1 - Gabriel Henrique Pimenta Isboli UNIVERSIDADE ESTADUAL DE MARINGÁ (UEM) - Maringá
2 - Lucie Middlemiss -
3 - Olga Maria Coutinho Pepece UNIVERSIDADE ESTADUAL DE MARINGÁ (UEM) - Departamento de Administração
Reumo
This paper examines how bathroom cleaning practices are undertaken in different national contexts, unpacking what counts as “normal” and how this comes about.
What do Brazilian and English residents consider as necessary practices to achieve cleanliness in the bathroom? Our objective is to understand how migrants perform a practice when they move to a place where they do not have the same material elements as their former place.
Three influences on our thinking here were: first, Shove et al. (2012), describing practices being established, changed or extinguished (Shove, 2003, Shove et al., 2012). Second, Darmon and Warde (2019), discussing food practices performed by English-French cross-national couples observing how these change as they move to new environments. Third, Barbosa and Veloso (2014), discussing the cultural influences in household practices that relate to sustainability, focusing on Brazilian consumption practices (namely washing, cleaning and eating practices).
It is based on twelve oral histories, both from Brazilian residents (three Brazilian locals and two English migrants) and English residents (two Brazilian migrants, one English local, and two cross-national couples).
We use this data to examine different social conventions of how cleanliness in bathrooms is achieved, its procedures, the interplay between partners, their ideas of cleanliness as a couple, and the various procedures associated with these practices.
There appears to be a window of opportunity to rethink a practice when people face a situation in which they could not perform a practice in the way they would like to or have previously learned.
Barbosa, L., & Veloso, L. (2014) Consumption, domestic life and sustainability in Brazil. Journal of cleaner production, 63, 166-172.
Darmon, I., & Warde, A. (2019) Habits and orders of everyday life: commensal adjustment in Anglo‐French couples. The British journal of sociology, 70, 1025-1042.
Shove, E. (2003) Comfort, cleanliness and convenience: the social organization of normality. Oxford: Berg.
Shove, E., Pantzar, M., & Watson, M. (2012) The dynamics of social practice: everyday life and how it changes. Sage Publications.