Article Review #2: Methodological challenges in using practice theory in consumption research

Article 2: Methodological challenges in using practice theory in consumption research by Bente Halkier and Iben Jensen

In this article, the authors discussed the usefulness of using moderate social constructivist practice theory to address the challenges of analytical translations between practice theory and empirical research methods in consumption research. They based their arguments on Warde (2005) and Reckwitz (2002) where practice is seen as a routinized behavior which consists of three elements – understandings, procedures and engagements, and consumption activities are seen as the result of performing practices. In their arguments, they presented two analytical affordances for empirical research in consumption using their interpretation of practice theory: a) the flows of happenings and processes of carrying out activities that are both productive and conditioned thus the consumer’s daily manoeuvring between plurality of practices can be studied (situational based practices); b) understand the relational accomplishments and interpretation of the consumer’s continuous construction of social definition (e.g. healthy food, low-fat diet) which will indirectly influence the practices of consumptions over time. At this point, I am not certain how to apply the method in this article to my own research. However, it did open up new perspective for me to ponder, if the elements of routinized behaviors should be considered when I am designing my research to study the consumer behaviors of my subjects (i.e. routine games playing, repetitive images of product brands, and gamers’ behaviors in consumption). Another aspect for reflection is regarding statistical generalization vs. analytical generalization. I will apply mixed methods (qualitative follow by quantitative), this cautioned me with my ‘generalization’ approach, and how should I triangularize the data to be collected from both approaches