In contrast to structuralist approaches to the explanation of human actions (e.g., social class membership predicts consumption choice; psychological dispositions predict consumption choice), practice theoretical approaches emphasize the centrality of coordinated human action in the production and reproduction of organized, collective outcomes (Feldman and Orlikowski 2011). One of those collective outcomes of interest is value, since it is clear that people seek after value. Thinking about performativity and value consequences of practice engagement follows on from recent social scientific thinking about value creation (Graeber 2001), which with Simmel (2004/1904) holds that value is neither objective as economists might argue nor subjective as psychologist might, but rather a contingent effect of interaction. Moreover, in this view value “does not reside in an individual, independent of his actual actions, nor in a good, independent of the interaction to which it is subjected” (Ramirez 1999, 51). In short, value resides in the actions and interactions which resources make possible or support. Following Graeber (2001), we can think of use value, the value to consumers as consisting in meaningful differences and more broadly as distinctions that refine identities and “count” as significant achievements. But value emerges from what people do; that is to say, the social pursuit of those meaningful distinctions, typically through the exchange of resources between actors. Social worth (whether we are talking about personal prestige or brand equity) is to some considerable extent established through these resource exchanges. This is exchange value, which may of course be unequal, sometimes dramatically so as students of Marx or international development have argued. Pairing the conception of individuals as ‘carriers of practice,’ that is as “unique crossing points of practices” (Reckwitz 2002, 256) with the notion of practices as “carriers of value” (Schau et al. 2009), we could say that use value lies not only in the performance of practices, performances that have two moments according to Warde (2005).  They have a productive moment, i.e., resources of some kind are offered. This may be information, affect, objects, experiences, and so on.  Performances also have a consumptive moment, resources of some kind are received. Informational, affective, material, or experiential resources may be accepted. Through the experience of the latter, use value is realized.

These exchanges always take place within a social field that defines and is defined by these ongoing performative moments; this diachronicity accounts for updating of what is valued and how such things are valued. An important dimension of these performative fields is that at any given moment they are composed of relatively active agents and relatively inactive agents. However, those inactive agents are also vicarious recipients of resources, or at least, of the exchanges of resources between active agents. Thus, insofar as they share the field with the more active agents, they are second order beneficiaries of other exchanges and similarly also potential participants with updated knowledge of “what is going on here” that is also motivating. Thus, observing how other give and receive can inspire desires to participate, and inform how to do so adroitly.

 

References

 

Feldman, Martha S. and Wanda J. Orlikowski (2011), “Theorizing Practice and Practicing Theory,” Organization Science, 22, (September–October), 1240–53.

Graeber, David (2001), Toward an anthropological theory of value: the false coin of our own dreams, New York: Palgrave.

Ramirez, Rafael (1999), “Value Co-production: Intellectual Origins and Implications for Practice and Research,” Strategic Management Journal, 20 (January), 49-65.

Reckwitz, Andreas (2002), “Toward a Theory of Social Practices,” European Journal of Social Theory, 5(2), 243-63.

Schatzki, Theodore R. (2001), “Practice mind-ed orders” in: Theodore R. Schatzki, Karin Knorr Cetina, and Eike von Savigny (Eds.), The Practice Turn in Contemporary Theory, London: Routledge, 42-55.

Schau, Hope J., Albert M. Muñiz, and Eric J. Arnould (2009), “How Brand Community Practices Create Value,” Journal of Marketing, 73(5), 30-51.

Simmel, George (2004/1904), The Philosophy of Money, ed. David Frisby, 3rd edition, London and New York: Routledge.

Warde, Alan (2005), “Consumption and Theories of Practice,” Journal of Consumer Culture, 5(2), 131-53.