The Dynamics of Social Practice
Abstract
The seminars is organised around a series of propositions about social practices and how they change. The strategy is to explore a sequence of distinct but related claims, for instance, that practices depend on the active integration of recognisable elements including materials, meanings and forms of competence; that practices recruit carriers willing and able to keep them alive, and that practices compete and support each other in different ways. These somewhat abstract ideas are developed and illustrated with reference to a range of practical cases and examples, most relating to issues of daily life and ordinary consumption. One aim is to show how propositions about practice can be linked together to produce a framework for understanding everyday life and how it changes. A second ambition is to articulate the practical implications of such an approach for policy and for deliberate efforts to change what people do, especially with respect to challenges like those of climate change and sustainability.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Practices start to evolve and change meaning when the number of engaged practitioners increases.
“Practices start to evolve and change meaning when the number of engaged practitioners increases (Shove et al. 2012).”
From Servitization for a Circular Economy in Construction (2025) · cites this paper as Shove et al. 2012
Practices are done by interdependent relations between three elements: materials, competence, and meanings.
“The model describes how practices are done by interdependent relations between three elements: materials, competence, and meanings (Shove et al. 2012).”
From Servitization for a Circular Economy in Construction (2025) · cites this paper as Shove et al. 2012
An individual who gains a positive experience by performing a certain practice might increase his or her engagement and develop experience further.
“An individual who gains a positive experience by performing a certain practice might increase his or her engagement and develop experience further (Shove et al. 2012;Warde 2005).”
From Servitization for a Circular Economy in Construction (2025) · cites this paper as Shove et al. 2012
Cited by
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Vonthron, S., Perrin, C., & Soulard, C.-T. (2020) · PLoS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0233218 · Cited by 163 · see citing works
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Maguire, A., Clarkson, J. E., Douglas, G. V., Ryan, V., Homer, T., Marshman, Z., McColl, E., Wilson, N., Vale, L., Robertson, M., et al. (2020) · Health Technology Assessment · doi:10.3310/hta24010 · Cited by 55 · see citing works
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Servitization for a Circular Economy in Construction
Mark‐Herbert, C., Berg, E., Aldberg, J., & Roos, A. (2025) · Business Strategy and the Environment · doi:10.1002/bse.4218 · Cited by 7 · see citing works
- Authors
- Shove, E., Pantzar, M., & Watson, M.
- Venue
- The Dynamics of Social Practice: Everyday Life and How it Changes
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications Ltd
- Published
- 2012
- Pages
- 1-20
- OpenAlex
- W2494330206
- Cited by
- 846
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 16 · 2025: 27 · 2024: 17 · 2023: 28 · 2022: 36 · 2021: 86 · 2020: 137 · 2019: 123 · 2018: 108 · 2017: 62 · 2016: 61 · 2015: 73 · 2014: 38 · 2013: 21 · 2012: 12
- FWCI
- 278.13
- Type
- book chapter
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- SAGE Publications Ltd eBooks (publishedVersion)
- OpenEdition (OpenEdition) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Contemporary Sociological Theory and Practice
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law › Environmental Education and Sustainability
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Global and Planetary Change › Sustainability and Climate Change Governance
- Keywords
- social practices, practice change, everyday life, consumption, practice theory, competence, policy change, climate change, sustainability
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
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