Sustainable Consumption Institute

In October 2014, the ‘Practices, the Built Environment and Sustainability’ (PBES) network produced a Thinking Note Collection, with the intention of fostering collaboration between network members, consolidating some initial thinking and ideas, as well as to provide an output to drive new discussions with other interested colleagues. The Collection was produced in relation to two summer workshops, which were hosted by Anglia Ruskin University’s Global Sustainability Institute (GSI) and Aalborg University’s Center for Design, Innovation & Sustainable Transitions (DIST), and were in association with the British Sociological Association’s Climate Change Study Group (BSA CCSG).

Specifically, the Thinking Note Collection included nine 3-page Thinking Notes, in which PBES members succinctly tackled potential sticking points, novel synergies, and/or areas for future development in the PBES field and beyond. Topics ranged from time, narrative, and codes and standards, to know-how, feedback, and communities of practice.

In building upon this, we asked experts in the field to respond to our Thinking Notes in a similar format. We gave them the challenging task of formulating a short (around 2-page) Response that brought to the fore issues that they felt the Thinking Note Collection most saliently highlighted (or not), be it explicitly or implicitly. They were thus able to respond to specific Notes and/or to address cross-cutting themes that they regarded as particularly important.

We therefore hope that these 11 Responses meaningfully accompany the original Thinking Notes, and thereby provide an accessible resource for both those already interested in and those wanting to know more about the PBES field. In particular, we hope that these Responses spark discussion and debate both within and beyond the network, in addition to helping foster further connections, points of contact and future collaborations between interested researchers.

These Responses cover a wide range of topical points of debate, some of which have endured throughout the development of theories of practice, with others only starting to emerge more recently. All of the Responses focus in some way on how practices have been, currently are, and/or could be organised and performed, with each Respondent considering a very particular set of influences (as prompted by the original Notes themselves). Consequently, the Responses have been ordered into four thematic parts: (1) Theories, frames and lenses; (2) Materials of practice; (3) Knowledges, communities and learning; and (4) Change and new directions.

For full report click here