Thinking about changing mobility practices: how a social practice approach can help

A social practice approach, rooted in Bourdieu's theory, reveals that the malleability of mobility practices is more influenced by tacit knowledge and congruence between social fields and habitus than by reasoned accounts or environmental changes. The study identifies three modes of transformation—unthinkable, thwarted, and resisted—rooted in the interplay of field, habitus, and doxa, using case studies on cycling in London and fell running in the English Lake District. It argues that efforts to change mobility practices should focus on identifying malleable social fields rather than behavior or environment, shifting public health sociology's emphasis from individual health behaviors to broader social practices.

Nettleton, S., & Green, J. (2014). Thinking about changing mobility practices: how a social practice approach can help. Sociology of Health & Illness, 36(2), 239–251. Portico. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9566.12101