Over the past few generations, expectations of comfort, cleanliness and convenience have altered radically, but these dramatic changes have largely gone unnoticed. This intriguing book brings together the sociology of consumption and technology to investigate the evolution of these changes, as well the social meaning of the practices themselves. Homes, offices, domestic appliances and clothes play a crucial role in our lives, but not many of us question exactly how and why we perform so many daily rituals associated with them. Showers, heating, air-conditioning and clothes washing are simply accepted as part of our normal, everyday lives, but clearly this was not always the case. When did the daily shower become de rigueur? What effect has air conditioning had on the siesta at one time an integral part of Mediterranean life and culture? This book interrogates the meaning and supposed normality of these practices and draws disturbing conclusions. There is clear evidence supporting the view that routine consumption is controlled by conceptions of normality and profoundly shaped by cultural and economic forces. Shove maintains that habits are not just changing, but are changing in ways that imply escalating and standardizing patterns of consumption. This shrewd and engrossing analysis shows just how far the social meanings and practices of comfort, cleanliness and convenience have eluded us.

Comfort, cleanliness and conveniencethe social organization ofnormality

Doing Visual EthnographyDoing EthnographyDoing Visual ResearchPrinciples of Visual AnthropologyThe Wiley Handbook of Ethnography of EducationAdvances in Visual MethodologyVisual Methods in Social ResearchDoing Visual EthnographyInnovative Methods in Media and Communication ResearchUrban Youth and PhotovoiceReflecting Visual EthnographyRethinking Visual AnthropologyAn Anthropology of the SubjectVisual InterventionsExperimental EthnographyVisualizing AnthropologyDoing Visual EthnographyThe Future of Visual AnthropologyVisual Research Methods in the Social SciencesDoing Visual EthnographyThe SAGE Encyclopedia of Qualitative Research MethodsQualitative Inquiry Under FireWorking ImagesDrawn to SeeVisual ResearchDigital EthnographyInterpreting Visual EthnographyVisual Methods in the FieldDoing Public EthnographyDoing Anthropology in Consumer ResearchBeing EthnographicVideo EthnographyChallenges and Solutions in Ethnographic ResearchMuseumsThe Routledge International Handbook of Ethnographic Film and VideoDoing Visual EthnographyMediating MobilityDoing Sensory EthnographyMade to Be SeenVisual Anthropology

Doing Visual Ethnography

The dynamics behind ever-increasing consumption have long been a core issue of ecological economics. Studies on this topic have traditionally drawn not only on insights from economics, but also from such disciplines as sociology, anthropology and psychology. In recent years, a practice theory approach has emerged in sociological consumption studies, as part of a general wave of renewed interest in practice theory emanating from a desire to move beyond such dominant dualisms as the structure-actor opposition in sociology. The purpose of this paper is to introduce the practice theory approach in relation to studies of everyday life, domestic practices and consumption, and to argue that this approach can be fruitful for ecological economics and other fields interested in the environmental aspects of consumption. The paper emphasizes the immense challenge involved in promoting sustainable consumption, and the need for collective efforts supported by research into the co-evolution of domestic practices, systems of provision, supply chains and production.

Theories of practice - new inspiration for ecological economic studies on consumption

Pamela Shurmer-Smith, ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2002. vi and 248 pp., photos., textboxes, and index. $87.00 cloth (ISBN 0-7619-6564-5), $24.00 paper (ISBN 0-7619-6565-3).

Doing Cultural Geography

Rainwater tank households: Water savers or water users?

The thesis aim is to explore everyday water practices of people who migrated from Iran to Australia through a project design that employed a mixed-qualitative method. The theoretical approach of the thesis brings into conversation the work of Elizabeth Shove and Sarah Pink. In doing so, the everyday water practices are conceived as relational, comprised through the intersection of competencies, ideas, materials and situated knowledge. The question guiding this thesis is: Following migration to Australia, how do the everyday water practices of migrants from the Islamic Republic of Iran persist, change or stop. Insights are offered from 15 Iranian-Australian people, who consented to participate in a project comprised of semi-structure interviews and home insights. The results are present across three chapters that investigate waterrelated practices of bathrooms, kitchens and laundries. Attention is drawn to the how socio-cultural practices of low cost piped tap-water supply that were integral to nation building in Iran since the 1950s alongside Islamic inflected ideas of cleanliness continue to shape practices in Australia of washing-up dishes, showering, toileting and washing clothes. The thesis underscores the importance of migrant diversity in socio-cultural research on household sustainability in Australia and other multi-cultural societies.

Fatemeh Nowroozipour

Papers

Domestic water cultures of Iranian migrant households living in the Sydney metropolitan region