=Paper=
{{Paper
|id=Vol-1203/SPPSG-paper2
|storemode=property
|title=The Role of Experiential Learning and Social Interaction for Changing Practices?
|pdfUrl=https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-1203/SPPSG-paper2.pdf
|volume=Vol-1203
|dblpUrl=https://dblp.org/rec/conf/ict4s/Christensen14
}}
==The Role of Experiential Learning and Social Interaction for Changing Practices?==
https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-1203/SPPSG-paper2.pdf
The Role of Experiential Learning and Social
Interaction for Changing Practices?
Toke Haunstrup Christensen
Danish Building Research Institute
Aalborg University
Copenhagen, Denmark
thc@sbi.aau.dk
Abstract — The paper presents initial theoretical suggestions of learning as an experimental and social activity. I hope that
on how practice theory might be combined with understandings these tentative ideas can inspire to further thinking about how
of learning as an experiential and social activity. The aim is to to make practice theory more “applicable” for designing
inspire to further thinking about how to make practice theory changes towards a low-carbon energy system. I will use energy
more “applicable” for designing changes towards a low-carbon
energy system.
feedback as a general example for the discussion.
Index Terms— Practice theory, smart grid, feedback, II. BRINGING DAILY PRACTICES INTO REFLECTION
households, learning, social interaction.
We perform most of our daily practices as unconscious
I. INTRODUCTION routines. If the aim is to promote less energy-intensive
everyday practices, it therefore takes efforts to make people
Many researchers – particularly within the field of practice reflect on their daily practices.
theory studies – have criticized the dominant approach towards Drawing on practice theory, R. Wilk [4] has developed an
the involvement of citizens in the smart grid for being naïve. analytical model (Fig. 1) showing how unconscious habits and
For instance, Y. Strengers writes that it is based on a routines can be made “visible” and subject to reflection and
misleading understanding of the individual (energy) consumer discussion through the process of cultivation. There are many
as a resource man who is “an efficient and well-informed ways to foster cultivation. Other people can make us aware of
micro-resource manager who exercises control and choice over habits that we do not think about ourselves; we can experience
his consumption and energy options” (p. 34-35 in [1]). conflicts between different routines that make it necessary to
Social practice theory offers an alternative to the make a conscious choice or adjustment; or – with reference to
individualistic and rational-choice based understanding within energy feedback – information can be delivered to
the smart grid community. Instead of the individual agent, householders with the aim of bringing daily, energy-consuming
practice theory places social practices as the central unit of practices into question.
analysis (see, e.g., [2] [3]). Practices are collective entities of
“doings and sayings” constituted by heterogeneous and
mutually dependent elements, while energy consumption is
seen as the outcome of people performing daily practices that
are meaningful to them (e.g. preparing meals or making their
home comfortable). Therefore, changes in practices (and
energy consumption) are only achieved if some or all of these
elements are changed.
However, saving energy through a comprehensive approach
that simultaneously addresses all the elements constituting
energy-consuming practices appears as an insurmountable task.
Therefore, there is a need for developing a more pragmatic,
mid-level approach, which is – on the one hand – grounded in
Fig. 1 Processes of cultivation and naturalization (based on [5])
the practice-theoretical insights about the collective nature of
social practices, but at the same time indicates ways to design The opposite of cultivation is naturalization, which
interventions that also involve (individual) citizens actively in describes “the processes which push conscious practices back
changing everyday practices in a less energy-intensive into habitus, or keep them from surfacing into consciousness in
direction. the first place” (p. 150 in [4]).
In this paper, I outline some first theoretical suggestions on
how practice theory could be combined with an understanding
In many cases, practices never surface from the realm of a help [8]. It emphasizes that learning cannot be compared with
unconscious routines (habitus) because they are so widespread simple adoption of new (formal) knowledge as provided in, for
and closely associated with the social and cultural instance, many energy saving campaigns. Instead, learning is a
understanding of “normal behavior” that it takes great effort to prolonged process that involves also practical experiments and
make people aware that these practices are contingent and can reflections about the outcome of these. Figure 2 shows the
be subject to changes. Examples could be daily showers or model with examples relevant to energy saving in households.
indoor temperatures. Wilk calls this submersive naturalization,
as this kind of routines “remains thoroughly submersed in the
habitus.”
Another type of naturalization is repressive naturalization,
which describes how people often force a practice back into
habitus if alternatives have challenged this practice or if it is a
new practice that people intend to turn into a normal routine.
Examples could be when people try to change their diet or
change practices in order to save energy.
Without cultivation, it will not be possible to make
householders think about their own practices and how to save
energy. Typically, feedback projects aim at promoting
cultivation through information and visualization of energy
consumption, e.g. via smart phone apps. In most cases with
limited success [5], because – among other things – it takes
competences to interpret energy data and linking these to one’s
daily practices. Fig. 2 Kolb’s experiential learning cycle – with examples related to energy
feedback
III. PROMOTING PRACTICE CHANGES THROUGH EXPERIENTIAL
LEARNING AND SOCIAL INTERACTION? Ideally, feedback designs should promote the householders’
When certain practices are brought into consciousness, the active experimentation with (changing) their daily practices
next step in promoting energy savings is to ensure that these and facilitate their abilities to monitor the outcomes of these
will remain at the reflective level long enough to realize real experiments (e.g. realized electricity savings) as well as the
changes in the performance of the practices. Here, social reflexive observation and abstract conceptualization. Here,
(community) interaction could play an important role; feedback that involves “bench-marking” and sharing
exchanging experiences and ideas with others face-to-face or experiences with others (peers) could be important.
via social media might help people to maintain their attention The importance of social interaction for learning is
to these practices and sharing ideas on how to change them in emphasized in studies of communities of practices [9]. As
order to save energy. Also, possibilities of experimenting with Sahakian & Wilhite [10] write, the key is to “view learning not
changing practices are important – e.g. supported by real-time as an individual experience but as participatory and social” (p.
feedback on energy consumption (also called direct feedback). 31). Therefore, creating forums for social interaction between
Previous studies (e.g. [6]) show the importance of householders participants in feedback demonstrations in order to support the
being able to see what impact their changes of daily habits have participatory and collective learning processes could be
on the energy consumption as this supports their personal important. These should support the participants’
learning process. considerations about, experimenting with and adoption of less
Community interaction and experimentation support both energy-intensive everyday practices.
individual and social learning. Thus, we should regard energy
IV. CONCLUSION
saving as a continual (or at least prolonged) learning process
and not as a single incident aimed at making people adopt a Figure 3 summarizes the theoretical perspective suggested
new technology or specific behavior. If energy savings are in this paper. This is surely a tentative approach, which needs
going to be significant and lasting, it is important to base further elaboration. In particular, it seems important to develop
practice changes on learning processes that ensure that new the understanding of the role of social interaction (e.g. in
practices become (embodied) daily routines at the non- communities) for the cultivation process and the experiential
reflective level (i.e. naturalized). Otherwise, there will be a learning cycle further.
high risk of the “fallback effect”, i.e. when energy savings However, I hope that these initial thoughts can inspire to
wears off again after some time ([6], [7]). further thinking about how to develop also more pragmatic or
For inspiration on how to create energy feedback designs “applicable” versions of practice theory, which could be useful
that support this kind of thorough and prolonged learning for the design of smart grid solutions that “work in practice”.
processes, D. Kolb’s experiential learning cycle model could be
Fig. 3 Wilk’s and Kolb’s models combined
REFERENCES [10] M. Sahakian and H. Wilhite, “Making practice theory
practicable: Towards more sustainable forms of consumption,”
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[2] A. Reckwitz, “Toward a Theory of Social Practices: A
Development in Culturalist Theorizing,” European Journal of Copyright © Toke H. Christensen. Copying permitted only for private
Social Theory, vol. 5, pp. 243-263, 2002. and academic purposes. This volume is published and copyrighted by
its editors.
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