Sustainable Consumption Institute

Luke Yates is Hallsworth Research Fellow in Sociology and is based in the Sustainable Consumption Institute. His research explores practices of eating, domestic life and consumption, and the relationship between political participation and everyday life.

Most recently, working with Alan Warde and Dale Southerton, new quantitative survey data was collected and used to examine the eating patterns of the British population. Work investigates the content of meals, comparing with the 1950s; the phenomenon of ‘snacking’; food waste; and the phenomenon of eating alone, connecting with a project in its early stages that considers the significance of household structure in a context of environmental change. A separate project with David Evans studied the sustainability of domestic laundry habits.

His doctoral thesis (2008-2012) was an ethnographic exploration of political action and daily practices in politically radical socio-cultural groupings in Catalonia. The project explored how particular aspects of social practices and networks mediate the communication of political ideas, situate forms of experimentation and establish new orthodoxies. This relates to the diffuse notion of prefigurative politics, opening up interesting problems around experimentation, new practices and institutions, and visions of the future. Ideas from this work feed in turn into a collaboration with Daniel Welch which directly investigates collective action and theories of practice.

Publications

Yates, L. (forthcoming 2015) ‘Everyday Politics, Social Practices and Movement Networks: Daily Life in Barcelona’s Social Centres’, British Journal of Sociology

Southerton, D., Yates, L. (2015) ‘Exploring Food Waste Through the Lens of Social Practice Theories: Some Reflections on Eating as a Compound Practice’ in Karin M. Ekstrom (Ed) Waste Management and Sustainable Consumption: Reflections on Post-Consumer Waste. London: Routledge

Yates, L. (2014) ‘Rethinking Prefiguration: Alternatives, Micropolitics and Goals in Social Movements’, Social Movement Studies. DOI:10.1080/14742837.2013.870883

Yates, L. (2011) ‘Critical Consumption: Boycotting and Buycotting in Europe’, European Societies 13:2, p191-217 DOI: 10.1080/14616696.2010.514352

Yates, L. (2011) ‘Comparative Consumer Societies’, In Southerton, D (ed.) Encyclopaedia of Consumer Culture, CQ Press, A Division of Sage Publications, Washington DC

Yates, L. (2011) ‘Life-Course’, In Southerton, D (ed.) Encyclopaedia of Consumer Culture, CQ Press, A Division of Sage Publications, Washington DC

Yates, L. (2010) ‘Consumer Participation’, CRESC Working Papers Series, No.82