Social practice theory and public health: microbes, bodies and environments (conference)

Open call for participants: 2 day conference on Social practice theory and public health: microbes, bodies and environments, 11th and 12th June 2025, Mary Ward House, London.

This is an open call for participants interested in joining a two-day conference on social practice theory and public health: microbes, bodies and environments organised by Elizabeth Shove (Lancaster University), Simon Cohn (London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine), and Cecily Maller (RMIT University).

This event is funded by the British Academy/Wellcome and there are 20 places available at the subsidised rate of £75 for both days, including refreshments (travel and accommodation are at your own expense). If you would like to attend and join the discussion, please send 250 words on what you are working on now and why the event is of interest to you. Send this to Elizabeth Shove (E.Shove@Lancaster.ac.uk) by 14th March 2025.

The conference
It is widely recognised that biological, microbial and social processes interact. Behind this headline there is much less agreement about how the social world should be conceptualised and understood. One response is that practices – not social structures, and not individual behaviours – constitute the ‘site’ of the social. In recent years, practice theorists have generated a distinctive and powerful repertoire of ideas about materiality, inequality and global change. The result is an inspiring and generative body of social theory that provides the basis for interdisciplinary alliances and for new ways of thinking about the social dynamics of microbiomes.

This conference brings sociologists, anthropologists, historians, geographers, biologists and medical researchers together to exploit and explore the relevance of practice theory for analysing human-microbial relations and their implications for public health in a changing climate.

Click here to see the draft programme.