Institutional rhythms:combining practice theory and rhythmanalysis to conceptualise processes of institutionalisation

The practice turn in social theory has renewed interest in conceptualising the temporal organisation of social life as a way of explaining contemporary patterns of living and consuming. As a result, the interest to develop analyses of time in both practice theories and practice theory-based empirical research is increasing. Practice theorists draw on theories of time and ideas about temporal rhythms to explain how practices are organised in everyday life. To date, they have studied how temporal experiences matter for the coordination of daily life, how temporal landscapes matter for issues of societal synchronisation, and how timespace/s matter for the organisation of human activity. While several studies refer to, draw on, and position themselves in relation to ideas about temporal rhythms, those working with theories of practice have yet to fully utilise the potential of Lefebvre’s rhythmanalysis for explaining the constitution of, and more specifically, changes within, social life. I argue that rhythmanalysis can be effectively combined with practice theory to better articulate the ways in which practices become connected through what I describe as processes of institutionalisation. I argue that this combination requires repositioning the role of time in theories of practice as neither experience, nor as landscape, but, building on Schatzki’s work on The Timespace of Human Activity, as practice itself. Drawing on Lefebvre’s concepts of arrhythmia and eurhythmia, and developing Parkes and Thrift’s notion of entrainment, I illustrate how institutional rhythms, as self-organising, open, spatiotemporal practices emerge, endure, and evolve in ways that matter for both socio-temporal landscapes and temporal experiences

Institutional rhythms:combining practice theory and rhythmanalysis to conceptualise processes of institutionalisation

The practice turn in social theory has renewed interest in conceptualising the temporal organisation of social life as a way of explaining contemporary patterns of living and consuming. As a result, the interest to develop analyses of time in both practice theories and practice theory-based empirical research is increasing. Practice theorists draw on theories of time and ideas about temporal rhythms to explain how practices are organised in everyday life. To date, they have studied how temporal experiences matter for the coordination of daily life, how temporal landscapes matter for issues of societal synchronisation, and how timespace/s matter for the organisation of human activity. While several studies refer to, draw on, and position themselves in relation to ideas about temporal rhythms, those working with theories of practice have yet to fully utilise the potential of Lefebvre’s rhythmanalysis for explaining the constitution of, and more specifically, changes within, social life. I argue that rhythmanalysis can be effectively combined with practice theory to better articulate the ways in which practices become connected through what I describe as processes of institutionalisation. I argue that this combination requires repositioning the role of time in theories of practice as neither experience, nor as landscape, but, building on Schatzki’s work on The Timespace of Human Activity, as practice itself. Drawing on Lefebvre’s concepts of arrhythmia and eurhythmia, and developing Parkes and Thrift’s notion of entrainment, I illustrate how institutional rhythms, as self-organising, open, spatiotemporal practices emerge, endure, and evolve in ways that matter for both socio-temporal landscapes and temporal experiences

The Future of Sustainable Healthcare:It's All in the Timing

The environmental and financial sustainability of the National Health Service (NHS) in the UK is under threat. The Five Year Forward View set out two years ago to manage increasing activity is set to fail. Meanwhile, the NHS emitted 25 million tonnes of CO2 this year, making it the largest public sector contributor to climate change in Europe. And at the same time, clinicians are being pushed to provide seven-day services on five days’ worth of resources. Financially, environmentally and clinically, the future for the NHS appears unsustainable. New ways of managing demand for healthcare services are desperately needed

Scheduling Routine: An Analysis of the Spatio-temporal Rhythms of Practice in Everyday Life.

This thesis is concerned with the relationship between social action and social change in 'everyday' life. I position my argument in contrast to lay and academic re-presentations of action that maintain a distinction between subject and object, between action and change and between being and becoming. I argue for a 'practice-approach' that considers action, or practice, not as performance or entity; but instead attempts to capture the presencing of social action by concentrating on 'practice as event' and 'practice in the moment of doing'. This serves to locate 'knowledges' and 'subjectivities' firmly within the realm of the material and bodily actions of doing, and thus in the continually changing 'world' of practice. I therefore develop an understanding of change as a fundamental and ongoing property of temporally and spatially situated practice. To support these theoretical claims I employ a rhythmanalytical methodological approach, studying my own experiences of rhythms of practice at five empirical sites, including resistance training, ashtanga yoga, stock car racing, computer gaming and mixed martial arts. Analysis of my own engagement in these rhythms (including immersive participant observations and in depth interviews with fellow participants), from a theoretical-methodological position that recognises practice as change, leads me to argue that the re-production of 'moments' of practice, depends on the scheduling of practice as routine or nonroutine. So understood, I argue that the scheduling of 'moments' of practice as routine requires 'training' to develop sufficient 'embodied-knowledge-in-practice', 'syncopation' within the polyrhythmia of 'everyday' life and the absence of 'arrhythmia' or nonroutine 'moments' of practice, in shaping the rhythms of practice in 'everyday' life. My research contributes to a distinct ontology of practice that re-evaluates the notion of 'change' in a manner that is relevant not only in 'theories of practice'; but also for wider studies of social action

Reducing Demand for Energy in Hospitals:Opportunities for and Limits to Temporal Coordination

This chapter describes some of the ways that demand for energy is made in hospitals. It develops an account of energy demand as the outcome of the organisation of connected working practices that constitute the regular provision of healthcare. Drawing on interview data taken from an ethnographic study of institutional rhythms and the organisation of working practices in hospitals, it describes how changes in the material arrangements, professional boundaries, and temporalities that underpin hospital life affect the fixity and flexibility of connections between practices in ways that matter for the potential for large institutions to achieve demand side response and to foster the design of new and less resource-intensive ways of working

Maintaining physical exercise as a matter of synchronising practices:experiences and observations from training in Mixed Martial Arts

This paper is concerned with the establishment, maintenance, and decline of physical exercise practices. Drawing on experiences and observations taken from a carnal ethnography and rhythmanalysis of the practices involved in training in Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), I argue that maintaining this physical exercise practice is not straightforwardly an outcome of individual commitment, access to facilities, or the availability of free time. It rather depends on the synchronisation of practices: those of MMA, those that support MMA, and those that more broadly make up everyday life. This research suggests that increasing rates of physical activity might be better fostered through facilitating the integration of combinations of healthy activities into everyday life

Qualities of connective tissue in hospital life:how complexes of practices change over time

This chapter calls for a practice theory which begins with complexes of practice and not ‘a practice’, and that focuses on the relationships between connections (interconnections). Through examples of hospital life, the chapter develops the concept of connective tissue which both holds complexes of practice together and that is itself an essential feature of practices. The chapter argues that connective tissue has multiple qualities. Studying the interconnections between these qualities is the key to understanding change in hospital life, and other complexes of practice, over time