Meal for Two: A Typology of Co-performed Practices

Abstract

Drawing on practice theory, this ethnographic study investigates how meal practices are co-performed by 13 newly cohabiting couples. Findings reveal how practices previously performed by individual consumers become co-performed through a synergetic and chronologically multi-phased process. Disruption, the first phase, is characterised by misalignments of individually performed practices and their elements. The second phase, incorporation, is characterised by initial collective re-alignments of practices and their elements. The third phase, synergetic outcomes, shows three different ways in which alignments can shape a co-performed practice, namely blending, combining and domineering. Theoretically this paper offers two contributions to practice theory and domestic meal consumption. It reveals the synergetic process through which meal practices become co-performed over time and provides a typology of co-performed practices.