XLIV ENCONTRO DA ANPAD - EnANPAD 2020

XLIV ENCONTRO
Evento on-line - 14 a DA ANPAD
16 de outubro - EnANPAD
de 2020 - 2177-2576 versão2020
online
Evento on-line - 14 a 16 de outubro de 2020
2177-2576 versão online

Updating Magaudda?s ?Circuit of Practice?: A Brazilian Case of Urban Agriculture

and Changes of Individual Health and Wellbeing Feelings

Autoria
Breno Giordane dos Santos Costa - brenogsc@gmail.com
Prog de Pós-Grad em Admin - PPGA/PUC Minas - Pontifícia Universidade Católica de Minas Gerais

Marcelo de Rezende Pinto - marcrez@hotmail.com

Prog de Pós-Grad em Admin - PPGA/PUC Minas - Pontifícia Universidade Católica de Minas Gerais

Resumo
This paper proposes a contribution to the model suggested by Magaudda (2011) known as
?circuit of practice? by incorporating one element that seems to have passed by the author.
Such element is the nexus, which can serve as an aggregator of social practices. The
observation of this new element was possible thanks to the accomplishment of an empirical
research carried out with food consumers-producers in an urban agriculture context in the
city of Betim, located in Brazil. Through a discourse analysis based on individual interviews
carried out with consumers that produce their own food, it was possible to unravel the circuit
(of transformation) of practice and find some elements that are related to theory, but not
present in the first version of the tool proposed by Magaudda (2011). When articulating
understandings, rules and teleoaffective structure (components of nexus), it is possible to
observe how food consumers-producers benefit from the transformation of previous
practices into practices that promote health and wellbeing feelings having nexus as an
aggregator factor.
 XLIV ENCONTRO DA ANPAD - EnANPAD 2020
Evento on-line - 14 a 16 de outubro de 2020 - 2177-2576 versão online

Updating Magaudda’s ‘Circuit of Practice’: A Brazilian Case of Urban Agriculture and

Changes of Individual Health and Wellbeing Feelings

ABSTRACT
This paper proposes a contribution to the model suggested by Magaudda (2011) known as
“circuit of practice” by incorporating one element that seems to have passed by the author.
Such element is the nexus, which can serve as an aggregator of social practices. The
observation of this new element was possible thanks to the accomplishment of an empirical
research carried out with food consumers-producers in an urban agriculture context in the city
of Betim, located in Brazil. Through a discourse analysis based on individual interviews
carried out with consumers that produce their own food, it was possible to unravel the circuit
(of transformation) of practice and find some elements that are related to theory, but not
present in the first version of the tool proposed by Magaudda (2011). When articulating
understandings, rules and teleoaffective structure (components of nexus), it is possible to
observe how food consumers-producers benefit from the transformation of previous practices
into practices that promote health and wellbeing feelings having nexus as an aggregator
factor.

Keywords: Social practices; Circuit of Practice; Consumption; Urban Agriculture.

Introduction

Amongst the papers that compose the 2011 special issue of the Journal of Consumer
Culture (JCC) entitled Applying practice theory to the study of consumption, it is possible to
notice that Magaudda’s paper (When materiality ‘bites back’: Digital music consumption
practices in the age of dematerialization) brings an empirical approach in order to propose a
tool to be applied in practice theory consumption studies, which the author called “circuit of
practice”. The circuit, in its generic graphical configuration, can be used to apply and
understand specific contexts of social practice transformations. This is precisely what the
author developed when studying changes related to the consumption of digital music in Italy.
However, when carrying out a detailed bibliographic review of practice theory,
specially using the strict approach of Schatzki (2008) in social practices, it is possible to state
that there are important elements that were neglected in the first version of such circuit and
that can be incorporated into this tool. One of these elements is nexus. There was an attempt
to update Magaudda’s work carried out by Moraes, Carrigan, Ferreira and McGrath (2017),
but it is important to emphasize that these researchers handled nexus’ elements in parallel
with objects, meanings, and doings, and not as a fundamental element that brings continuity
and cohesion to social practice.
The acknowledgement of the lack of the incorporation of nexus in the circuit proposed
by Magaudda (2011) was ratified by the results of a research whose purpose was to apply the
first version of the circuit in an empirical way in a context of transformation of social
practices. The context to which we refer is related to a public urban community garden
located in the city of Betim in the state of Minas Gerais, in Brazil. Through a discourse
analysis based on individual interviews carried out with consumers that produce their own
food, it was possible to unravel the circuit (of transformation) of practice and find some other
elements that are in accordance with theory, although absent in the first version of the tool
proposed by Magaudda (2011). When unravelling the circuit, it was possible to observe how
food consumers-producers benefited from the transformation of previous practices into new
practices that promote health and wellbeing feelings having nexus as an aggregator of these
practices.
1
 XLIV ENCONTRO DA ANPAD - EnANPAD 2020
Evento on-line - 14 a 16 de outubro de 2020 - 2177-2576 versão online

This way, our paper contributes to field researchers by bringing new elements to be
added to the initial work of Magaudda (2011) specially when emphasizing the importance of
nexus as an aggregator of social practices. In other words, besides enhancing Magaudda’s
model from a theoretical point of view when indicating the details of nexus that are essential
for understanding how it is possible that practice “survives” and spreads through space and
time, the incorporation of nexus can contribute to the achievement of more comprehensive
results due to more complete analyses that explore the details of social practices and their
transformations.
The paper was organized as follows. First, we present a brief discussion on the
elements of practice theory in order to present the first version of Magaudda’s circuit of
practice. After presenting the methodology used to carried out the empirical phase and the
analysis of the research corpus, we present a discussion on the new circuit of practice
according to the data found herein.

Practice theory: a brief review

The practice theory has as its background a work elaborated by philosophers such as
Wittgenstein and Heidegger, which was later developed by other authors, like Foucault, Judith
Butler, Anthony Giddens, Pierre Bourdieu, and Theodore Schatzki (Reckwitz, 2002a; 2002b;
Schatzki, 2008). Schatzki (1993), when combining the works of Wittgenstein and Heidegger,
discusses the field of practice when analyzing the authors under the metaphysical bias of
philosophy of life. According to this school of thought, life presents no whys either hows, it
ends as an incessant movement. In this flow, people are completely immersed and dedicated
to their daily activities; i.e. there is no law or superior structure that regulates their actions.
Metaphysically, there is nothing beyond, but only practices to be observed.

Elements of practice

Literature enables us to affirm that social practice has two dimensions that strengthen
one another mutually, acting both as an entity and as performance (disperse and integrative
practices, respectively, in words of Schatzki, 2008) (Shove and Pantzar, 2007a; Schatzki,
2008; Røpke, 2009). While entity, the social practice operates at its macro level, e.g. the car
driving act, which exists in several different countries and cultures; however, at the micro
level, there are distinct performances that adapt to the contexts where practice remains alive,
e.g. the difference between driving a car in the USA and in the United Kingdom (Warde,
2005; Shove and Pantzar, 2005). The practice while entity is capable of recruiting new
practitioners who will, according to each operational context, have different performances and
develop practices with distinct meanings, activities (doing), and objects in comparison to the
original recruiting practice, considering that even the historical heritage of the area of
operation changes (Shove and Pantzar, 2007a; 2007b).
After understanding the different dimensions of practice, at its macro and micro levels,
it is possible to fragment practice into smaller pieces in order to understand its internal and
constitutive elements, which are present when approaching practice while entity or
performance. First, according to Røpke (2009), the role played by Elizabeth Shove, Mika
Pantzar, and other colleagues was important to create a strong line of empirical studies on
practice theory. With such studies, theory starts to investigate the daily activities of
individuals, such as the use of electrical power (Gram-Hanssen, 2011) or the freezer (Shove
and Southerton, 2000) (for further information on the micro line of thought, see also
Spaargaren, Koppen, Janssen, Hendriksen and Kolfschoten, 2013; Krom, 2014; Veen,
Derkzen and Visser, 2015; Huttunen and Oosterveer, 2016; Trees and Dean, 2017; Hampton,
2
 XLIV ENCONTRO DA ANPAD - EnANPAD 2020
Evento on-line - 14 a 16 de outubro de 2020 - 2177-2576 versão online

2018). However, one of these studies (Shove & Pantzar, 2005) served as an inspiration for the
development of the circuit, in which the authors broke the social practice into three smaller
pieces: objects, associated images, and forms of competence.

In the course of our discussion, and in particular when thinking about how practices evolve, it
becomes clear that relations between material objects and associated images and forms of
competence are of defining importance. (p. 45)

Based on this and other similar discussions, Magaudda (2011) breaks practice into
objects, doing, and meanings. These parts are the ones that compose the circuit of practice,
which will be analyzed in detail in the following section.
Now that we already know that practice is composed of three elements (objects, doing,
and meanings), what is left to know is what makes them “stick together”. According to
Schatzki (2008), such “glue” is provided by the nexus, which is composed of understandings,
rules, and teleoaffective structure. In this point, it is possible to perceive practice according to
its elements.
Either as performance or entity, practice is composed of (1) the meanings that people
attribute to things; (2) the objects that take part in the practice, such as the Nordic Walking
stick (Shove and Pantzar, 2005); and (3) the doings inherent to the practice, such as the way
though which people cultivate crops in the particular case of the urban agriculture studied
herein. Before bringing up issues related to the elements of nexus, it is important to highlight
that the objects, as well as their consumption, are present in every moment of daily tasks,
participating actively in a mutual transformation between practices and objects (Warde,
2005). The operation and transformation of practice elements is dynamic and the modification
of one element can have an immediate effect on another one, transforming practice as a whole
(Magaudda, 2011).
Regarding the constitutive elements of nexus, according to Schatzki (2008, p. 106) “a
set of doings and sayings [or meanings] constitutes a practice only if its members express an
array of understandings, rules, and [teleoaffective] structure”. Such excerpt indicates that
nexus is the element responsible for the cohesion of practice. A cohesive practice, however, is
capable of spreading over time and space, reinforcing both as entity and performance while
recruiting new practitioners in new contexts (Giddens, 1984; Shove and Pantzar, 2007a;
Schatzki, 2008). We believe that this excerpt of Schatzki passed by unnoticed by Magaudda
when creating his analysis model.
Still according to Schatzki (2008), when detailing the elements of nexus, the
understandings are responsible mostly for the intelligibility among individuals. This way, the
same doings or objects can have different understandings depending on the context they
belong to (or depending on the practice they belong to). Understandings concern what people
say about things and how they act before them. Rules (or procedures) give cohesion to
practices and can be either explicit or implicit. Finally, the teleoaffective structure is related to
a hierarchy of shared values among individuals, e.g. what is good or bad, what is better or
worse, or what is appropriate to do in certain occasions or not.
Next, we will present the first version of the circuit of practice elaborated by
Magaudda. Then, in the analysis of the results of the empirical research, we will present the
new circuit elaborated by us.

The circuit of practice

Based on the works of Shove and Pantzar (2005) and others, Magaudda (2011) created
an analysis tool (Figure 1) in order to understand the transformation of practices, or, in his
3
 XLIV ENCONTRO DA ANPAD - EnANPAD 2020
Evento on-line - 14 a 16 de outubro de 2020 - 2177-2576 versão online

own words, the circuit of practice. The author displayed graphically the interconnected
elements of practice in order to help analyzing their transformations. Magaudda (2011),
however, did not explore the composition of such connections.

Objects Meanings

Doing

Figure 1. Modelling elements of practice.

Source: Adapted from Magaudda (2011).

The author used the circuit to evaluate the transformation of some practices. One of
them was the use of iPod by students in an Italian school. After analyzing the interview data,
the result was graphically displayed in Figure 2, in which the circuit of practice is represented
by the dashed lines.

1. New device in the 2. Production of social

classroom: the iPod value around the iPod

Objects Meanings

4. iPod as a symbol
of group belonging
5. Widespread
diffusion of the iPod
and MP3 players

Doing
3. New shared social routines:
giving the iPod

Figure 2. The circuit of practice after the introduction of the iPod in an Italian school.
Source: Magaudda (2011).

It is possible to observe that after the introduction of a new object in a determined

context, a chain of changes is activated in terms of objects, meanings, and doings.
Magaudda’s (2011) circuit of practice shows the chain reaction created after the insertion of
an object, which also modified the associated meanings (a new object gaining new
symbolisms) and the doings related to it (like the act of giving colleagues the object inserted).
The author also used an exploratory model based on the conversion of musical media from
4
 XLIV ENCONTRO DA ANPAD - EnANPAD 2020
Evento on-line - 14 a 16 de outubro de 2020 - 2177-2576 versão online

CD to MP3 players. Such change also generated a new circuit, but always going through
transformation in objects (or new objects), meanings, and doings. Generally, the insertion of a
new object ends up triggering new demands, e.g. the insertion of an iPod stimulates the
consumption of an iPod case. The same way, the shift from cassette tapes to CDs also boosted
the consumption of CD players. What Magaudda (2011) shows is that new objects in
determined cultures are articulated by agents at material and symbolic levels. The widespread
diffusion of a new object – the iPod – in the context investigated by the author enabled,
among other transformations, the emergence of a new meaning attributed to it: the gift status.
This way, it is possible to state that the elements of practice are dynamic and
interconnected, which can be transformed into other elements, and, lastly, in the practice as a
whole. We will present in the following section how the creation of a community garden
could alter a chain of meanings, doings, and objects, constituting a new practice that promotes
both health and wellbeing.

A Brazilian case of practice transformation: the community garden of the city of Betim

The urban community garden of the neighborhood Granja Verde of the city of Betim,
located in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais, was created in 2013 when local residents
started feeling bothered by the accumulation of garbage in an area where the transmission
towers of the power company CEMIG (Energetic Company of Minas Gerais, in Portuguese)
were located. These residents decided to fence and clean up the area.
With the growth of cultivated areas and with the increasing interest in this specific
spot, it was necessary to establish a neighborhood association in order to negotiate the
utilization of the land jointly with CEMIG in addition to other requirements demanded by the
city council. There are up to 58 land lots registered in the area, but now there are few
consumers-producers that are actually active. An important player in the implementation and
development of the garden was the EMATER(Company for Technical Support and Rural
Extension, in Portuguese), an organization responsible for supporting rural producers through
the accomplishment of trainings, courses, and consulting in which diverse planting techniques
are taught.

Methodology

In order to carry out the empirical investigation and unravel the circuit of practice in
the context of the urban community garden in the city of Betim, we chose a qualitative
approach, which is in accordance with investigations that involve social practices (Bourdieu,
2000; Crivits & Paredis, 2013; Paddock, 2017; Kontothanasis, 2017). We carried out nine in-
depth interviews with pre-established scripts and participant observation with ethnographic
elements (Belk & Casotti, 2014); fieldnotes were used as a data collection tool. A similar
approach was also used by Balthazar and Rocha (2019) when analyzing consumption under a
determined Brazilian urban context, which enabled a better understanding of the nuances of
informants “in action”.
The research corpus is composed of the recordings of seven individual interviews –
which were later transcribed in order to enable the analysis – and fieldnotes. Two interviews
could not be recorded at the request of the interviewees, but the main impressions and the
main themes handled during the conversation were noted. This is the reason why the
fieldnotes were an essential data collection tool and were used even in less representative field
trips. Such tool was substantial to note the impressions from the interviews after recoding
them, as well as the chats and other important parts that were not recorded during the
interviews.
5
 XLIV ENCONTRO DA ANPAD - EnANPAD 2020
Evento on-line - 14 a 16 de outubro de 2020 - 2177-2576 versão online

In the data analysis section, we adopted pseudonyms to refer to the interviewees. In

order to accomplish the data analysis, we chose the French discourse analysis because it is a
technique that enables the researcher to see what is “behind” the text, as well as ideologies,
power structures, and strategies of the speaker (Bakhtin, 1986; Gill, 2000). In addition to
being in accordance with practice theory literature and with field fundaments (Reckwitz,
2002a; Schatzki, 2008), such technique is also in line with the phenomenological approach
adopted herein.

Analyzing data and updating the circuit of practice

In this section, we present the updated version (Figure 3) that we propose for
Magaudda’s (2011) circuit of practice. We present the new circuit that emerged as the result
of our research regarding the practice of urban agriculture in the city of Betim. Next, we
present the data analysis that supports our proposal.

1. Garbage in the area 2. Wellbeing and health are

is inconvenient. important issues to be discussed.

3. Urban space is
reshaped, and new
consumptions Objects Meanings
emerge while 6. The concept of
others vanish. organic and natural
. are consolidated as
adjectives.

Doing
4. Residents with available 5. EMATER’s support
time are inserted in the transform the doings.
new space.

Understandings Procedures Teleoaffective str.

- Industrial is bad; - No use of - Willingness to see a
- The contact with agrochemicals; cleaner and more
nature is good; - To share with close organized neighborhood;
- Natural is better; neighbors part of the - Willingness to work on
- Agrochemicals are production; the land;
bad; - Organic production - Creation of a sense of
- The more natural, procedures; belonging;
the healthier. - To share knowledge - Important contact with
on planting and nature;
cultivation. - Willingness to be active.

Figure 3. Circuit of practice in the urban community garden of the neighborhood Granja Verde.

In the case of the urban community garden of the city of the Betim, the circuit
demonstrates the driving role of the objects to constitute a new practice. As shown in
literature, objects participate directly in practices, which can promote chain reactions and new
6
 XLIV ENCONTRO DA ANPAD - EnANPAD 2020
Evento on-line - 14 a 16 de outubro de 2020 - 2177-2576 versão online

configurations. The emphasis of this work relies on the negative role exerted by the objects
that – disposed inappropriately in the area surrounding CEMIG towers – encouraged residents
of the neighborhood to put on the agenda issues related to wellbeing and health. As result of
such discussions, the public space was reshaped on the residents’ own initiative, which
resulted in the community garden of the neighborhood. With that, the emergence of the
garden could also promote new consumption forms and new associated activities.
It is important to point out that the availability of time of the participants was essential
for the emergence of the new activities. As the community garden and the associated
administrative activities started to become more consolidated, the involvement of EMATER
was a key element to introduce a new doing in the configuration, and to establish the meaning
of the adjectives organic and natural.
The elements relate to one another, being influenced and influencing one another
simultaneously. In some cases, it is possible to observe one of the elements strengthening
another one. Such fact was possible to notice, for instance, when introducing the concept of
organic that ended up strengthening and updating the meanings of natural, poison, and
healthy. These chain relations jointly with the elements of nexus have the power to strengthen
one another, turning practice into a more solid element instead of giving room to new
practices.
Next, we will detail each element of the circuit and the dynamics among them.

Objects and new consumption forms

On the one hand, one can understand that the spatial configuration of the community
garden encompasses several objects; on the other hand, the unused objects, when turning into
garbage, end up fostering the practice of urban agriculture to pursue health and wellbeing to
all residents of the neighborhood. This way, the objects – also due to negative associations,
e.g. garbage and rubble – played an essential role in establishing the community garden,
which led to a new social practice, as noted in other Brazilian contexts (Aquino & Assis,
2007; Branco & Alcântara, 2011).
It is intuitive to think that the immersion in urban agriculture practices led to a search
for more sophisticated work tools. However, such observation was not verified in the
investigated case. The sense of pride is more related to the beauty of the spot of each resident,
the beauty of the plants, and the cleanup of the small land lots and the area as a whole. The
associated consumptions spawned by the immersion in the practices of the community garden
are mostly due to natural fertilizers and seedlings – not to tools.
New practices generate associated consumptions, but they can also eliminate or reduce
substantially other sorts of consumption (Warde, 2005), such as the case of the industrial
medicines. Besides, several medicinal plants were cultivated in the garden, such as pariri,
azedinho, and boldo, which boosted the interest in and the consumption of homeopathy and
phytotherapy. Mr. Adenilson, for instance, emphasizes that he no longer purchases
industrialized juice or any sort of soda because he finds everything he needs in the garden. He
is also proud of his youngest son’s eating habit:

(1) [. . .] If you offer him a cup of Coca-Cola or any other sort of soda and a cup of lemonade
without any sort of sugar, he will choose the lemonade with no sugar. […] Sometimes I
compare him, who is nine years old, to his eight-year-old cousin and it is like seeing Laurel &
Hardy. (Adenilson).

It is possible to perceive several associated values to the food one consumes. The
negative value of some industrial products is easily perceived, while garden products tend to
7
 XLIV ENCONTRO DA ANPAD - EnANPAD 2020
Evento on-line - 14 a 16 de outubro de 2020 - 2177-2576 versão online

have positive values concerning health and the sense of wellbeing. Mr. Adenilson, as shown
in discursive fragment 1, makes use of TV show characters in his speech as an argumentation
strategy. When comparing his son to his nephew, he demonstrates his own pride regarding the
eating habit that he provides to the next generation of his family. When the interviewee
mentions the good result of his clinical examinations, and subsequently links visible physical
attributes of his son to his nephew’s, it is clear he wants to emphasize and justify that this is
just possible due to the work at the garden. Again, through practice it was possible to establish
a hierarchy of interests and values that guide in a certain way the actions of individuals in
society. Such issue, teleoaffective structure, that also supports practice as a performance is
essential for its space-time dispersion (Schatzki, 2008).
In addition to the prominent anti-system speech of the previous fragment, the
nutritious interest related to what one consumes is already quite evident. Such aspect
reinforces the idea of the community garden of the neighborhood Granja Verde in Betim as an
“oasis” inside an urban environment not only as a “pressure relief device”, but also as a way
to survive the food industry consuming the fewest possible processed food (for further
information on nutrition in urban spaces, see Truchero, 2015).

(2) [. . .] I had an arrhythmia problem and I used to feel my heart race suddenly… that thing…
I used to take many medicines, prescription drugs, for several health-related problems,
including stress… and after I came here, it was all gone [laughs] because it is a therapy [what
about the remedies?] I stopped taking them. We use some medicines from Viva Pharmacy
[brand of a local pharmacy], homeopathic remedies… we use homeopathy. But I quit all the
other remedies, I used to take three different prescription drugs, including Clonazepam, for
emotional stability… and it’s ok, right? Yesterday I went to my cardiologist and everything is
good. (Rodrigo).

Discursive fragment 2 indicates that there is a direct connection between the practice
of agriculture and health improvements with the consequent reduction in the consumption of
remedies. Such connection is more visible through the lexical selection “after I came here, it
was all gone”. In other words, the use of the adverb “after” indicates a turning point in the
interviewee’s life regarding his health condition. It is also important to emphasize that the use
of the word “therapy” indicates that working in the garden turns into a decompression and
contemplation moment, despite the hard work. It is interesting to observe that the interviewee
inserts a character in his speech in order to reinforce his argument: the cardiologist.

Doing
With the creation of the garden, the interviewees reported the alteration of their daily
routine. All of them have available time to dedicate themselves daily to the work on the land
because they do not exercise fixed professional activities. It shows that the introduction of
agricultural practices in their routines did not compete with other professional activities –
their involvement with the garden takes approximately 4 hours of their days. This information
gives a different perspective on the immersion of the individuals interviewed regarding
practices of urban agriculture. In other words, the immersion in the practices depends on a
combination of non-planned and unexpected factors. Despite the existence of a few conflicts
in addition to the appropriation of a piece of land of the energy company, it was a
combination of situations that enabled the emergence of the configuration of the garden as it
is today and the new activities involved.
Mr. Adenilson reported to us that, in addition to being involved with the bureaucratic
part of the neighborhood association right from the beginning, it was only after his retirement
that he could dedicate himself to the agricultural production in the property. The engagement

8
 XLIV ENCONTRO DA ANPAD - EnANPAD 2020
Evento on-line - 14 a 16 de outubro de 2020 - 2177-2576 versão online

in the garden’s activities indicate that there is an availability of time and affinity for working
on the land. Despite approaching nexus in a specific section, we opted to show herein one of
the practice elements – doing – and the importance of nexus to bring a practice (and its
activities) to life. In other words, the practice of urban agriculture, through its constituent
activities, according to the interviewees’ perception depends on liking, i.e. there must be an
engagement (teleoaffective structure) to perpetuate such practice over time and space.
In addition to reporting previous experiences with agriculture, the role played by
EMATER was important for the production of organic food, acquisition of new knowledge,
and increase of the productivity in the cultivated area. Through EMATER and, in some cases,
through the exchange of experiences and information, the residents involved could also insert
in their routine some new habits, such as the consumption of medicinal tea. It shows the
alteration of routines and the insertion of new activities through the practice of urban
agriculture. The residents of the neighborhood that are not involved with the cultivation of
vegetables, fruits, or herbs, also visit the garden to take whatever they need from their friends.
This way, in addition to affecting directly the consumers involved with the production of
food, the garden also affects the consumption activities of the residents of the neighborhood,
who stop purchasing some sorts of food from traditional retail stores and start consuming
medicinal tea, for instance.
The discursive fragment 3 demonstrates the role played by EMATER as a consolidator
of the activities within the practice.

(3) [. . .] I didn’t know much, but later I learned a lot from the trainings that EMATER gave
us. Several trainings. They used to bring many professionals from Senac [Senar, organization
pertaining to EMATER], right? Several trainings, how to cultivate organic food. Because the
conventional cultivation, for a large-scale production, is different. So, we learned a lot about
the organic system. How to do it. We broke some taboos, some myths that we had in mind,
and they explained how to cultivate organic food. So, I learned it. I already had some previous
knowledge, but I learned a lot from EMATER and SENAR. (José).

When using the lexical selection “broke taboos”, the interviewee shows an important
issue related to the inflection of the circuit; i.e. if it wasn’t for EMATER, there would be no
consolidation of the new activities related to organic production (as well as the new meanings
learned). What drew our attention was the use of the word “taboo” by Mr. José. It shows that
in order to transform consolidated and previous activities into new activities, and
consequently for the emergence of new practices, the presence of another social player (that
can also be an organization) might be necessary, as happened with EMATER, because this
was the only way that “taboos” could be broken.
This way, it is possible to observe, therefore, as seen in the previous section (objects),
that the emergence of the garden provided alterations in the consumption patterns and,
subsequently, activities (doings) were also altered. The alterations are shown through the
reports presented in the previous paragraphs, such as the emergence of new habits, breaking
of myths, learning and application of new techniques of planting and cultivation, etc. In this
point, the outcomes herein are in accordance with the work of Warde (2005) when pointing
out that the consumption is always present at practices, i.e. when a determined consumption
ends up bringing up new sorts of consumption.
On the other hand, the activities in the garden, despite being reported as exhausting,
are the ones that also give a sense of reward and wellbeing. Generally, the interviewees could
not distinguish senses of health from senses of wellbeing. These two words end up mixing
together as if they were mutually dependent.

9
 XLIV ENCONTRO DA ANPAD - EnANPAD 2020
Evento on-line - 14 a 16 de outubro de 2020 - 2177-2576 versão online

(4) [. . .] Just being here sunbathing and sweating a little […]. This is damn good. It was all
wet from all the sweat [points to the shirt], I sat there for a while and it’s dry now. This
already shows how good you feel. You get home, take a shower, and sit on the couch. When
it’s 3 pm, you get back here again and stay until 5:30 or 6 pm. (Cláudio).

Though the lexical selection of the interviewee, when reporting that “this already
shows how good you feel”, it is possible to perceive a transmission of an internal
phenomenon, or the state of things perceived by him at that specific time, which can be
understood as a state of mind, as according to Schatzki (2008). Such state of mind, according
to the chosen discourse, only emerges after “being here sunbathing and sweating a little”. Mr.
Cláudio emphasizes in his discourse the existence of a routine with a defined schedule: “When
it’s 3 pm, you get back here again and stay until 5:30 or 6 pm”. Routine aspects are essential
for the existence of social practices (Giddens, 1984; Reckwitz, 2002a; Warde, 2005; Plessz &
Wahlen, 2020).

Meanings
It is possible to observe, however, that some meanings (jointly with objects and doing)
are shared by residents and are a structural part of the triad that composes practice. The
meanings related to the organic food produced in the garden are always associated with health
issues, which, in turn, seem to be a synonym of natural. The connection between organic food
and improvements in health seems to be obvious according to the interviewees. The meaning
of natural, in the context of this practice, is related to the non-use of industrial inputs, such as
agrochemicals or synthetic fertilizers. The discursive fragment 5 illustrates a chain of
relationships brought up by the word “natural”.

(5) [. . .] Well... It’s healthier, right? Because we produce it ourselves, there is no poison. We
plant on the land, only with manure, if we have no manure, we plant directly on the land and
use a lot of grass. This is all organic material, right? We like to plant in a more natural way,
right? It’s healthier and in terms of life quality it is way better for us because we de-stress.
(Cláudio).

By analyzing the parts of the discursive fragment above, according to the order of
appearance, we can first see the term “poison”. The meaning of this word in the context
studied herein is used to replace other terms, such as pesticide or agrochemicals. When using
these terms as synonyms, there is an association between agrochemicals and worsening of the
health status, which can consequently lead to death. The discursive fragment provided by
Cláudio justifies the use of the word poison and antagonize it by emphasizing that “we plant
on the land, only with manure”, and next, he associated this cultivation method with the
meaning of “organic”.
The lexical selection “we like to plant in a more natural way” demonstrates how the
meaning of natural is associated with the meaning of “healthier” things. Next, it is evident
that Mr. Cláudio does not distinguish clearly health from wellbeing, which can be noticed
when analyzing the complete lexical selection: “It’s healthier and in terms of life quality it is
way better for us because we de-stress”. There is a mix of feelings that converge in order to
complete the meaning of “natural” according to the interviewee.
These meanings are associated with issues related to wellbeing, which represents some
sort of disconnection with the urban environment or can be understood as a reward or
satisfaction for the land work. This feeling, generally, can also be understood as a mix of
health, sociability, and sense of reward.

10
 XLIV ENCONTRO DA ANPAD - EnANPAD 2020
Evento on-line - 14 a 16 de outubro de 2020 - 2177-2576 versão online

(6) [. . .] For the wellbeing of people, in general, the community interacts and the benefits that
it brings, you just stay there every day in contact with nature. There should be more things like
that. (José).

The discursive fragment 6 demonstrates through its discursive path that the
“wellbeing” to which it refers is also related to the interaction with nature. The lexical
selection “stay there every day” shows that these activities also depend on routine (which is
also in accordance with literature in terms of social practices). In other words, the sense of
wellbeing is provided through the work with nature. Regarding the lexical selection “the
community interacts”, it is possible to observe that the sense of wellbeing, in addition to the
individual and contemplative aspect, also presents social and interactive features. The
discursive fragment 6 can lead to the meaning of wellbeing for the individuals immersed in
such practice. In short, participating in the same practices means to share the meanings
associated with the practice (Schatzki, 2008).

Nexus: “sticking” the previous elements together

For a practice to exist, its elements need to be cohesive. Such cohesion, according to
the literature review presented herein, is composed of understandings, rules (or procedures),
and teleoaffective structure (Schatzki, 2008). These three elements are the components of
nexus, demonstrated by the colored streaks among the circles and charts in Figure 3.

(7) [. . .] If I go to the greengrocer and purchase things, I don’t even know where they come
from, how they were produced, I’m not thankful for the things […] once in a while we say
like: ‘oh, this is crap’ […] instead of being thankful, like: ‘oh, God, I have the money to buy
things, I can buy the things I want’. Sometimes we just go like ‘this is crap’ […]. (Rodrigo).

The discursive fragment 7 illustrates the understanding (related to what one says and
acts before things), which according to the interviewee is related to the consumption of a food
whose origin is known. The product of the community garden is inserted in this dynamic as
the food whose origin and cultivation are known, therefore inspiring confidence. The
consumers-producers of this food are related to them as entities worthy of respect,
contemplation, and worship.
Still regarding understanding, the associations between industrial features, nature,
natural food, and agrochemicals prevailed in the data analysis. However, when approaching
issues related to nature and natural food, there seems to be a heritage from previous practices.
Such finding is like the idea of fossilization of practices by Shove and Pantzar (2007a) and to
the discussion promoted by Warde (2005) on the trajectory of practices. In both cases, the
general understanding is that social practices present a historical burden. The discursive
fragment 8 illustrates such heritage.

(8) [. . .] You only focus on this little piece of land, it doesn’t even seem like you are in the
city, it seems you are on a farm. So, it does me good. I really like it a lot, I come from the
countryside, so it helps. (Rodrigo).

This is not just the case of Rodrigo. Many of the people we were in contact with – and
six interviewees, more specifically – reported a previous experience on the “countryside”. The
excerpt “it does me good” clarifies that the garden can be seen as a “decompression” point in
relation to urban things. Besides, when the interviewee claims that “I come from the
countryside, so it helps”, he highlights the fact that he already had a previous experience with
agriculture, even if in a “rudimentary” way – according to his own words in another moment.

11
 XLIV ENCONTRO DA ANPAD - EnANPAD 2020
Evento on-line - 14 a 16 de outubro de 2020 - 2177-2576 versão online

It is possible to notice that there is an understanding about the natural and nature that are
positively associated with “countryside things”.
Considering the second component of the nexus, the procedures (and rules),
EMATER played an essential role in the definition of how to produce, and even though less
present currently, these procedures are still being followed and shared by local residents. Mr.
Rodrigo claims that previously, he had nothing but a “rudimentary” way to cultivate; today,
however, with the knowledge acquired, he can produce healthier food without the use of any
sort of “poison”.
At a macro level, the neighborhood association also imposes certain rules and
procedures in order to enable the local production and the access to the land. The association
itself, through a documentary control and operation in the neighborhood, brings the meanings
closer to the activities and to the object. This way, one cannot deny that there are procedures
and rules adequate and associated with the practice in the local, which keeps cohesion alive.
The third important component of the nexus is the teleoaffective structure (or
engagement, according to Warde, 2005) that arises from the practice of agriculture in the
urban community garden of the city of Betim, with feelings of pride and pleasure that the
consumers-producers demonstrate. Besides, there is an effort on the part of the most engaged
and active residents to maintain the configuration of the garden and the activities the way they
are. The struggle among different practices permeate the story of the garden; however, the
practice of urban agriculture still resists, despite the pressure. This way, in addition to the
understandings and procedures, there is a hierarchy of values of the players involved, which
also helps to maintain the practice of urban agriculture alive in this context.

(9) [. . .] You see there are several places abandoned here […] really abandoned, I can’t speak
for every single place, but half of them is pure trickery, people holding the land […]. (João
Paulo).

The interviewee is annoyed by the people who believe that the piece of land they have
access to through the association can become their own someday. It is possible to observe a
pejorative connotation through the lexical selection “trickery”. The central idea of these issues
is that the interviewee and his colleagues of practice are taking care of the organization of the
urban space.
This element of nexus can also be called engagement (Warde, 2005) or teleoaffective
structure (Schatzki, 2008). Regardless of the name adopted, our interest is to point out that it
is an element that demonstrates the interests of the individuals and a hierarchy of values that
are internal and motivate them to act. It guides them in terms of what should and/or should
not be done according to a determined practice. In the case of the garden of the city of Betim,
it is possible to realize that the ones that take part in the practice are the ones that share the
same teleoaffective structure related to the feeling of belonging to the neighborhood, contact
with nature, willingness to keep oneself active and positive associations with the land and
nature. The discursive fragments 10 and 11 demonstrate the teleoaffective structure when
illustrating how necessary it is to be involved in the same chain of values in order to dedicate
to the work in the garden. The lexical selection “you need to have a sense of commitment”
shows, through the semantic discourse adopted, that it depends on the willingness to “get the
hands dirty” or “to use a hoe”.
Even though Warde (2005) uses the term engagement, Schatzki (2008) claims that this
is an element of nexus known as teleoaffective, which attributes to the individuals involved in
practice some sort of hierarchy of interests, motivations, and values. This way, it is possible to
identify through the lexical selection “enjoy”, present in several conversations with the
residents and demonstrated more clearly in discursive fragment 11, a characteristic of a
12
 XLIV ENCONTRO DA ANPAD - EnANPAD 2020
Evento on-line - 14 a 16 de outubro de 2020 - 2177-2576 versão online

teleoaffective – or engagement – element, which enable the activities (doings), as well as

practice, to perpetuate in time and space. According to Mr. Rodrigo’s words, for many people
there is no “identification” with the work in the garden, which hampers turning the garden
project of the neighborhood Granja Verde in Betim into a higher-level project, considering
that many residents already abandoned the land and the activities.

(10) [. . .] Because most people here don’t do anything and it’s not because they are
discouraged. Most of them have no commitment. It’s necessary to replace the people. To add
the ones that show commitment. There is a lack of identification. (Rodrigo).

(11) [. . .] if you want to plant, if you want to enjoy a project like this, you need to show
commitment. So, it’s pointless to take part if you don’t like to get your hands dirty in the
ground or if you don’t want to use a hoe, you will never succeed in such project. (Rodrigo).

Nexus is, therefore, what “sticks” the elements of social practice. In the case of the
garden of the neighborhood Granja Verde in the city of Betim, the objects, the doing, and
meanings of practice of urban agriculture are represented, respectively, by the garden and the
associated tangible consumptions, by the ways to work on the land, and by the narratives
associated with practice. However, such elements independently would not compose a
practice if they were not “stuck” by the three components of nexus previously discussed.

Final considerations

Based on the work of Schatzki (2008), which detailed the elements of social practices,
this paper sought to focus efforts on the proposition of a new element that seems to have
slipped from the initial analysis of the framework proposed by Magaudda (2011): nexus and
its connections with procedures, understandings, and engagements.
When inserting such elements in our study, it was possible to enrich our analysis
specially because the practice of urban agriculture of the community garden of the
neighborhood Granja Verde in the city of Betim is still alive and relates several sorts of
consumption with meanings and doings. It was possible to notice that the emergence of the
practice of agriculture provided consumers that produce their own food in that environment
with a feeling of improvement of their health conditions and wellbeing. The elements
presented in the circuit in Figure 3, despite being presented sequentially, cannot suggest a
static and immutable approach.
The update of the model proposed herein can be used by other researchers to study
alterations of consumption patterns like, for instance, in the relationship between physician
and patients in order to understand how patients can adopt healthier consumption habits. The
public authority, on the other hand, can also use this sort of research framework in order to
promote healthier habits for the population. There are indications that the configuration of the
urban space can affect the demand for healthier and less processed food (Truchero, 2015;
Vedovato, Trude, Kharmats and Martins, 2015; Cerovečki & Grünhagen, 2016).
Nonetheless, private companies can also use the analysis presented herein by using the
circuit of practice to understand in detail how some practices still resist and how other can be
overcome. One example of this kind of application is the study on how new technologies can
break and overcome some resistances of dominant practices in order to become the new
consumption pattern. We believe that this sort of study would be interesting for technology
companies willing to insert innovation in the daily routine of new consumers.

References

13
 XLIV ENCONTRO DA ANPAD - EnANPAD 2020
Evento on-line - 14 a 16 de outubro de 2020 - 2177-2576 versão online

Aquino, A. M., & Assis, R. L. (2007). Agricultura orgânica em áreas urbanas e periurbanas
com base na agroecologia. Ambiente e Sociedade, 10(1), 137-150.

Bakhtin, M. M. (1986). Speech genres and other late essays. Texas: University of Texas
Press.

Balthazar, A. C., & Rocha, E. (2019). Do you know who you are selling to? An ethnographic
approach to upper-class shopping experiences in Rio de Janeiro. Journal of Consumer
Research, 0(0), 1-18.

Belk, R., & Casotti, L. M. (2014). Ethnographic research in Marketing: Past, present, and
possible futures. Revista Brasileira de Marketing, 13(6), 1-17.

Branco, M., & Alcântara, F. (2011). Hortas urbanas e periurbanas: o que nos diz a literatura
brasileira? Horticultura Brasileira 29, 421-428.

Cerovečki, I. G., & Grünhagen, M. (2016). “Food deserts” in urban districts: Evidence from a
transitional market and implications for macromarketing. Journal of Macromarketing,
36(3), 337-353.

Crivits, M., & Paredis, E. (2013). Designing an exploratory practice framework: local food
systems as a case. Journal of Consumer Research, 13(3), 306-336.

Giddens, A. (1984). The constitution of Society: Outline of the Theory of Structuration.

Cambridge: Polity Press.

Gill, R. (2000). Discourse Analysis. In: W. Bauer & G. Gaskell (Eds.), Qualitative
Researching With Text, Image and Sound: A Practical Handbook. (pp. 172-190). London:
Sage Publications.

Gram-Hanssen, K. (2011). Understanding change and continuity in residential energy

consumption. Journal of Consumer Research, 11(1), 61-78.

Magaudda, P. (2011). When materiality ´bites back´: Digital music consumption practices in
the age of dematerialization. Journal of Consumer Culture 11(1), 15-36.

Moraes, C., Carrigan, M., Bosangit, C., Ferreira, C., & McGrath, M. (2017). Understanding
ethical luxury consumption through practice theories: A study of fine jewellery purchases.
Journal of Business Ethics 145(3), 525-543.

Hampton, S. (2018). ‘It’s the soft stuff that’s hard’: Investigating the role played by low
carbon small- and medium-sized enterprise advisors in sustainability transitions. Local
Economy, 33(4), 384-404.

Huttunen, S., & Oosterveer, P. (2016). Transition to sustainable fertilization in agriculture, a

practices approach. Sociologia Ruralis, 57(2), 191-210.

Krom, M. (2014). Governing animal-human relations in farming practices: A study of group

housing of shows in EU. Sociologia Ruralis, 55(4), 417-437.

14
 XLIV ENCONTRO DA ANPAD - EnANPAD 2020
Evento on-line - 14 a 16 de outubro de 2020 - 2177-2576 versão online

Kontothanasis, G. (2017). Social practices of urban agriculture in the metropolitan region of

Thessaloniki. Procedia Environmental Sciences, 38, 666-673.

Paddock, J. (2017). Household consumption and environmental change: Rethinking the policy
problem through narratives of food practice. Journal of Consumer Research, 17(1), 122-
139.

Plessz, M., Wahlen, S. (2020). All practices are shared, but some more than others:
Sharedness of social practices and time-use in food consumption. Journal of Consumer
Culture, 0(0): 1-21.

Reckwitz, A. (2002a). Toward a theory of social practices: A development in culturalist

theorizing. European Journal of Social Theory, 5(2), 243-263.

Reckwitz, A. (2002b). The status of the “material” in theories of culture: From “social
structure” to “artefacts”. Journal for the Theory of Social Behavior, 32(2), 195-217

Røpke, I. (2009). Theories of practice - new inspiration for ecological economic studies on
consumption. Ecological Economics, 68, 2490-2497.

Schatzki, T. (1993). Wittgenstein + Heidegger on the stream of life. Inquiry, 3, 307-328.

Schatzki, T. (2008). Social practices: A Wittgensteinian approach to human activity and the
social. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Shove, E., & Pantzar, M. (2005). Consumers, producers and practices: Understanding the
invention and reinvention of nordic walking. Journal of Consumer Culture, 5(1), 43-64.

Shove, E., & Pantzar, M. (2007a). Fossilisation. Ethnologia Europaea, 35(1-2), 59-62.

Shove, E., & Pantzar, M. (2007b). Recruitment and reproduction: The careers and carriers of
digital photography and floorball. Human Affairs, 17(2), 154-167.

Shove, E., & Southerton, D. (2000). Defrosting the freezer: From novelty to convenience - a
narrative of normalization. Journal of Material Culture, 5(3), 301-319.

Spaargaren, G., Koppen, K., Janssen, A., Hendriksen, A., & Kolfschoten, C. (2013).
Consumer responses to the carbono labelling of food: A real life experimente in a canteen
practice. Sociologia Ruralis, 53(4), 432-453.

Trees, R., & Dean, D. (2017). Physical and emotional nourishment: Food as the emboided
componente of loving care of elderly family relatives. European Journal of Marketing,
52(12), 2405-2422.

Truchero, G. R. (2015). El acceso a la alimentación: el debate sobre los desiertos alimentarios.

Investigación & Desarrollo, 23(12), 391-415.

Vedovato, G., Trude, A. C. B., Kharmats, A. Y., & Martins, P. A. (2015). Degree of food
processing of househould acquisition patterns in a Brazilian urban area is related to food
buying preferences and percieved food environment. Appetite, 87, 296-302.
15
 XLIV ENCONTRO DA ANPAD - EnANPAD 2020
Evento on-line - 14 a 16 de outubro de 2020 - 2177-2576 versão online

Veen, E. J., Derkzen, P., & Visser, A. J. (2015). Shopping versus growing: Food acquisition
habits of Dutch urban gardeners. Food and foodways: explorations in the history and
culture of human nourishment, 22(4), 268-299.

Warde, A. (2005). Consumption and Theories of Practice. Journal of Consumer Culture, 5(2),
131-153.

16