Social Practice Theory

(Douglas, 1996). Thus research in this area can examine ways in which an individual’s intentions can be momentarily abandoned, contributing to the considerable research on the gap between action and intention. Most empirical research into the gap has found that, for instance, concern for the environment, or the wellbeing of underpaid workers is common but this concern does not always translate into behavior (Emerald, 2004).

Lastly, Bauman (2007) assesses how modern capitalism encourages individuals to continuously reinvent themselves, by creating a culture in which discarding objects that are considered ‘obsolescent’ by society and purchasing new ones. He stresses that this cycle drives consumerism. Bauman argues that the temporary fix on

Social practice models, as different from the structural and individual approaches, acknowledge the interaction between structures and individuals in exchanges that present relationships between human action and changeable, but resistant social structures. All together social practice theorists debate that the significance of actors’ comprehension, awareness and deliberate efforts to alter their practices is of as much importance as the role of structural systems. They agree that through reforms in structures and individual behavior, human agency and structure can change substantially (Robbins,

He discusses the individual and structural determinants of consumption, which he accordingly categorizes in three kinds of actors: People, Business and The Political Class. He describes the relation between these actors creating a triangular scheme, which recognizes the power the actors have over one another. Firstly, he states that people and business are not only engaged in the classical labour-versus-capital battle in the arena of work and production. The relation is that of people as consumers versus business as sellers, in which people are subjected to previously mentioned marketing efforts of business whereas consumers have a limited power exerting demand created and reinforced by the capitalist system. Furthermore he recognizes how individuals are also political beings with a right—in the western world—to select their governing bodies. This relation between People and Political Class encompasses all the issues of (public) governance: how political influence and power is constructed and accomplished; how responsive the state is to the people and vice versa. Pressure may be applied both ways. Finally, the relation between Business and The Political Class is more complex in the sense that there is no comparable theory with a distribution of rights and responsibilities. In theory, the political system rules over the corporations as juridical persons but Business exerts power in the