Social Practice Theory Research Articles

Addressing the Colonial Legacies of Science

Science needs to address its colonial legacies. While the Te Ara Paerangi Future Pathways envisioned reforms of the research, science and innovation system has lost momentum, individuals and organisations across Aotearoa recognise, and are reaffirming, that the country’s future prospects lie in embracing Tiriti-led policies and practices. In 2021 Manaaki Whenua Landcare Research (a Crown research institute mandated to ensure that the life force and vitality of the land is strong) committed to weaving the principles of te Tiriti o Waitangi into its fabric. As employees, we use social practice theory in this article to evaluate the changes our organisation is experiencing on its journey to being Tiriti-led, and assess the lessons, impacts, successes and failures. This case study highlights the values–action gaps currently evident across the science system and provides insights into the various elements required to enable transformative change and new social norms within knowledge production policies and practice.

Advancing social practice understandings of digital innovation delivery in construction project management

PurposeThe paper aims to apply social practice theory to clarify the process of innovation design and delivery from one successful digital innovation: the building information modelling (BIM) risk library. The paper clarifies the practices surrounding construction innovation and provides a schema useful for practitioners and technology designers through a social practice analysis.Design/methodology/approachThe paper applies Schatzki's “organisation of practice” concepts to a construction project innovation to clarify how the practice of innovation revolves around understandings, rules and teleoaffectivities (emotive behaviours). Sources for the study include notes from meetings, workshops with experts and the shared artefacts of innovation.FindingsThe practice of innovation design and delivery are clarified through a social practice analysis: a distinct “field of practice” and a “schema” of generalisable prescriptions and preferences for innovation delivery being presented.Practical implicationsThe paper informs the practice and process of innovation design and delivery; the insights clarify how collective understandings and rules of use evolve over time, becoming formalised into contracts, agreements and workplans. Practically, processes whereby innovation “sayings” evolve into innovation “doings” are clarified: a schema detailing prescriptions and preferences of practitioners and developers being presented.Originality/valueThe social practice analysis of one successful construction innovation is an original contribution to the body of knowledge, adding a level of detail regarding innovation design and delivery often missing from reported research.

Physician educators' perceptions of experiences contributing to teaching.

Physician educators are essential in training the next generation of physicians. However, physician educators' perspectives about what experiences they find beneficial to their teaching and the prevalence of these experiences remain unknown. Guided by social cognitive career theory (SCCT) and communities of practice (CoP), we explored what experiences physician educators perceive as beneficial in preparing them to teach. In 2019, the Uniformed Services University School of Medicine in the United States surveyed its physician alumni to understand their education experiences during medical school, their current career path and what has contributed to their teaching role. Content analysis was applied to extract themes across the text response. Chi-square analysis was applied to examine if perceived contributing factors vary based on physician educators' gender, specialty and academic ranks. The five most prevalent contributing factors participants (n = 781) identified are (1) experiences gained during residency and fellowship (29.8%), (2) teaching as faculty member (28.9%) and (3) class experiences and peer interaction during medical school (26%). We organised three themes that reflected major avenues of how physician educators acquire teaching skills: reflection about quality teaching, journey as learners and learning by doing. Gender and clinical specialty were differentially associated with contributing factors such as faculty development and meta-reflection. The results are in line with theories of SCCT and CoP, in which we identified self-directed learning and regulation in shaping physician educators' teaching. The findings also revealed gaps and potential contexts for more formalised teaching practices to develop physician educators.

Kontestasi Keberagamaan Umat Hindu dan Islam Wetu Telu di Pura Lingsar Lombok Barat

Each religion has a different system of theology, beliefs, religious institutions, and religious practices, in addition to having certain values in common. At the ideal level, religion is believed to be able to create order, integration, and social harmony in society. However, at the empirical level, religion often shows paradoxical phenomena as a source of disintegration and conflict triggered by differences in religious ideology and practice. The purpose of this study is to explore and understand the dynamics of the contestation between Wetu Telu Muslims and Hindus and its implications. The data collection method is carried out by observation techniques, interviews, and document studies. Data analysis was carried out qualitatively based on the social practice theory and phenomenology. This study found that the dynamics of contestation of Wetu Telu Muslims and Hindus in Lingsar Temple represent the influence of modernization and the articulations of religiosity identity in the realm of ideological superstructure, social structure, as well as economic and demographic infrastructure. The implications of this contestation include the polarization of religious practices, the strengthening of group identities, and the struggle for capital resources belonging to Lingsar Temple.

Of Practices and (Micro)politics: Challenges of Organic Waste Segregation in Dschang, Cameroon

Waste generation in Sub-Saharan Africa is increasing rapidly. While biodegradable waste remains predominant, it is rarely treated separately by municipal solid waste management systems, thus foregoing the possibility to reduce the volume going to landfills or dumpsites. This paper discusses the unique case of the small city of Dschang, Cameroon, where the municipality operates two central composting plants that treat about 20% of the city’s household and restaurant waste. Using Urban Political Ecology and Social Practice Theory, this article studies waste flows, waste practices, material arrangements, power relations, social norms, institutional dynamics, and policies to identify opportunities and obstacles for organic waste sorting at the level of households and restaurants. Our analysis draws upon qualitative and quantitative data and points to the importance of the availability of multiple waste bins and monetary compensation for organic waste sorting. These factors have also facilitated the development of an informal waste sector, which might use up to 20% of the city’s waste as animal feed and for home/farm composting. However, complex relations between multiple actors and the national policy framework complicate the emergence of organic waste segregation at source as a common practice. In this way, the study shows that solid waste management is also a matter of power and (micro)politics.

Applying Social Practice Theory to Explore Australian Preschool Children's Oral Health.

Despite substantial research and provision of dental care, significant morbidity remains for children's oral health. Guided by social practice theory (SPT), this research moves away from the often-ineffective focus on changing individual behavior to rethinking the centrality of the social world in promoting or undermining oral health outcomes. We define social practice as a routinized relational activity linking and integrating certain elements (competence, materials, and meanings) into the performance of a practice that is reproduced across time and space. To investigate oral health in preschool children in Perth, Western Australia, using social practice theory. With no definitive methodology for investigating SPT, we chose focused ethnography as a problem-focused, context-specific approach using mainly interviews to investigate participants' experience caring for their children's oral health. The focus of analysis was the practice of oral health care, not individual behavior, where themes identified from participants' transcripts were organized into categories of elements and performance. Eleven parents, all of whom were married or partnered, were interviewed in 2021. Findings identified social practices relevant to oral health within parenting and family relations linked to routine daily activities, including shopping, consumption of food and beverages, and toothbrushing. Oral health literacy was reflected in integrating competence, materials, and meanings into performing oral health care, notably preferences for children to drink water over sugary beverages and information often being sourced from social media and mothers' groups rather than health providers. Focusing on social practices as the unit of analysis offers a more layered understanding of elements in young children's oral health care that can indicate where the problem may lie. Findings provide an opportunity to consider future research and policy directions in children's oral health. Examining social practices related to young children's oral health care identifies parents/carers' knowledge about, for example, toothbrushing, the resources required, and why toothbrushing is important. Analyzing these separate elements can reveal both enablers and barriers to oral health care. This provides researchers, clinicians and policymakers an opportunity to focus on not changing individual behavior but understanding how social context impacts parents/carers' capacity to make optimum decisions around young children's oral health.

Tech hub entrepreneurial training to low-income communities: Evidence from Brazil

Global development agencies have funded entrepreneurial projects to alleviate poverty in developing countries. This study discusses an international-sponsored training project delivered by a tech hub to stimulate creative economy entrepreneurship in low-income communities in Brazil. Studies focusing on providing entrepreneurial resources to create value for poor communities have diverging results. There is no clear understanding of resource use and transformation processes to generate entrepreneurial value for poor people. We have used the resourcing perspective from the social practice theory to analyze how project actions transform potential resources into resources used by community participants. Analyzing project entrepreneurship steps through resource-schema-action cycles and resourcing mechanisms allows an understanding of how participants use and transform resources to create valuable outcomes. Also, the technology-oriented hub approach constrains resourcing cycles and community enterprise options over time. As a result, a project developed in hub spaces could risk favoring community groups with better technological backgrounds and more visibility in that environment, limiting the breadth of its social change. Understanding the resourcing elements would help managers get more value from entrepreneurial resources when developing low-income enterprises. An empirical framework and related propositions summarize the paper's contributions.

Categorizing engagement behavior in sport brand communities – an empirical study informed by social practice theory

ABSTRACT This study ventures into uncharted territory by focusing exclusively on digital platforms to scrutinize engagement practices within sport clubs and their pivotal role in nurturing vibrant brand communities. By employing a multifaceted methodological framework that blends netnography, document analysis, and semi-structured interviews, it delves into the nuanced ways clubs employ digital strategies to foster active participation and cultivate a sense of belonging among community members. A novel aspect of this research is its consideration of digital engagement platforms as the social context, analyzing how the surrounding social environment influences and enhances digital engagement practices. Furthermore, the study breaks new ground by extending its analysis beyond dyadic relationships to explore the network effects on engagement practices. Therefore, it offers a comprehensive understanding of how these dynamics contribute to the development and sustainability of sport brand communities. The findings reveal the critical importance of diverse engagement practices in fostering meaningful interactions that strengthen a sport brand community fabric. This research enriches the field by presenting actionable insights for sport clubs to refine their digital engagement strategies in the context of broader social networks and effects. This paper makes a significant contribution to the literature by illuminating the complex interplay between digital engagement, social context, and network dynamics in the cultivation of sport brand communities.

Do laundry when the sun shines: Factors that promote loadshifting in Dutch households with solar panels

The installation of solar panels by residential households is vital for the energy transition. However, the rapid uptake of solar panels by households leads to congestion in the electricity grid. Specifically, when the sun shines, these solar panels simultaneously produce a lot of electricity that is fed into the grid, which is inefficient and can destabilize the grid. Consequently, it is better if self-produced solar energy is directly consumed when the sun is shining. Loadshifting involves shifting energy use (e.g., doing laundry) to periods in which energy is produced. This necessitates behavior change within the household, and it is not yet well understood why people struggle to loadshift. To assess the individualistic and contextual factors influencing laundry loadshifting behavior in the Netherlands, we conducted a survey among 283 Dutch households with solar panels. The survey builds on a framework that integrates aspects of the theory of planned behavior and social practice theory. The framework comprises eight factors (sufficiency attitude, user beliefs, know-how, monitoring skills, habits, hassle, practical knowledge provided, and feedback provision by system design), which are quantitatively measured and analyzed. We used multiple regression analysis to explore the collected responses. Results show the relevance of monitoring skills, strong habits, passive user beliefs and practical knowledge for laundry loadshifting behavior. Findings highlight that instead of asking people to adjust to technologies, technologies should support behavior change and understand its intricacies and connections to its broader context. Additionally, it is important to strengthen households' beliefs regarding their active role in the energy system.

Stigma power in practice: Exploring the contribution of Bourdieu's theory to stigma, discrimination and health research

Stigma and discrimination are increasingly understood as shaping health, and in turn conceptualised as social processes shaped by power and structural inequities. A challenge to analysis and implementing interventions is developing theory that can integrate analysis of structure, agency and power. One theoretical framework already promoted by prominent scholars as supporting this need is Bourdieu's social practice theory. This paper explores the application to date of Bourdieu's theory on stigma, discrimination and health. The paper describes how existing health literature has used concepts of symbolic violence, fields, capitals and habitus to develop insight into stigma power. The discussion explores how this theoretical framework is though underutilised and there has been little consideration of new programmatic approaches based on this theory. Directions for future research include the need for integrated approaches to analysis, especially using habitus to explore stigma power, and addressing processes of change. Directions for conceptualising interventions address how a mismatch of field and habitus could foster change and then the role for prophets in fostering symbolic revolutions. All these potential directions must in turn be integrated within the vast scholarship on stigma. In conclusion, further application and development of Bourdieu's social practice theory could help address the theoretical challenges facing the field of stigma, discrimination and health research.

Missionary as gatekeeper in translation: exploring motivations based on the cases of two missionaries in the late Chinese Ming dynasty (1580s-1640s)

ABSTRACT This article investigates the role of missionaries in translation activities during the last six decades of the Ming dynasty in China and explores the motivations from a sociological perspective. The study identifies three ways in which missionaries carried out the act of gatekeeping, including the alteration of book subjects, the selection of collaborators, and the addition of religious texts. Drawing on Bourdieu’s theory of social practice, the analysis reveals that these gatekeeping behaviours were motivated by the intricate interplay among habitus, field, and capital. The study suggests that missionaries adjusted their habitus to influence the choice of book subjects, carefully selected collaborators to navigate the translation field securely, and incorporated religious texts to enhance their standing in the religious field. Consequently, missionaries functioned as gatekeepers in translation, guided by their habitus and leveraging diverse capitals to advance their position in the social field of the late Ming dynasty, with the ultimate goal of spreading religious culture China.

Ventilation regulations and occupant practices: undetectable pollution and invisible extraction

This sociotechnical investigation examines the use of ventilation systems in homes in London, UK. These homes were built with ventilation systems as described by guidance in the UK Building Regulations Approved Document F. These systems are assumed to provide adequate ventilation rates. However, previous measurements in these homes show that ventilation rates are inadequate. Using social practice theory as a framework to analyse the qualitative data, the intended use of the ventilation systems is compared to participants’ actual practices of manipulating the indoor air, revealing discrepancies between the two. Occupants had limited knowledge of indoor pollutants but were highly motivated to control and interact with the smells and air in their homes. They primarily used technologies that were not part of the planned system, because the latter’s functioning was opaque to occupants and not well connected to their other practices. The highlighted discrepancies in four case study homes between planned and actual ventilation system operation help to identify how future systems could be improved to ensure adequate ventilation rates and good indoor air quality in airtight homes. Policy relevance This research investigates the extent to which the intended operation of domestic ventilation systems set out in Approved Document F to the UK Building Regulations is accomplished in practice. The findings show that ventilation equipment is not used as intended. The research suggests a need for future guidance to more actively consider routes by which occupants can learn how to use and maintain their ventilation systems, and how to identify and remove indoor air pollution. There is a risk of continuing underventilation in homes unless efforts are made to ensure the systems are easily interpretable and robust to a reasonable range of internal conditions and social contexts.

Social practice theory and household water demand: A review of literature and research evidence

AbstractThe changing climate, rapid increases in global consumption, and shock events are increasing stress on water resources globally. For policy makers and water sector stakeholders tasked with reducing demand, and for academic researchers interested in understanding how these complex issues intertwine to create current and future water demand profiles, the shortcomings of individualized behavior change approaches driven by psycho‐econometric understandings of resource consumption is increasingly evident. Since the early 2000s, social practice theory has been increasingly recognized as deepening understandings of the complex ways water is consumed and the dynamic factors that influence household demands. This review examines evidence of how social practice ideas are deployed in academic research in scope (theory; geographical; practices entities/performances; sites, locations, and temporality of practices; infrastructural configurations); methods (historical; talk—interviews, focus groups; diaries; ethnography and home tours; surveys; living labs, experiments, design methods; mixed methods); and implications (co‐production; materiality; diversity; disruption and insecurity; inequalities) including for policy and practice. Emerging from the review is a set of ideas that demonstrate how to apply insights from social practice more effectively in water studies and in water management, aiding the exploration of new areas of enquiry, policies and mechanisms to enable less intensive patterns of water use. This review points to a need for increased collaboration across the water sector and wider stakeholders to enact deep and meaningful change to how water is supplied and consumed in society.This article is categorized under: Human Water > Water Governance Human Water > Methods Human Water > Value of Water

Situated Pedagogy in Danish Daycare—The Politics of Everyday Life

This article analyzes the possibilities and obstacles in pedagogical practices in ECEC (Early Childhood Education and Care) in relation to developing relevant opportunities for participation for all children, by supporting their own engagements in order to expand their action possibilities. Over the last decades, the political agendas in the Nordic as well as other OECD countries have been led by an increasing focus on learning goals and standardized professional procedures, at the expense of a more situated and flexible pedagogy following children’s own engagements. When concerns arise about children’s well-being, development, and/or learning, this tendency seems to intensify, as descriptions of concerns are often based on assessments of children’s individual (dis-)abilities, while investigations of children’s own engagements and reasons for actions are seldom conducted. From a theoretical standpoint in critical psychology and social practice theory, we discuss collaborative processes among children and adults in relation to institutional conditions as inherently political, in the sense that the distribution of different access to social resources and opportunities for participation for different children is negotiated through such daily exchanges and therefore also involves questions about democracy. We explore the everyday life practices of children and professionals, analyzing how, through everyday practice, they constantly work on maintaining, reproducing, and transgressing the standardized demands. To understand such processes, we suggest a conceptual focus on the politics of everyday life and situated pedagogy.

The Reasons to Follow Conventional Practices

ABSTRACT This article challenges a reductive analysis of social practices by distinguishing five kinds of reason for following the rules of conventional practices. Depending on one’s preferred intellectual tradition, conventional practices enable coordination, facilitate cooperation, constitute activities, fulfil reciprocity, or specify abstract rights. Instead of being rival theories of social practices, these different models complement one another in a normative analysis of social practices. By distinguishing five kinds of reasons to follow conventional rules, this paper supports a more dynamic conventionalist analysis of subjects like property, the law, professional obligation, civic responsibility, and culture.

Identifying the factors affecting the implementation of food waste reduction strategies in independent restaurants: Moving towards eco-efficiency

One of the very promising ways to improve a restaurant's eco-efficiency consists of implementing food waste reduction strategies (FWRSs) to reduce the costs and environmental impacts associated with food waste (FW). However, several factors can hamper the implementation of FWRSs, limiting a restaurant's ability to become more sustainable. Hence, the aim of this study is to identify the factors that facilitate or limit the implementation of FWRSs in independent restaurants. This will enable restaurateurs to choose the most appropriate FWRSs to implement, not only in terms of the potential economic and environmental benefits that can be achieved but also in terms of implementation feasibility, to ensure their sustainability. To achieve this, semi-structured interviews were conducted with owners, managers and chefs of independent restaurants in Quebec, Canada. They were questioned on several topics related to their perception of FW, eco-efficiency and FWRSs as well as their experiences in implementing FWRSs. The results allowed the identification of 12 factors affecting the implementation of FWRSs, which were analyzed and categorized according to social practice theory. These factors include consumer perception, management, planning and organizational skills as well as labor and food costs. Then, the factors were linked to the characteristics of the restaurants studied to identify the most promising ways to operationalize the reduction of FW according to the restaurant type. To this end, two approaches were raised: a preventive approach aimed at reducing FW at source, by adopting a limited fixed-time menu for example, and a corrective approach aimed at reusing FW to give it a second life.

Tourism planning as a social practice in times of change and uncertainty: views from a troubled Latin American country

ABSTRACT Tourism planning is seen as a ‘steering wheel’ to leverage growth, development or economic transitions during times of adversity and rapid change. Given the limited capacities within the public sector, consultants play a crucial role in tourism planning efforts in Ecuador. Drawing from practice theory and tourism planning research, we examined tourism planning practices among 46 consultants contracted by public institutions between 2017 and 2021. A multiple correspondence analysis identified associations within four analytical categories of practice: general understandings, practical understandings, rules and teleoaffective structures. The findings reveal bundles of tourism planning practice at the intersection between traditional approaches centred on spatial and strategic planning, and emergent approaches that prioritize innovation, action towards social change, sustainability and flexibility. By applying a social practice theory approach, we provide a fresh lens to understand tourism planning as an ongoing process shaped by practitioners’ knowledge, know-how, beliefs and context in a developing country.

Embodied, dramatizing performances in science class: multimodal spaces and places of knowledge and identity construction

ABSTRACT We explored the semiotic choices children in grades 1–6 made that nurtured embodied, dramatizing performances in science classes at urban public schools, serving predominantly students of color in a large US city. We studied how such choices in school and home settings (when instruction was remote during the COVID-19 pandemic) were implicated in the children’s knowledge and identity construction and related to available resources and positionings. Multimodality and social semiotics, social practice theory, and positioning theory were the three theoretical anchors that guided the study, along with sociocultural and sociopolitical framings of science education. The study took place in the context of the multi-year collaboration STAGE (Science Theatre for Advancing Generative Engagement) among teachers and university educators designing and studying pedagogies of embodiment as part of students’ engagement in school science. The ethnographic design of the larger research allowed us to engage over a school year with each class. The focus of this study is on classes of three teachers, who collaborated with a teaching artist, using data from video-recordings, fieldnotes, and conversations with students and teachers. The findings point to the generative nature of embodiments in terms of both the knowledge and identities that the children were constructing and the factors that shaped that generativity. These include (a) the resources available, (b) the children’s own particular interests and sources of excitement, and (c) the simultaneous use of multiple semiotic tools that offer different affordances for meaning making. The findings affirm that multimodal embodied performances children design and create in school spaces (classrooms and settings for larger school gatherings, like auditoria) and at home provide opportunities to desettle expected axiological, ontological, and epistemological norms that often dominate science teaching. The power of dramatizing and of performing arts is facilitating the development of connections, solidarity, and feelings among peoples and materials.

Learning approach of customer journey analysis on digital start-up business performance through social practice theory

Learning approach of customer journey analysis on digital start-up business performance through social practice theory

Principals’ Leadership Practices in Encouraging Parental Involvement in School Activities: Basis for a Proposed Shared Management Framework

This research focuses on principals' leadership strategies in fostering parental involvement in school events, which will serve as the foundation for a shared management framework that will be developed. In this context, the researcher will apply Bourdieu's theory of social practice to discover the objective circumstances of the field where parental engagement is generated and experienced, both now and in the future. The study will then look at how different types of home-school ties grow by examining the leadership behaviors and capital deployment of the principals. The researcher collected quantitative data using a descriptive method to determine the principals’ leadership practices in encouraging parental involvement in school activities. The descriptive design is an acceptable strategy for gathering trustworthy and accurate data through survey measurement of two or more variables to determine or estimate the extent to which the variables' values are related or vary in an identifiable pattern. As a sampling design, the researcher utilized a purposive sampling strategy. The questionnaire is a researcher-modified tool based on Epstein's Theoretical Model (2016) and Burns' Transformational Leadership Theory (1978). The first section establishes the profile of parents and principal respondents in terms of age, sex, and highest educational attainment. It was revealed that there was no significant relationship between principals' leadership practices according to the findings. However, a strong association was discovered between principals' leadership practices in terms of intellectual stimulation and parental involvement in school events regarding children's mental and physical health.