies, IT security has found but little attention in CSCW so far. Approaches in Human-Computer Interaction and Software Engineering do not account appropriately for the weave of dispersed practices that it takes to 'do' IT security---practices that involve a heterogeneous set of actors and unfold at diverse sites and across organizational, legal, and professional boundaries. In this paper we propose to conceive of IT security through the lens of care, a notion that we draw from Science and Technology Studies. Caring for IT security requires continuous, often invisible work that relies upon tinkering and experimentation and addresses perennial oscillations between in-/securities. Caring for IT security, then, engages with established accountabilities and cultivates a moral stance that refrains from blaming insecurities upon single actors. We conclude with outlining a caring ap...

Food Security, 2022

The way people access food in Nigeria is of central relevance for food security, health and sustainability. One key trend is the shift from household-based to primarily out-of-home food consumption as an increasing majority of the urban poor derive their daily nutrient intake from street foods. However, few studies have yet explored the role of the ready-to-eat food vending sector in urban food systems and the diets of the urban poor. This paper investigates the interrelations between these practices and the diversity of food groups provisioned among the urban poor in developing city contexts. A social practice approach is employed to explore differentiation among informal-ready-to-eat food vending practices in the city of Ibadan, Nigeria, in terms of their daily activities, competences and resources. Applied methods include GIS mapping, food log diaries, in-depth interviews and participant observation to map and classify informal-ready-to-eat food vending practices according to the...

Sociological Research Online

We know that networked infrastructures enable forms of mobility, energy use, and flows of data, and we know that modern life depends on these arrangements. We also know that relations between infrastructures and social practices are recursive, extensive, and multiple. But what of the detail? How do infrastructures shape the many practices to which they relate, and vice versa? The research we describe was designed to address these questions head on. We discuss the arrival and normalisation of gas central heating with reference to householders’ experiences and practices and to the ambitions and decisions of utilities and city authorities. In the process, we identify forms of aggregation and of integration on which infrastructure – practice dynamics depend. In taking this approach, we demonstrate the relevance of practice theory for conceptualising and analysing ‘large’ social phenomena including transitions in energy systems and related patterns of demand.