Confronta i metodi

	Energy Cultures Framework	Social Practice Theory Analysis
Campo	Environmental Sociology	Environmental Sociology
Famiglia	Process / pipeline	Process / pipeline
Anno di origine	2010	2012
Ideatore	Janet Stephenson and colleagues (University of Otago)	Andreas Reckwitz; Elizabeth Shove, Mika Pantzar & Matt Watson
Tipo	Interdisciplinary framework linking norms, practices, and material culture	Qualitative framework analyzing practices as the unit of consumption
Fonte seminale	Stephenson, J., Barton, B., Carrington, G., Gnoth, D., Lawson, R., & Thorsnes, P. (2010). Energy cultures: A framework for understanding energy behaviours. Energy Policy, 38(10), 6120-6129.	Reckwitz, A. (2002). Toward a Theory of Social Practices: A Development in Culturalist Theorizing. European Journal of Social Theory, 5(2), 243-263.
Alias	Energy Cultures Model, Stephenson Energy Cultures Framework, Norms-Material-Practices Energy Framework, Energy Behaviour Cultures Approach	Practice Theory Analysis, Theories of Practice (Consumption), Materials-Competences-Meanings Analysis, Practice-Based Consumption Analysis
Correlati	4	4
Sintesi	The Energy Cultures Framework is an interdisciplinary tool for understanding why people, households, and organizations use energy as they do, and how that behaviour might change. Developed by Janet Stephenson and colleagues at the University of Otago and published in Energy Policy in 2010, it models energy behaviour as the dynamic interaction of three elements: cognitive norms (what actors believe and expect about energy), energy practices (what they actually do), and material culture (the technologies, buildings, and appliances they possess). These three reinforce one another, tending to lock an actor into a stable 'energy culture,' and they are shaped by external influences such as prices, policy, infrastructure, and markets that lie beyond the actor's immediate control. The framework was designed as a pragmatic bridge between psychological models that emphasize attitudes and sociological practice theories that emphasize routines and materials. Its purpose is both to explain entrenched energy behaviour and to identify where interventions can break a self-reinforcing pattern. It is widely used in energy-policy and behaviour-change research.	Social practice theory analysis explains consumption and everyday behavior, including energy and resource use, by making the practice rather than the individual the unit of analysis. Andreas Reckwitz's 2002 synthesis defined a practice as a routinized type of behaving that links bodily and mental activities, things, knowledge, and meaning, drawing together strands from Bourdieu, Giddens, and others into a coherent culturalist alternative to choice-based theories. Elizabeth Shove, Mika Pantzar, and Matt Watson's The Dynamics of Social Practice operationalized this for empirical research, proposing that practices are constituted by three elements, materials, competences, and meanings, that must be actively linked in performance. The analytical move is decisive for sustainability: instead of asking how to change attitudes or nudge choices, the approach asks how resource-intensive practices like showering, driving, or heating come to be normal and how they might be reconfigured. It treats people as carriers of practices rather than as sovereign decision-makers. The result reframes environmental problems as problems of how practices are organized and reproduced.