The purpose of the course is to provide an overview of Social Practice Theory (SPT). It focuses on design, planning and policy for sustainable development. For the PhD students the course provides an opportunity to connect the SPT framework to their own reserach. The course is structured around five main themes:
- The origins, front figures and basics of Social Practice Theory.
- The application of SPT to sustainability issues e.g. within areas related to energy use, housing, transportation, consumption, food and media.
- How SPT is applied from the different disciplinary perspectives of social science (e.g. environmental sociology), engineering science (design and human-computer-interaction), respectively policy and (urban and regional) planning.
- The characteristics and usefulness of SPT in relation to a handful of other (alternative) approaches, e.g. actor-network-theory, theory of habit and "communities of practice".
- Unresolved conflicts within SPT in terms of e.g. theory versus applicability and the individual versus the social.