Designing for sustainable food practices in the home

Abstract

Activities around food have implications for the environment, personal nutrition, identity, and social relationships. As a way of understanding how daily routines evolve, practice theory (a theory of social action from sociology) provides a framework through which the complexities around consumer food habits can be understood and reveal avenues for design interventions. The theory considers practices themselves as the basic unit of enquiry, where “practices” are routine activities made up of materials, conventions and skills and the relationships between them. This paper explores households’ food-related practices using a practice theory approach, as well as methods by which the theory can be applied in the design process. On the one hand its explicit inclusion of the material world in shaping practice has clear relevance for design. However, the complex ways in which materiality interacts with abstract notions such as convention and skill raise challenges regarding its application. Design directions are proposed that encourage more sustainable-meat eating practices in terms of alternative systems of materials, conventions, and skills. Insights gained and directions chosen included, for example, the role of special occasions in introducing more varied and less frequent patterns of meat consumption. The study also suggests ways in which designers can employ practice theory, and the role and limitations of design in influencing consumer activities