RESEARCHING SOCIAL PRACTICES FOR UNDERSTANDING CONSUMPTION

The social practices lens provides a different perspective to the study of consumption emphasizing its role in social reproduction and changes rather than focusing on individual consumer choices or cultural structures (such as lifestyle), and also because it helps understanding how value is co-created among consumers and firms in innovation process. So far conceptual and substantive contributions about social practices have been developed neglecting the inquiry around the methodological side. This paper tries to answer the following question: what research methods should scholars use when studying social practices in relation to consumption? To achieve this aim, secondary data drawing on empirical studies about social practices and consumption are examined. Such a preliminary analysis shows that studying practices and consumption needs a twofold approach: the immersion in the ongoing social activities of some individuals or group, and the across-time perspective. To capture both, a longitudinal field research is proposed as the main inquiry strategy. Field research means studying the ongoing practice life in its naturally occurring settings, and longitudinal approach helps seeing social practices from a historical developmental perspective.