Alan Warde

Consumption and Theories of Practice

This article considers the potential of a revival of interest in theories of practice for the study of consumption. It presents an abridged account of the basic precepts of a theory of practice and extracts some broad principles for its application to the analysis of final consumption. The basic assumption is that consumption occurs as items are appropriated in the course of engaging in particular practices and that being a competent practitioner requires appropriation of the requisite services, possession of appropriate tools, and devotion of a suitable level of attention to the conduct of the practice. Such a view stresses the routine, collective and conventional nature of much consumption but also emphasizes that practices are internally differentiated and dynamic. Distinctive features of the account include its understanding of the way wants emanate from practices, of the processes whereby practices emerge, develop and change, of the consequences of extensive personal involvements in many practices, and of the manner of recruitment to practices. The article concludes with discussion of some theoretical, substantive and methodological implications.

Consumption, Identity-Formation and Uncertainty

This paper addresses some general issues concerning consumption that arise from the work of Bauman, Beck and Giddens. All maintain that biography is a reflexive project and that life-styles and consumption are critical to identity-formation and re-formation. Bauman, especially, maintains that this is a source of anxiety, the freedom implied by consumer choice entailing a commensurate degree of personal responsibility. He observes, for instance, that a function of advertising is to assuage the self-doubt that accompanies choice. I seek to argue that these accounts of the impact of reflexive modernisation on self-identity are misjudged. Consumption would be a much less pleasurable practice if it was both subject to ever-expanding free choice and the decisions made were fundamental components of a reflexive process of identity-formation. Indeed, the consequence might well be high and visible levels of distress among those individuals most deeply involved. That this is not apparent suggests that the relationships specified between the process of identity-formation and consumption is tendentious. Consumption may be anxiety-provoking for some groups; there is a real element of risk involved in choosing inappropriately. But there are many mechanisms that serve to compensate. I explore those mechanisms, suggesting that anxiety is avoided through certain processes of group identification and social regulation which the reflexive modernisation thesis claims have atrophied. I conclude that such considerations require that these theories about the relationship between consumption and self-identity be modified.

Consumption and the Problem of Variety: Cultural Omnivorousness, Social Distinction and Dining Out

In the light of the work of Pierre Bourdieu, this paper begins by reviewing an argument that Western populations no longer recognise any fixed cultural hierarchy and that, instead, individuals seek knowledge of an increasingly wide variety of aesthetically equivalent cultural genres. Contrasting versions of this argument are isolated. Data concerning the frequency of use of different commercial sources of meals and the social characteristics of customers using different types of restaurant in England are examined. An attempt is made to infer the social and symbolic significance of variety of experience and, in particular, of familiarity with diverse ethnic cuisines. The findings are interpreted in terms of the complex role of consumption in personal assurance, communicative competence and social distinction. It is maintained that the pursuit of variety of consumer experience is a feature of particular social groups and that some specific component practices express social distinction.

Convenient food: space and timing

This paper argues that the emergence of convenience food reflects the re‐ordering of the time‐space relations of everyday life in contemporary society. It is suggested that the notion of convenience food is highly contested. Britons are ambivalent about serving and eating convenience food. However, many people are constrained to eat what they call convenience foods as a provisional response to intransigent problems of scheduling everyday life. A distinction is drawn between modern and hypermodern forms of convenience, the first directed towards labour‐saving or time compression, the second to time‐shifting. It is maintained that convenience food is as much a hypermodern response to de‐routinisation as it is a modern search for the reduction of toil. Convenience food is required because people are too often in the wrong place; the impulse to time‐shifting arises from the compulsion to plan ever more complex time‐space paths in everyday life. The problem of timing supersedes the problem of shortage of time. Some of the more general social implications of such a claim are explored.

Understanding Cultural Omnivorousness: Or, the Myth of the Cultural Omnivore

The concept of omnivorousness has become influential in the sociologies of culture and consumption, cited variously as evidence of altered hierarchies in cultural participation and as indicative of broader socio-cultural changes. The ‘omnivore thesis’ contends that there is a sector of the population of western countries who do and like a greater variety of forms of culture than previously, and that this broad engagement reflects emerging values of tolerance and undermines snobbery. This article draws on the findings of a study of cultural participation in the UK to explore the coherence of the omnivore thesis. It uses a survey to identify and isolate omnivores, and then proceeds to explore the meanings of omnivorousness through the analysis of in-depth, qualitative interviews with them. It concludes that, while there is evidence of wide cultural participation within the UK, the figure of the omnivore is less singularly distinctive than some studies have suggested.

Urban sociology, capitalism and modernity

Introduction - The Roots of Urban Sociology - The Economic Bases of Urban Form - Inequality and Social Organisation in the City - Perspectives on Urban Culture - Modernity, Post-modernity, and Urban Culture - Urban Politics - Conclusion: Urban Sociology, Capitalism and Modernity - References

After taste: Culture, consumption and theories of practice

Multi-disciplinary studies of consumption have proliferated in the last two decades. Heavily influenced by notions of ‘the consumer’ and tenets of ‘the cultural turn’, explanations have relied preponderantly upon models of voluntary action contextualised by webs of cultural meanings which constitute symbolic resources for individual choice. Arguably, the cultural turn has run its course and is beginning to unwind, a consequence of internal inconsistencies, misplaced emphases and the cycle of generational succession in theory development in the social sciences. Theories of practice provide a competing alternative approach which contests the colonisation of consumption by models of individual choice and cultural expressivism. To that end, this article explores the use of theories of practice as a lens to magnify aspects of common social processes which generate observable patterns of consumption. It is suggested that theories of practice might provide a general analytic framework for understanding consumption, one whose particular emphases capture important and relevant aspects overlooked by previously dominant approaches to consumption as culture. This article reviews reasons for the emergence of theories of practice and isolates some of their distinctive emphases. Strengths and weaknesses of the theory of practice as an approach to consumption are discussed.

Changes in the Practice of Eating A Comparative Analysis of Time-Use

This article examines changes in aspects of the eating habits of the populations of five countries between the early 1970s and the end of the 1990s. Time-use diary data provide the main evidence, which is subjected to techniques of statistical description and regression analysis. The study of France, UK, USA, Norway and the Netherlands shows considerable national variation in patterns of food preparation, eating at home and eating out. Each of these components of the practice of eating is examined for indications of whether there are any tendencies towards dedifferentiation within countries or convergence across countries. There are some common patterns across countries, notably a decline in the amount of time devoted to food preparation. Time spent on eating at home reduces in all countries except France. In the USA, time devoted to domestic food preparation and consumption is minimal. Internal differentiation shows continuities — of gender divisions and age-related behaviour — but also new emergent tendencies — with the presence of children and levels of cultural capital becoming significant predictors of behaviour. It is maintained that the analysis of time-use provides a useful framework for comparing practices in different countries and that the variation revealed might best be understood in terms of different modes of institutionalization of consumption.

Practice and Field: Revising Bourdieu’s Concepts

Pierre Bourdieu is universally acknowledged as a founding figure in the revival of interest in theories of practice. He is equally widely recognised for his contribution to the study of modern consumption. Although his analysis of the social distribution of taste remains highly controversial it can rarely be bypassed by scholars seeking to give explanations of patterns of consumption. Distinction is Bourdieu’s best-known and most celebrated work among scholars of consumption. The fact that it is a convoluted, fragmentary and theoretically inconsistent book is compensated for by its originality, verve, critical purpose and sociological relevance. In this chapter I discuss the relationship between its key concepts, with the specific purpose of trying to isolate a usable concept of practice to deal with issues of consumption. This involves an extended discussion of the relationship between his uses of the concepts of practice and field. Bearing in mind that the scientific object of Distinction is not consumption, but social judgements of taste, the relationship between consumption and practice deserves unpacking. I address that by asking why and with what consequences Bourdieu withdrew from extended reflection on the concept of practice and argue that its reincorporation into the contemporary analysis of consumption might resolve some theoretical and empirical problems. Clarification of Bourdieu’s controversial concepts might improve accounts of consumption, particularly so that they may deal with ordinary consumption.

The re-emergence of small enterprises : industrial restructuring in industrialised countries

Based on case studies of the largest industrialized market economy countries, this book summarizes what we know to date about the recent development of the small enterprise sector, its composition by type of firm, and its status and role in the community.