‘Sharing’ and being able to ‘share’ is often considered a positive virtue that we should be able to achieve. More recently, ‘sharing’ has received prominence as a possible route towards sustainable consumption rather than sovereign ownership by reducing manufacturing and encouraging collaborative, shared consumption of goods (Harris and Gorenflo 2012). But how do we ‘share’, what does ‘sharing’ involve, and how do we acquire the skills and knowledge that allow people to ‘share’ successfully? This thesis examines the ‘practice’ of ‘sharing’ in shared accommodation in South Manchester. Aiming to address current gaps in our understanding of how ‘sharing’ works as a practice of consumption, this thesis uses the context of peer-shared accommodation to consider the negotiation, coordination and practice of ‘sharing’ non-sovereign goods (goods that are not owned or controlled by any one individual within the peer-group). Based on 31 qualitative interviews across 18 households in South Manchester, coupled with an analysis of 360 house share advertisements, this research explores the process by which residents are recruited into houses and their practices, how sharing is ‘done’ across different ‘types’ of tangible and intangible assets, and how issues of conflict within the practice of ‘sharing’ are resolved (or not). Using ‘theories of practice’ (Schatzki et al. 2001; Shove et al. 2009; Warde 2005) and the ‘housing pathways’ approach (Clapham 2002; Clapham 2004; Clapham 2005; Clapham 2009) as analytical frameworks to view the practice of ‘sharing’, it foregrounds the importance of interpersonal relationships on the enactment of practice. This thesis explores how ‘sharing’ within shared accommodation is not an easy or straightforward ‘practice’, but one that involves skills often acquired earlier in a resident’s housing career that allows tacit negotiation and coordination of ‘practice’ within an often flat-hierarchy that gives rise to some conflicting and irrational forms of consumption. ‘Sharing’ is contingent not just on ‘what’ is ‘shared’, but also with whom, and at what time. The importance of interpersonal relations – or relationality – on the enactment of practice is a key contribution of this thesis, and suggests that further research into ‘sharing’ and practices more generally should consider the impact of interpersonal relations and the practitioner’s ‘pathway’ in analyses of social practice. This thesis presents a ‘contingency model of sharing’ within which further research can be deployed to appraise ‘sharing’ as a diverse set of practices that are practically and relationally contingent, and argues for further research to explore sharing across differing contexts with relational forms in order to better inform a conceptual understanding of ‘sharing’ more broadly.

The everyday dinner usually involves a number of different and sometimes conflicting ambitions that may include striving for self-fulfillment and striving to care for one’s family and society at large. To understand the consumption that occurs in connection with these ambitions, consumer researchers must understand the context surrounding the everyday dinner. In this dissertation theories of practice are utilized as a conceptual framework to emphasize the importance of context. Theories of practice have gained renewed interest within the field of consumption. Yet, Consumer Culture Theory (CCT) has neglected practice theories’ ability to operationalize the consumption context. The aim of this dissertation is to develop further CCT’s practice perspective to increase the understanding of the consumption context and thereby better understand consumption as a social and cultural phenomenon. An ethnographic approach is employed to identify what practices operate within a complex consumption situation such as the everyday dinner among single mothers; how these practices incorporate consumption in their strivings and how the different practices operating within the consumption situation interact with one another. This new approach comes to the conclusion that mothering, defined as a meta-practice, dominated the consumption situation and organized the other practices involved. A meta-practice is one with major influence over consumption and thus a type of practice consumption researchers should look for. Furthermore in Western society consumption situations, like the everyday dinner, seem to be especially important when it comes to anchoring meta-practices and thereby the social order. A preliminary characterization of the meta-practice is proposed as consisting of four different traits: I) its impact on the social order; II) its generalizability, density and superiority; III) its regulation and IV) its stability or slow change. However, more studies are necessary to explore these characteristics further.

Under the hopeful atmosphere of Turkey's accession to full membership to European Union, Turkey became oriented towards realizing extensive legal and constitutional amendments, as well as juridical reforms in restructuring the contemporary body of law and judicial institutions based on the promise of strengthening access to justice mechanisms and improving human rights laws and practices in Turkey that was shaped by the discourses of democratic governance, rule of law, and economic progress. At the beginning of the second decade of 2000, the affective atmosphere in Turkey abruptly changed by a series of national and international crises, leading into an impasse in the ordinary life in Turkey. This dissertation aims to examine the promise of legal change as the history of the present of law and legal practice in Turkey. Focusing on everyday personal and professional practices of avukats (attorneys) in addressing the legal issues of gender and sexuality, I explore how the narratives of legal change historically inform the aesthetic formation of the contemporary body of law, as well as the differences between ordinary and professional bodies. Building on theories of affect and queer theories, I argue that the law constitutes both a historical site of socio-cultural belonging and an everyday social space within and through which professional bodies become oriented towards generating the possibilities of socio-legal change, depending how their personal and professional experiences and encounters shape their everyday legal practices and how they reside within judicial and professional positionalities in practicing the law. / Doctor of Philosophy / Starting from early 2000s, the contemporary body of law and judicial institutions underwent drastic changes, which accelerated by Turkey's accession to full membership to European Union. Under the discourses of democratic governance, rule of law, and economic progress, Turkey realized extensive legal and constitutional amendments, as well as juridical reforms with an emphasis on strengthening access to justice mechanisms and improving human rights laws and practices in Turkey. A series of national and international crises, which broke out at the begging of the second decade of 2000s, led Turkey to enter into a political and economic deadlock. In this dissertation, I examine the historical meanings attributed to the body and practice of law in discussing how the legal professional bodies are affected from the recent crises. Focusing on everyday personal and professional practices of avukats (attorneys) in addressing the legal issues of gender and sexuality, I explore how the historical narratives concerning legal change shaped the conventions of the form and content of the law, as well as the differences between the personal and professional identities. I argue that law constitutes a historical site in which socio-cultural norms and hierarchies are negotiated and a social space within and through which professional bodies negotiate the possibilities of social change, depending on how they shape their everyday personal and professional practices and how they position themselves within judicial and professional relations.

The core concern of my thesis is with shifting the focus from the description on how innovation is done (predominantly STS accounts of innovation in-the-making) to what designers do with conceptions of innovation. The thesis is based on ethnographic fieldwork within a group of interaction designers of Milan. Despite the different conceptions and traditions of innovation that these designers bring in – the artistic and technological ones – I observed that a design-centered conception of innovation is reproduced, as well as the idea that plans and intentions precede things. However, another key idea of my fieldwork is the importance designers give to imagining things as they might be, rather than focusing on how things are. This is where different models of action, planned and open ones coexist in creative ways: it is these processes that the ethnography details.