(Re)introducing embodied practical understanding to the sociology of sustainable consumption

Abstract

In this article, we argue that the sociology of sustainable consumption has had a strong focus on practical understandings embedded in material entities and thereby also on the role of the material for the reproduction and change of sustainable consumption practices. Consequently, the role of social relations and practical understandings embodied in humans has been downplayed. We give two possible explanations to this rather one-sided focus; first, a general focus within social sciences on rethinking the role of the material in the wake of the cultural turn and second, engagement with science and technology studies. In this article, we use Bourdieu’s theoretical framework and his concept of habitus to (re)introduce embodied practical understandings to the sociology of sustainable consumption. By showing interconnections between the perspective focusing on practical understandings embodied in systems of dispositions and the perspective focusing on practical understandings embedded in systems of material entities, the article provides a basis for applying both perspectives to better understand the complexity of sustainable consumption practices and how they reproduce and change. Accordingly, we encourage more studies focusing on how sustainable consumption practices reproduce and transmit through social interaction.