Researching wild meat consumption in contemporary Nanxiong, South China: a social practice approach

The outbreak of COVID-19 reminds us of the urgency of reducing wild meat consumption (WMC). It is important to investigate why some people prefer wild meat. Using in-depth interviews (n = 19), group interviews (n = 9), and participant observation, this study conducted fieldwork in Nanxiong in South China in 2015–2016 and 2020, where WMC is considered a historical and cultural tradition. This study updates understandings of people's need for WMC in recent years and is likely the first attempt to apply social practice theory to investigate WMC, which provides an integrated and promising tool for theoretically summarizing the "motivations” in everyday life and dynamic relations behind this collective and conventional consumption. This paper offers new understandings of wild meat consumption through an exploration of how the related practices of preparing, cooking and tasting are changing. It explores materiality of taste and texture and the agentic capacity of wild meat. Additionally, the concept of practice memory is used to examine the development of WMC practice. In the context of COVID-19, some policy implications against WMC are provided. © 2023 Association for the Study of Food and Society (ASFS).

Online-Based Food Hubs for Community Health and Well-Being: Performance in Practice and Its Implications for Urban Design

Food hubs assist the economic development of small local farms growing produce sustainably and providing healthy nutrition by aggregating and distributing a diversified range of fresh local food directly to customers. Although food hubs remain niches due to the challenges of growth and implementation, the interest in local and organic food has recently surged, and the demand for online grocery shopping has dramatically increased, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic. This research considers the potential of an online platform for food hubs and examines food practices that include creating and appropriating social networks of food hubs. The study also discusses the implications of the socio-spatial transformation for urban design. With a theoretical framework drawing from social innovation and practice theory, suggesting performance dynamics in practice, this study reviews the current trend of food hubs in the United Kingdom and investigates London-based Growing Communities and Sutton Community Farm, both of which offer community-led veg box schemes. The findings confirm that, as social innovations, community-led food hubs are evolving places for community health and well-being, among other online-based food hubs. This research proposes an evolutionary step for community-led food hubs for social connections. An online platform effectively mobilises resources to connect a diverse local community. More importantly, an online platform interconnected with physical facilities in farm sites and collection points can enhance spatial qualities and capacity and support food access, leading to the sustainable development of urban space. Methodologically, the long-term review of this research confirms the usefulness of the research framework, which revealed evolution in these cases. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

Consumer practices: Recovering and repairing daily community life

Consumers engage in a multitude of daily practices which contribute to their individual and community wellbeing. I take a multi-method approach to investigating three consequential and interrelated consumer practices with important implications for wellbeing at an individual and community level. In the second chapter, I uncover a new multi-stage theoretical process, practice recovery, in my investigation of how consumers recover or return to practices they have previously abandoned. I examine this process and the potential difficulties inherent in it, in the context of young adults recovering the practice of bicycling for transportation on a college campus, a practice which promotes individual, community, and environmental wellbeing. In the third chapter, I examine and test the model I uncovered in Chapter II in the context of an individually held consumer practice which was interrupted at a community level, namely consumers' gym exercise practices during the COVID-19 pandemic. Working with community stakeholders, I problematize the model of practice recovery and examine this consumers' actual and anticipated recovery of these consequential health practices. In the fourth chapter, I examine how individual consumer practices contribute to community wellbeing through examination of user-maintainer repair practices of a bicycle sharing platform. I uncover emergent commons-based peer production at a community level, carried out through individual practices of stewardship which contribute to the repair of the bicycle sharing platform, which is perceived as an inalienable community wealth, despite its underlying market motivations. In closing, I reflect and provide recommendations on the challenges and opportunities of conducting community-focused research. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

Innovative strategies to tackle post-Covid-19 tourism: case of small tourism companies

PurposeThe Covid-19 pandemic adversely affected the tourism industry. The highly contagious coronavirus-19 has brought the whole industry to its knees, initiating catastrophic effects in terms of loss of jobs and revenue. The purpose of this qualitative study is to identify the innovative coping strategies adopted by small tourism companies (STCs) to revive business and cope with the pandemic.Design/methodology/approachThis study used qualitative exploration and asked open-ended questions to senior executives of STCs in India. Written responses were obtained from the respondents. Thematic analysis was performed to analyse the responses of the participants.FindingsThe findings highlight the innovative strategies adopted by STCs to cope with Covid-19-related business loss and present suggestions given by them to benefit the tourism industry.Research limitations/implicationsThis study offers insightful practical and theoretical implications for tourism companies, marketing practitioners and policymakers.Originality/valueThe study builds on social practice theory, and the findings (prominent themes) are uniquely mapped with the elements of social practice theory.

How crisis reveals the structures of practices

The speed, scope and scale of changes wreaked by the Covid-19 crisis of 2020 onwards raise challenging questions for practice theorists. After all, practice theory has generally emphasized continuity. According to Reckwitz, practices are 'routinized types of behaviour'. For Nicolini practices are 'very resilient and often difficult to change because, qua practices, they are taken for granted and often considered as part of the natural order of things'. Where practice theorists have explored change, they have often focused on slow-cooked transformations, for instance the spread of showering from the 1870s onwards, the emergence of the Kentucky bourbon industry in the mid-19th Century, or the decades-long shifts in the practices of strategy in modern Western businesses. The Covid-19 changes have an intensity that is quite other to these leisurely evolutions. Our argument here is that the Covid-19 crisis, challenging as it is, in fact provides an opportunity for practice theorists. As a set of extreme events, it exposes for further investigation structural features of practices along two dimensions, external and internal. These structural features help us address two particularly tough questions raised by initial observations of the crisis. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

Cycling in an ‘ordinary city': A practice theory approach to supporting a modal shift

There has long been evidence of the benefit of a modal shift toward cycling can bring to meeting several pressing urban challenges including ill-health, climate change, and poor air quality. In the wake of COVID-19, policy-makers have identified a modal shift toward cycling as part of the solution to mobility challenges introduced by social distancing measures. However, beyond exemplar areas, cycling has been largely characterized by a stubbornly-low modal share. In this paper, we use the ‘ordinary city'–in cycling terms–of Liverpool as a case study to understand this. We apply practice theory in doing so, finding the provision of materials for cycling is the key factor in supporting a modal shift. Not only do they provide the means to support the practice of cycling in the city, but they also have a key role in shaping individuals perceptions of, and the skills required to cycle. We then reflect upon the utility of practice theory in understanding the patterns of everyday life, finding it was particularly well suited in understanding the interactions between different factors which influence modal choice. We go on to identify practical challenges in its application within our analysis raising questions around an inconsistent analysis of influential factors including ‘driver behavior' and ‘political commitment'. We suggest how this might be overcome, through the isolation of such factors within a category of ‘action of others', this we argue means the findings in this paper have broad relevance to researchers and policy-makers alike. © 2021 The Author(s). Published with license by Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.

Consumer practices: Recovering and repairing daily community life

Consumers engage in a multitude of daily practices which contribute to their individual and community wellbeing. I take a multi-method approach to investigating three consequential and interrelated consumer practices with important implications for wellbeing at an individual and community level. In the second chapter, I uncover a new multi-stage theoretical process, practice recovery, in my investigation of how consumers recover or return to practices they have previously abandoned. I examine this process and the potential difficulties inherent in it, in the context of young adults recovering the practice of bicycling for transportation on a college campus, a practice which promotes individual, community, and environmental wellbeing. In the third chapter, I examine and test the model I uncovered in Chapter II in the context of an individually held consumer practice which was interrupted at a community level, namely consumers' gym exercise practices during the COVID-19 pandemic. Working with community stakeholders, I problematize the model of practice recovery and examine this consumers' actual and anticipated recovery of these consequential health practices. In the fourth chapter, I examine how individual consumer practices contribute to community wellbeing through examination of user-maintainer repair practices of a bicycle sharing platform. I uncover emergent commons-based peer production at a community level, carried out through individual practices of stewardship which contribute to the repair of the bicycle sharing platform, which is perceived as an inalienable community wealth, despite its underlying market motivations. In closing, I reflect and provide recommendations on the challenges and opportunities of conducting community-focused research. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

Community response to COVID-19: The case of rental housing cooperatives in Melbourne, Australia and Choluteca, Honduras.

COVID-19 and its restrictions have had widely documented negative impacts for private and social rental sectors, internationally. Limited evidence exists about how the pandemic effects were experienced in alternative forms of renting such as housing cooperatives. Rental cooperatives, recognised for their principles of democratic control, education and training and concern for community, may offer different outcomes for members than more individually-oriented rental forms. This paper seeks to explore whether and how COVID-19 was responded to within cooperative rental housing models, and if the pandemic posed a challenge to cooperative principles. Using a social practices approach, the analysis first identifies cooperative members' formal and informal responses to COVID-19, and second explores the meaning of such activities in the pandemic context in Australia and Honduras cooperatives. The continuity of usual housing cooperative practices and pandemic measures were analysed via in-depth interviews with 15 residents. Findings indicate that cooperative responses acted to reduce negative impacts of the pandemic or to find effective solutions. Rental housing cooperative residents' lived experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic, invite us to reflect on the role of housing cooperatives in the housing sector, the importance of collaborative housing models and the relevance of housing-based community resilience.

Theorising the shift to video consulting in the UK during the COVID-19 pandemic: Analysis of a mixed methods study using practice theory.

We studied video consulting in the National Health Service during 2020-2021 through video interviews, an online survey and online discussions with people who had provided and participated in such consultations. Video consulting had previously been used for selected groups in limited settings in the UK. The pandemic created a seismic shift in the context for remote consulting, in which video transformed from a niche technology typically introduced by individual clinicians committed to innovation and quality improvement to offering what many felt was the only safe way to deliver certain types of healthcare. A new practice emerged: a co-constitution of technology and healthcare made possible by new configurations of equipment, connectivity and physical spaces. Despite heterogeneous service settings and previous experiences of video consulting, we found certain kinds of common changes had made video consulting possible. We used practice theory to analyse these changes, interpreting the commonalities found in our data as changes in purpose, material arrangements and a relaxing of rules about security, confidentiality and location of consultations. The practice of video consulting was equivocal. Accounts of, and preferences for, video consulting varied as did the extent to which it was sustained after initial take-up. People made sense of video consulting in different ways, ranging from interpreting video as offering a new modality of healthcare for the future to a sub-optimal, temporary alternative to in-person care. Despite these variations, video consulting became a recognisable social phenomenon, albeit neither universally adopted nor consistently sustained. The nature of this social change offers new perspectives on processes of implementation and spread and scale-up. Our findings have important implications for the future of video consulting. We emphasise the necessity for viable material arrangements and a continued shared interpretation of the meaning of video consulting for the practice to continue.

(Un-)sustainable transformations: everyday food practices in Italy during COVID-19

In this article, we study how the global pandemic has affected food practices. We underscore how time, space, and modality as key facets of the everyday intersect with understandings, procedures, and engagements as components of practice, and how food practices in the pandemic context are transforming, at least temporarily, toward more sustainability. Our mixed-methods data were collected from participants in a local food initiative established in Trento during the first Italian lockdown in Spring 2020, which aimed to connect local producers to consumers more directly. We analyze data from a panel survey conducted with 55 participants of this initiative followed by ten in-depth interviews six months after the lockdown. The findings illustrate that the lockdown encouraged different people to search for “good food” through the food initiative. Sustainable food practices included more planning and less waste, but in some cases initial interest in the initiative changed back to prevailing industrial supply via supermarkets. Thus, not all food practices of our respondents were transformed to be more sustainable or permanent. We conclude that everyday food practices, when disrupted and if accompanied with well-functioning socio-technical innovations, can foster a transformation toward a more diversified and sustainable food system. © 2022 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited trading as Taylor & Francis Group on behalf of the Environmental Policy Group, Wageningen University & Research.

Snail Meat Consumption in Buea, Cameroon: The Methodological Challenges in Exploring Its Public Health Risks

This paper discusses the methodological challenges in studying health risks that could arise from consuming terrestrial snails infested with pathogenic microorganisms. In Cameroon, snails remain an inexpensive protein source and are collected from free-living environments termed “farms.” Our focus has been on understanding health risks due to the handling and consumption of snails collected from locations that include decaying vegetation and untreated human and household wastes. To complement preliminary field observations and get more in-depth understanding of the existing situation, we adopted a qualitative approach using lived experiences, participant observation, in-depth interviews, and a focus group. We made use of informal settings where snail vendors and consumers narrated their routines and experiences from snail harvesting to consumption and the strategies they use to keep their families safe from foodborne illnesses. The study adopted two frameworks: Soft Systems Methodology to explore and model the “messy” nature of the social system and Social Practice Theory to explore the local practices identified through systemic model. The challenges discussed are set in the context of conducting social research in a developing world situation in a time of social and political tension and a global pandemic (COVID-19). With this in mind, the methodological decisions discussed include the type of enquiry and selection of frameworks, selection of field sites, recruitment and engagement with participants, design of interview instruments, interpretation, and trustworthiness of the study findings. We also discuss the strengths and limitations of using our approach. © The Author(s) 2022.

Living through and with the global HIV/AIDS pandemic: Distinct 'pandemic practices' and temporalities.

In this study, we expand on the newly devised sociological concept of pandemic practices that emerged during the COVID-19 outbreak by applying it to the HIV/AIDS pandemic. The analytical heuristic of pandemic practices distinguishes between four kinds of practices: (i) primary practices that encompass the public's direct response to the pandemic, (ii) responsive practices that encompass altered routines and social interactions, (iii) adaptive practices that encompass more elusive organisational and legal legacies and (iv) meta-practices that produce particular narratives about the pandemic dynamics that might lead to lasting socio-cultural behavioural changes. In this paper we probe further into the notion of meta-practices. The results show that the prolonged nature of the HIV/AIDS pandemic combined with the widespread stigmatisation of vulnerable groups has led to distinct social practices that fragment along socio-economic lines both internally in countries but also between high-income and low-income countries. As the COVID-19 pandemic becomes increasingly endemic, lessons learned from HIV/AIDS expose the dangers of similar fragmentations where parts of the population return to normal but where many others continue to suffer not only from adverse health outcomes but also social exclusion and stigmatisation. Thus, we argue that attention to pandemic practices, and how they produce and reinforce underlying socio-economic vulnerabilities would strengthen long-term pandemic responses.

Mapping clinical governance to practitioner roles and responsibilities.

PURPOSE: While clinical governance is assumed to be part of organisational structures and policies, implementation of clinical governance in practice (the praxis) can be markedly different. This paper draws on insights from hospital clinicians, managers and governors on how they interpret the term "clinical governance". The influence of best-practice and roles and responsibilities on their interpretations is considered. DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH: The research is based on 40 in-depth, semi-structured interviews with hospital clinicians, managers and governors from two large academic hospitals in Ireland. The analytical lens for the research is practice theory. Interview transcripts are analysed for practitioners' spoken keywords/terms to explore how practitioners interpret the term "clinical governance". The practice of clinical governance is mapped to front line, management and governance roles and responsibilities. FINDINGS: The research finds that interpretation of clinical governance in praxis is quite different from best-practice definitions. Practitioner roles and responsibilities held influence practitioners' interpretation. ORIGINALITY/VALUE: The research examines interpretations of clinical governance in praxis by clinicians, managers and governors and highlights the adverse consequence of the absence of clear mapping of roles and responsibilities to clinical, management and governance practice.

Impact of Video Modules-Based Training on Knowledge, Attitude, and Practices of Cleaning and Disinfection Among Housekeeping Staff at a Tertiary Care Center During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Aim To assess the knowledge, attitude, and practice toward cleaning and disinfection among housekeeping (HK) staff amid the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Methods A quasi-experimental was undertaken among HK staff at a tertiary care hospital. A 30-item structured questionnaire was used in the study, which consisted of questions pertaining to knowledge (11), attitude (8), and practice (11) toward cleaning and disinfection. Result One-hundred-two participants were included by convenient sampling, with mean age = 30-37 years. There was an improvement in pre-test and post-test knowledge (6.21 to 9.7) and practice score (9.97 to post-test 10.52). However, the attitude score did not show a significant change in the post-test score (p=0.964), showing that they were having a positive attitude toward the practices before training too.  Conclusion Improvement in the post-test score shows that periodic targeted training sessions on cleaning and disinfection among housekeeping staff help improve their knowledge, attitude, and practices toward infection prevention and control (IPC) during the COVID-19 pandemic, thus minimizing the spread of the virus in a hospital environment, reducing their apprehension, and preparing them to work in such pandemic situations.

A qualitative study of the challenges in rearranging community pharmacy service provision during the COVID-19 public health emergency: The prism of social practice theory.

OBJECTIVES: While healthcare systems struggle to manage the COVID-19 pandemic, community pharmacies have changed the way in which they serve society by ensuring the availability of primary-level medical care. This study aims to examine the rearrangement of service provision at community pharmacies through the prism of social practice theory. STUDY DESIGN: Qualitative in-depth semi-structured interviews. METHODS: In total, 21 community pharmacists, 3 hospital pharmacists and 10 experts in Estonia were interviewed. For data analysis, two-dimensional thematic textual analysis was performed according to four types of practices proposed in social practice theory and based on temporal distinction. RESULTS: The findings of this study reveal that, in order to maintain and improve community pharmacy service provision during the pandemic, there have been changes to all aspects of practice elements, including practical understandings, rules and teleological structures. The majority of challenges were experienced because of necessary changes to the habitual ways of providing pharmacy services, indicating resistance to these changes and reinforcing the need to continue existing 'practice-bundles'. Limited access to healthcare services during the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in community pharmacists becoming the primary (and only) accessible healthcare contact; thus, leading to a shift in awareness about the role of pharmacists. CONCLUSIONS: Although large-scale changes may result in the dissolvement of practice-bundles and require readiness to adjust current methods of service provision, dissolution is a gradual process. There is an urgent need to support pharmacists in managing the challenges of rearranging service provision, such as immediate organisational changes, lack of information and changing resources.

Practicing social change during COVID-19:Ethical food consumption and activism pre- and post-outbreak.

In addition to upending nearly every segment of the economy, COVID-19 has uprooted social life as we know it and the innumerable discourses and practices therein contained. While a terrible event, it can also be approached as offering a once-in-a-lifetime (hopefully) natural experiment. This is certainly true as far as the global pandemic applies to how and what we eat, given how it has radically altered many everyday food-related practices, whether due to supply chain failures or state-mandates (e.g., shelter-in-place orders). This paper is based on data collected pre- and post-outbreak, triangulating survey and qualitative data, in an attempt to further interrogate the concepts of ethical consumption and activism broadly defined, including the idea of consumer activism. With conceptual assistance from social practice theory, the paper interrogates certain long-standing questions in the literature, such as ethical consumption's link to other forms of political action. It also poses new ones, such as by disentangling the various ways individuals do (and do not do) ethical consumption. Finally, the data suggest tentative empirical and conceptual paths forward as we contemplate ethical consumption and social activism more generally in the shadow of COVID-19.

Exploring the effects of California's COVID-19 shelter-in-place order on household energy practices and intention to adopt smart home technologies.

To contain the spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), local and state governments in the U.S. have imposed restrictions on daily life, resulting in dramatic changes to how and where people interact, travel, socialize, and work. Using a social practice perspective, we explore how California's Shelter-in-Place (SIP) order impacted household energy activities. To do so, we conducted an online survey of California residents (n = 804) during active SIP restrictions (May 5-18, 2020). We asked respondents about changes to home occupancy patterns and household energy activities (e.g., cooking, electronics usage) due to SIP restrictions, as well as perspectives toward smart energy technologies. Households reported increased midday (10am-3pm) occupancy during SIP, and this increase is related to respondent and household characteristics, such as education and the presence of minors in the home. Examining change in the frequency of household activities during SIP, presence of minors and increased midday occupancy proved important. Finally, we considered relationships to intention to purchase smart home technologies, with the presence of minors and increased activity frequency relating to greater intention to purchase. These findings demonstrate how household activities and occupancy changed under COVID restrictions, how these changes may be related to energy use in the home, and how such COVID-related changes could be shaping perspectives toward smart home technology, potentially providing insight into future impacts on household practices and electricity demand.