Searching for a New Normal: Social Practices and Sustainability

Abstract

If we accept the admonishments directed at existing theory and research in the previous chapter —for not understanding the role of social and material contexts in shaping environmentally significant behaviours—where might we look for an alternative? There are numerous sociological approaches that try to explain how the social has a role greater than the sum of its parts, that is more than an additional ‘factor’ or ‘driver’ of individual behaviour, but instead an intimate part of how we experience the world and our own selves, what we do, how we change and stay the same (Leyshon 2014). In this chapter, the focus is on one perspective in particular, or more accurately a number of loosely affiliated perspectives that share some characteristic features. The perspectives in question are organized around the concept of a ‘social practice’, so it will be referred to from here onwards as the ‘social practice approach’ or ‘social practice theory’ interchangeably.