Sustainable Practices and Behaviour

Practice theories are at the cutting edge of research on sustainable consumption and related managerial policies. They claim an alternative route to conceptualize the dynamics of social change by addressing both, the persistence and the innovativeness of human behaviour. The focus of this research are daily unsustainable routines, i.e. the everyday doings of people, carried out by bodies with the assistance of things, be it instruments or the surrounding infrastructure. Practice theories draw attention to core issues which remain quite often unaddressed by behavioural approaches such as large scale infrastructures or material agents as participants of everyday life. If it comes to behavioural changes towards a more sustainable way of living practice theories pose the critical question whether at all and how it is possible to steer or to govern social practices. Our contribution gives an overview of the “practical turn” in social science and its reception within the discourse and research on sustainable development. Social practices are especially linked to studies of consumption routines as well as lifestyles and the conditions for changing them towards sustainability.