Facing unprecedented socio-ecological challenges sustainability transition studies call for new modes of problem-solving encouraging processes of social learning (van Mierlo & Beers 2020). A central aspiration is that processes of social learning should transform socio-ecologically harmful everyday practices and engender novel sustainable habits and lifestyles. However, sustainability transition literature was found to insufficiently conceptualize how learning takes places in everyday life and affects practices (Boström et al. 2018). To enhance the understanding of this relationship, this contribution introduces three complementary concepts that elucidate distinctive aspects of learning processes and the formation of practices. In the next step the three concepts are integrated into an analytical framework to better conceptualise and investigate how learning takes place in everyday life. All three concepts deal to a different extent with reflexivity, collective processes and the role of materials for learning and practices. The community of practice approach lays emphasis on how meaning is negotiated in communities that characterise through collective activities, roots and objectives (Wenger 1998). Further, the relation between the identities of the individual members of those communities and learning processes is elucidated. Practice theory captures how actors form practices by aligning specific meanings, competencies and materials (Pantzar & Shove 2010). If practices are performed repeatedly those linkages are reinforced and begin to stabilise the practice. Further, practices of different domains (e.g. working, shopping, mobility) mutually depend on each other and build practice complexes, which further stabilize everyday doings. The third concept, transactional theory, is based on work of pragmatist thinker Dewey. It possesses explanatory power with regard to how change comes about in everyday life. Different kinds of situations are conceptualised, in which actors hesitate to continue with their habits and potentially start a reflexive inquiry (Östman 2010, Van Poeck et al. 2020). We argue to take the transactional perspective as a starting point for understanding how reflexive processes take place in everyday life and integrate insights from the communities of practice approach and practice theory. The former can provide a potential collective learning path for specific communities and shed light on the dynamics of identity formation and learning. The latter enhances our understanding of how learning can irritate the reproduction of practices by considering socio-material entanglements and complexes of practices.

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