Showing papers by "Alan Warde published in 2016"

How should we understand general understandings

Abstract: Practice theory is increasingly prominent in social scientific analysis. Hence, its virtues and its defects are being subjected to greater scrutiny. As part of that exercise, we examine the conceptualisation of widespread cultural understandings in the social scientific use of practice theory. Schatzki’s (1996; 2002) schema of practice components has proved generative, particularly as adapted by Warde (2005) and Shove et al. (2012). However, virtually no attention has been paid to Schatzki’s (2002) concept of ‘general understandings’, which is one potentially relevant instrument to address this challenge.1 In The site of the social, Schatzki (2002) introduces the category of general understandings into his schema of components of practice, an addition to his earlier tripartite model of ‘practical understandings’, ‘rules’ and ‘teleoaffective structures’ (1996). In this chapter, we seek to open up issues posed by general understandings as a category within a schema of generic practice components. The concept of general understandings promises to deal with broad cultural conceptions which transcend the boundaries between ‘integrative practices’ (Schatzki, 2002).

Senses and Sensibilities: Stabilising and Changing Tastes in Cross-National Couples

Abstract: This article examines changes in tastes and practice in the context of establishing and maintaining a new cross-national couple relationship. Interviews provided accounts of the experience of change among fourteen Anglo-French couples. We describe two processes of change which, because accentuated in cross-national couples, reveal mechanisms lying behind the transformation and stabilisation of tastes and diets. Explanation of the evolution of taste and diet can be found in the interplay between aesthetic and ethical drives, incorporated bodily practices and social mechanisms of legitimation and integration. To make sense of gustatory and dietary change, tastes are best understood through their insertion in meaningful sequences, patterns and series.

At the Chef’s Table: Culinary Creativity in Elite Restaurants

Abstract: Vanina Leschziner seeks to explain how chefs in elite restaurants achieve their reputations for creativity and personal style in a context of commercial competition. To understand the higher echelo...