Sequence of practices in personal and societal rhythms – Showering as a case

Abstract

This paper explores methodologically and theoretically how to understand variations in the temporal performances of showering as a practice-as-entity. Time-based data on domestic hot water consumption in 134 Danish households show distinctly different patterns, where some households exhibit highest consumption in the morning and others in the evening. This temporal pattern of showering is analysed based on an innovative combination of statistical cluster analysis and qualitative interviews. Focus is on the timing of showering related to sequences of other everyday practices, and to the rules, meanings and dispositions guiding this practice. From a sustainability perspective, the consumption of water and energy entailed by showering is problematic, and with increasingly intermittent renewable energy production, the timing of showering also becomes an issue. The study demonstrates that the time of showering is closely related to sequences of different practices, that dispositions and socio-demographics influence the order of sequences, and that meanings of showering may vary accordingly. However, there are also common meanings and rules related to showering across these variations, which contribute to the formation of showering as a practice-as-entity.

Simple methodology to estimate the mean hourly and the daily profiles of domestic hot water demand from hourly total heating readings

“…Furthermore, another study within a single country has shown that different types of households have great variation of daily peaks, i.e. some have a marked morning peak, others have a marked evening peak, and a third group have more leveled distribution during the day [11].…”

Challenges of Researching Showering Routines: From the Individual to the Socio-Material

“…This research is focused upon the UK context, in terms of utility governance, infrastructure, supply pressures and social drivers but the authors recognise that there is a larger literature focusing on such issues outside the UK, including [22][23][24][25][26].…”

Time as a Subject in Sustainable Consumption

“…Some have discussed time-use as the main time related issue [14,19,20,26,28], and some have involved this category in marginal arguments [13,15,17,18,27,30]. The time of use and patterns of activities also have appeared as the main topic [13][14][15]19] as well as the marginal one [20,[26][27][28]. The non-intended result of the time saving or the "time related rebound effect" was mainly discussed by Buhl et al [17], Buhl and Acosta [18], and Jalas [19].…”

“…In the next step, the abstracts of the materials were reviewed, and 36 articles within which "time" was a subject matter were selected. Finally, and after assessing the primary selection of articles, 12 articles [13][14][15][17][18][19][20][26][27][28][29][30], which contained some debates and arguments on the roles and uses of the concept of time, were picked for content analysis.…”

“…Time is assumed to be an influencing factor in energy consumption regarding consumption patterns [13][14][15]. The Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES) [16], in its recently published report focused on lifestyle carbon footprints and emphasized individuals' potential for sustaining personal and global consumption.…”