Introduction: practices

This volume provides the reader with an introduction to Theories of Practice and what we identify as the key studies in this domain. It is our belief that theories of practice offer consumer researchers ways to refresh and rethink their approaches, especially if we take seriously Warde’s suggestion that: “An individual’s pattern of consumption is the sum of the moments of consumption which occur in the totality of his or her practices. If the individual is merely the intersection point of many practices, and practices are the bedrock of consumption, then a new perspective on consumer behaviour emerges. New explanations of contemporary identities and the role of consumption in identity formation suggest themselves.” (2005, p. 144).