ABSTRACT
In recent years, much research into household water demand has reframed the object of study from ‘people’ to ‘practices’. This development encourages researchers, businesses and policy makers to recognise the complexities of household demand and reflect these in policy and management action. Embedded in theories of social practices, the shift from people to practices reprioritises individual ‘attitudes’ and ‘beliefs’ about the environment and considers instead the complex interrelation of elements that shape everyday practices. These include, for example, notions of cleanliness and comfort, infrastructures and technologies and everyday routines. Building on these discussions, this chapter reflects on recent research to question the absence of ‘nature’ and ‘waters’ in social practice theory accounts of demand. We argue that everyday experiences of water, from the mundane (living in the rainy UK!), the unusual (changing cleanliness practices at festivals) to the severe (experiencing flood or drought), have at least some effect on practices associated with domestic water use. We reflect on attempts to construct alternative human–water relations and the implications of these for water-consuming practices. Throughout this analysis we make connections between the literature on social practices and that on hydro-social relations, and consider the implications of these connections for ongoing research agendas, management activities and policy-making.
