Policy and practice: exploring the potentials of social practice theory for policy studies

Social sciences have seen a so-called practice turn, moving beyond a preoccupation with individual attitudes and behaviour towards the more contextually-embedded concept of social practices to understand drivers and change levers of social action. However, in the policy sciences engagement with Social Practice Theories (SPT) is relatively scarce. Approaches and studies endorsing behaviourist approaches continue to outnumber more sociological, relational perspectives, including SPT. Behaviourist and SPT approaches rest on divergent understandings of social action and change, with contrasting implications for understanding the impact of policy alternatives and the policy processes. In this article, we stimulate discussion on how wider use of SPT–as developed in the field of sociology–in public policy can advance understanding of the dynamics of policy impact and policymaking. Based on a systematic review of current applications of SPT in public administration journals we identify the motivations for and scope of SPT in policy research, after which we propose a research agenda along two streams of theorization which may benefit from engaging more thoroughly with SPT: (i) the practices of target groups, and (ii) the practices of policy work and public administration.