ABSTRACT
This chapter describes how the application of current popular theoretical interest in the concept of practice has affected the study of consumption. Reckwitz located theories of practice in relation to dominant schools of cultural analysis, arguing primarily that the latter's focus on symbolic aspects failed to appreciate the material attributes of social life. Extrapolating the specific implications of this account of practice theory for consumption, Warde suggested that consumption might be better approached as a moment in practices rather than as acts of purchase. Giddens was initially found appealing because his clear and elegant account of the duality of structure appeared to solve the structure-agency problem. Bourdieu was better equipped to deal with issues of habit and embodiment. Contemporary projects of governance often construct socio-technical objects, through processes of monitoring, feedback and statistical aggregation, which orient everyday practices, public discourse and institutional-organization arrangements.
