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Scholars have called for increased attention to the practices through which residents of southern cities create and use infrastructure. The failures and disruptions of many particular artefacts have meant that people often develop multiple ways to access water, electricity, or transportation, even if all of them have limitations. For sanitation, thinking through heterogeneous infrastructure configurations can help us to see connections between toilets, and the reasons for maintaining access to different types of toilets, given their different risks and benefits. In this paper, we focus on plots in Lilongwe with both indoor flush-toilets and backyard latrines, and the lived experiences of people as they navigate choices about the use of these toilets. The presence of on and off-grid toilets is rooted in colonial urban form, yet is perpetuated – and proliferates in new places – as residents face a number of constraints, including most recently recurrent water shortages due to droughts. We consider both how this configuration challenges official imaginaries of urban sanitation, and how it helps residents to address different risks and sanitation needs. Drawing on the experience of Lilongwe, we reflect on what can be learnt from this heterogeneous infrastructural configuration in terms of planning for more resilient water and sanitation services in Global South cities and beyond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Access to safe, clean and affordable water is a basic human right and a global goal towards which climate change poses new challenges that heavily impact the health and wellbeing of people across the globe and exacerbate or create new inequalities. These challenges are shaped by a number of geographical and social conditions that, apart from the risks of weather-driven impacts on water, include water governance and management arrangements in place, including pricing tariffs, and the interplay of social and economic inequalities. Building on examples from Australia, Scotland and England and Wales that illustrate access to water in different types of water provision systems, and regarding to aspects of access, quality and affordability, this paper explores the types of challenges related to water poverty in the context of climate crisis and reflects on the multiple dimensions of water poverty oriented social policy at the interplay of climate change associated risks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Building on the intersection of lifestyle mobilities, changing environments and climates and practice theories, this paper explores how lifestyle mobilities are mobilised in response to the pervasive environmental and climatic stress in China. Grounded in an ethnographic study conducted in a lifestyle destination with lifestyle travellers moored across multiple domestic nature-based destinations, this paper finds that the motivations towards lifestyle mobility are rooted in how people relate their health and desired ways of life with the natural environment through tourism practices, everyday practices at original homes and destinations, and mobility practices. Consistent movements of human bodies, objects and skills enable lifestyle travellers to perceive and understand environmental pollution and adapt to different climates. Rather than focussing on identity construction or the sense of belonging, we provide a different way to conceptualise lifestyle mobilities by appreciating the sensitivity, reflexivity and adaptability that an emerging Chinese mobile population develops when living with environmental crises, climate change and changing climates across various indoor and outdoor spaces. This paper reflects on the potential of intersecting practice theories with mobilities paradigm and pollution perception studies and suggests policy intervention on lifestyle mobilities in a rapidly industrialising and highly mobile era. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Keywords: Social practices; menstrual waste; urban infrastructures; water and sanitation; menstrual hygiene management; Lilongwe; prácticas sociales; desecho menstrual; infraestructuras urbanas; agua y saneamiento; manejo de la higiene menstrual; pratiques sociales; déchets menstruels; infrastructure urbaine; eau et assainissement; gestion de l'hygiène intime EN Social practices menstrual waste urban infrastructures water and sanitation menstrual hygiene management Lilongwe ES prácticas sociales desecho menstrual infraestructuras urbanas agua y saneamiento manejo de la higiene menstrual FR pratiques sociales déchets menstruels infrastructure urbaine eau et assainissement gestion de l'hygiène intime 1057 1077 21 10/12/22 20221001 NES 221001 Introduction Women[1] in global South countries are experiencing a rapid shift in access to menstrual absorbents; often referred to as the Menstrual or Sanitary Pad Revolution (Bloom, [6]; Venema, [70]). Practice theory in a post-developmental context Social practice theories encompass a diversity of approaches that have in common the use of practices as a category of analysis or as a point of departure for empirical work (Miettinen et al., [42]; Stern, [63]). Practices of disposal in sanitation systems now render infrastructures supposedly dysfunctional (e.g., blocked, incompatible with emptying), despite latrine disposal previously being supported by some sanitation and MHM actors. Discussion: learning from women's local practices, planning for menstrual waste In this article we have provided a practice-based account of menstrual waste management practices of women living in LIAs and planned areas in Lilongwe. [Extracted from the article]

Ensuring adequate access to clean water remains a major challenge throughout the world, particularly in off-grid and low-income neighbourhoods in the Global South. Digital water infrastructure such as water ATMs (automated standpipes) has been a common policy response to this challenge, targeted particularly at off-grid citizens in urban and peri-urban areas. Despite growing implementation and interest, however, limited empirical research analysis has been devoted to a consideration of the ways in which water ATM infrastructures are being implemented and how they impact water access in off-grid locations. Drawing on a mix of qualitative methods and a situated sociotechnical approach, the paper addresses this gap by examining how water ATMs are implemented and deployed, and their impacts on water access in a peri-urban community in Ghana. We find water ATMs as incremental infrastructures delivering relatively limited operational-level value, with their deployment and operationalisation shaped through everyday realities, existing community infrastructures, and networks of actors and intermediaries. We highlight how water ATMs produce new sociomaterial realities of water access which are also contested. We argue that digital water infrastructures are not just technical, but that they are, rather, terrains that underlie and are embedded in social, technical and political dynamics. Given the increasing deployment of water ATMs and digital water systems in urban areas of the Global South, we conclude the paper with recommendations for off-grid digital water infrastructure implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The commodification of hot spring bathing reflects a diversification of alternative modalities for healing and leisure. It also presents challenges for the development of sustainable tourism. However, whether and how tourist activities generate environmental challenges at hot spring destinations has received scant attention from scholars. Situated in the increasing contributions that practice theories make to tourism and sustainability studies, this paper argues that a practice theoretical perspective is essential for understanding the escalating demand for hot spring water and resources at tourist destinations. Employing ethnographic approaches in a hot spring town in China, we identify three patterns of hot spring bathing performances: public foot bathing in the town square, commodified bathing in resort hotels, and private bathing in households or B&B rooms. The (re)configurations of cultural conventions, tourist facilities, socially shared knowledge and skills across spaces produce alternative patterns of water consumption. The co-existence of multiple ways of performing hot spring bathing brings to the fore the complexities of sustainability issues in tourism, going beyond infrastructural efficiency or tourist values. The paper concludes in elaborating on how practice theories and studies of tourist bathing benefit each other, and could inform policy interventions for sustainable tourism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

COVID‐19 has had unprecedented impacts across the international community, with complex and far‐reaching consequences. Measures to prevent transmission have led to substantial changes to everyday life, with lockdowns, stay‐at‐home orders and guidance leading to an increase in people staying indoors. This movement of activity had profound impacts on daily practices, affecting the consumption of resources including water. Likewise, Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) practices and infrastructure are crucial tools for the management of disease. Therefore, this review seeks to assess the current literature on the impact of COVID‐19 on domestic water use. A web‐based rapid evidence review was undertaken to assess and synthesize the theories, methods and empirical evidence emerging across a multidisciplinary body of research to understand how COVID‐19 effects everyday water use. Key themes around increased water consumption and changing daily consumption patterns emerged. There was a distinct lack of social science concepts and methodologies in use to understand changing water demand, and the methodological focus was largely quantitative. Key insights and reflections were lacking as a result, for example, there was little research on how the water‐related practices, consumption, and demand patterns differed among households. This article makes the case for further qualitative and mixed‐method research using social theories, illustrating how social practice theories, as one example, contribute to understanding the dynamics of everyday life during the pandemic. This research would generate deeper understandings of the impacts of COVID‐19 on domestic water use as well as an evaluation of the implications these findings could have post‐pandemic. This article is categorized under:Engineering Water > MethodsEngineering Water > Water, Health, and SanitationEngineering Water > Planning Water [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasing implementation of digital water innovations in cities of the Global South has been accompanied by a growth in research on this topic. This paper presents a first systematic literature review of this domain, analysing a total of 43 papers using a range of thematic categorisations. Overall profiling finds literature to be recent, limited in its engagement with theorisation or methodology, and with some disciplinary, geographic and method gaps. Research has been conservative with regards to the technologies covered, with a provider-centric, rather than a user- or government-centric leaning. Impact findings are skewed towards benefits more than disbenefits, and towards impacts on providers and users rather than towards the broader socio-environmental impacts. The paper ends by laying out a future research agenda that particularly emphasises the value of more contextualised sociotechnical and sociopolitical research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The nexus of water–energy–food (WEF) is as apparent at the household scale as it is anywhere else. We introduce the "Nexus at Home" as a starting point for exploring the dynamics of WEF resource use and household sustainability. Drawing on two research projects we focus specifically on domestic kitchens as a site where practices of cooking, eating, cleaning and disposing of waste come together. While these practices have long been targets for policy intervention, existing approaches draw on a limited range of perspectives from the social sciences. Reflecting on our work with four non‐academic partners (Defra, BEIS, FSA, Waterwise), we consider how social practice and geographies of household sustainability research might be combined with the dictum of "nexus thinking" to re‐imagine the framing of policy and intervention to reduce the resource intensity of everyday life. Synthesising existing "home practices" literature in the context of the "live" policy problems raised by our partners, we seek to provide clear guidance for intervening in kitchen practices. We draw on one topic which has not yet been the subject of social practices research: fats, oils and grease (FOG) going down the kitchen plughole and contributing to widespread sewer blockages. In doing so we document the sequence of interrelated food provisioning activities through which WEF is put to use in domestic kitchens and contributes to FOG blockages in sewers. We reflect upon the multiple ways these practices are shaped by the rhythms of daily life, dynamics within the home, wider cultural conventions, and infrastructures. This paper contributes to the nascent transdisciplinary research agenda of translating home practices research into wider conceptualisations of "intervention," with a specific orientation towards academic and non‐academic stakeholders who are interested in influencing systems of sustainable consumption and production within, and across, the WEF sectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social practice theories have established an important counter narrative to conventional accounts of demand. The core argument of this body of research is that, having focused on informing and incentivising behavioural change, demand management has largely neglected the social and material dimensions of everyday action that shape how and why resources are used. Despite making a compelling case for reframing demand management, there is limited evidence of practice-based approaches having gained a foothold in policy and business practices. This raises important questions regarding how and why certain modes of intervention are pursued at the expense of others and, more broadly, the factors that shape the pace and direction of innovation in demand management. In this paper we turn a practice-lens towards the professional practices of demand management. Using mixed methods, we demonstrate how specific modes of intervention emerge as priorities within a social, political, semiotic and material landscape of professional practice. Our empirical analysis highlights four particular contingencies of demand management that constrain the scope of interventions pursued. These are industry expectations and ideals; modes of collaboration; processes of evidencing action; and hydrosocial disturbances. We discuss the implications of these findings, making suggestions as to how innovation in the practices of demand management might be facilitated, and the role of academic research in this process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]