Capturing the consumption of distance? A practice-theoretical investigation of everyday travel

Abstract

This article contributes to current debates on (un)sustainable mobility by re-conceptualising everyday travel as a set of consumption practices. Treating physical mobility as ‘consumption of distance’ with considerable social, ecological and economic consequences, the article’s theoretical focus moves beyond conventional approaches that have hitherto dominated transport research and policy in Europe and beyond. In addition, it demonstrates how a carefully operationalised practice-theoretical approach can shed new light on the social and material contingency of human (travel) behaviour. By transforming qualitative evidence from Ireland into an innovative typology of commuting practices, this article captures the importance of intermeshing social and material contexts for people’s everyday consumption of distance. Overall, we seek to add to the already significant body of literature that evaluates the suitability of practice-theoretical core concepts to the empirical study of everyday life.

Keywords

Consumption ‘consumption of distance’mobility practice practice theories sustainability transport

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Bourdieu P (1984) Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Dant

(2004) The driver-car. Theory, Culture & Society 21: 61–79.

Dunlap RE (2002) An enduring concern. Public Perspective 10–14.

Gram-Hanssen

(2011) Understanding change and continuity in residential energy consumption. Journal of Consumer Culture 11: 61–78.

Groβ M and Heinrichs H (2010) Environmental Sociology: European Perspectives and Interdisciplinary Challenges. Dordrecht: Springer.

Hagman

(2010) Driving pleasure: A key concept in Swedish car culture. Mobilities 5: 25–39.

Heiβerer B (2013) Curbing the consumption of distance? A practice-theoretical investigation of an employer-based mobility management initiative to promote more sustainable commuting. PhD thesis, National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland.

Jackson T (2005) Motivating Sustainable Consumption: A Review of Evidence on Consumer Behaviour and Behavioural Change. Sustainable Development Research Network. Available at: http://www.sustainablelifestyles.ac.uk/sites/default/files/motivating_sc_final.pdf.

Klöckner

Matthies

(2004) How habits interfere with norm-directed behaviour: A normative decision-making model for travel mode choice. Journal of Environmental Psychology 24: 319–327.

10.

Lavelle MJ, Rau H, Heisserer B and Hynes M (2012) Factsheet 3: Transport. National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland.

11.

Postill

(2010) Introduction: Theorising media and practice. In: Bräuchler

Postill

(eds) Theorising Media and Practice, Oxford: Berghahn, pp. 1–34.

12.

Rau

Hennessy

(2009) The road to sustainable transport? Rural transport programmes and policies in Ireland. In: McDonagh

Varley

Shortall

(eds) A Living Countryside? The Politics of Sustainable Development in Rural Ireland, Aldershot: Ashgate, pp. 361–378.

13.

Reckwitz

(2002a) The status of the, ‘Material’ in theories of culture: From, ‘Social Structure’ to ‘Artefacts’. Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour 32: 195–217.

14.

Reckwitz

(2002b) Toward a theory of social practices. European Journal of Social Theory 5: 243–263.

15.

Reckwitz

(2004) Die Reproduktion und die Subversion sozialer Praktiken. Zugleich ein Kommentar zu Pierre Bourdieu und Judith Butler. In: Hörning

Reuter

(eds) Doing Culture: Neue Positionen zum Verhältnis von Kultur und sozialer Praxis, Bielefeld: Transcript Verlag, pp. 40–54.

16.

Schäfer

Jaeger-Erben

Bamberg

(2012) Life events as windows of opportunity for changing towards sustainable consumption patterns? Journal of Consumer Policy 35: 65–84.

17.

Schatzki

(1996) Social Practices: A Wittgensteinian Approach to Human Activity and the Social, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

18.

Schatzki

(2001) Introduction: Practice theories. In: Schatzki

Knorr Cetina

von Savigny

(eds) The Practice Turn in Contemporary Theory, London: Routledge, pp. 1–13.

19.

Schatzki

(2002) The Site of the Social: A Philosophical Account of the Constitution of Social Life and Change, University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press.

20.

Schatzki

(2010) On the Timespace of Human Activity: On Performance, Society, and History as Indeterminate Teleological Events, Plymouth: Lexington Books.

21.

Shove

(2010) Beyond the ABC: Climate change policy and theories of social change. Environment and Planning A 42: 1273–1285.

22.

Shove

Pantzar

(2005) Consumers, producers and practices: Understanding the invention and reinvention of Nordic walking. Journal of Consumer Culture 5: 43–64.

23.

Veblen

([1899] 2005) The Theory of the Leisure Class: An Economic Study of Institutions, Delhi, India: Aakar Books, pp. .

24.

Warde

(2005) Consumption and theories of practice. Journal of Consumer Culture 5: 131–153.

25.

Watson

Shove

(2008) Product, competence, project and practice. Journal of Consumer Culture 8: 69–89.