How temporal orientations trigger, nurture and sustain deep engagement with consumption practices

Benjamin Rosenthal, Marketing, FGV-EAESP, Rua Itapeva 474, 9th floor, Sao Paulo 01332-000, Brazil.
Email: benjamin.rosenthal@fgv.br

future-oriented disrupting experiences – that is, seeking personal transformation through high-quality education. These examples illustrate how engagement with practices is permeated by multiple temporal orientations – that is, recollecting the past, sensing the present and imagining the future. This paper investigates how consumers' multiple temporal orientations affect the formation of 'deep engagement' with consumption practices.

Consumer researchers (Appau et al., 2020; Belk et al., 1991; Higgins and Scholer, 2009) and practice-oriented consumer researchers (Arsel and Bean, 2013; Maciel and Wallendorf, 2017; Seregin and Weijo, 2017; Weinberger et al., 2017) have provided empirical cases and theoretical accounts of the formation of 'deep engagement' with practices, which is defined in this paper as the recurrent and meaningful engagement with practices. Yet, as I explain next, this body of research does not provide a theoretical account of how temporal orientations affect the formation of deep engagement with practices.

Consumer researchers have established the concepts of engagement strength (Higgins and Scholer, 2009) and of high engagement with hobbies – that is, collecting (Belk et al., 1991) – and worldviews – that is, Pentecostals (Appau et al., 2020). It can be deployed from these studies that deep engagement involves the establishment of goals and the recurrent efforts to sustain that which is meaningful. Additionally, practice-oriented consumer researchers have empirically investigated recurrent and meaningful forms of engagement with consumption practices through some concepts which have similarities to deep engagement—i.e., disproportional (Maciel and Wallendorf, 2017), prolonged (Seregin and Weijo, 2017), committed (Thomas and Epp, 2019) and progressive (Akaka and Schau, 2019) engagement with practices. Overall, this body of research highlights three patterns for the formation of deep engagement: the ongoing pursuit of goals – that is, Maciel and Wallendorf (2017), Weinberger et al. (2017) and Spotswood et al. (2023); the progressive acquisition of skills and understandings – that is, Woermann and Rokka (2015), Akaka and Schau (2019) and Beverland et al. (2024); and the development of meaningful relations with practices—i.e., Canniford and Shankar (2013), Seregin and Weijo (2017) and Rickly (2017). The first and the third patterns suggest that the teleoaffective structure is, as Gram-Hanssen (2021: 437) proposes, 'the defining aspect of a practice'. Yet, these studies fall short of addressing Schatzki's (2006, 2009) important assertions that individuals may differently engage with practices based on future expectations, past orientations and present experiences regarding the activity. Schatzki's (2006, 2009) insightful observations suggest the enrolment of future, past and present temporal orientations into engagements, but they are yet to be empirically explored (Hui, 2017). Furthermore, Schatzki's assertion about the varied temporal orientations of consumer engagements is underdeveloped in the concept of the teleoaffective structure, which broadly comprises goals and affectivities. In this manuscript, I propose that Thévenot's (2001, 2007) notion of regimes of engagements, with its pragmatic, reflexive and multidirectional temporal approach to action, offers a theoretical tool to understand consumers' past, present and future temporal orientations regarding goals and affectivities and how these teleoaffective temporal orientations affect the formation of deep engagement through time.

Accordingly, this manuscript seeks to answer the following question: How do different temporal orientations within teleoaffective structures affect the formation of deep engagement with consumption practices? This question is explored in the context of two consumption practices – running and swimming. Methodologically, this work adopts the lens of practice theory (Hui, 2017; Schatzki, 1997, 2001, 2002, 2009, 2019; Shove et al., 2012) and regimes of engagement (Thévenot, 2001, 2007). It contributes to the literature by proposing that three types of temporal orientations underpin the formation of deep engagement with practices. These are labelled transformative, maintenance

and envisioned-future, and they enmesh in the teleoaffective structure, triggering, nurturing and sustaining deep engagement with practices through time.

The paper is structured as follows: first, it describes how consumer research and practice-oriented consumer research have illustrated the formation of deep engagement; second, it proposes how the notion of regimes of engagement (Thévenot, 2001, 2007) can be used to describe and explain different temporal orientations within teleoaffective structures; third, it presents the research context and methodological approach; fourth, it describes the findings in the context of swimming and running practices; finally, it discusses the contribution and theoretical implications of this research for consumer research and suggests some areas for future studies.

Consumer research offers some theoretical developments about how consumers become deeply engaged with practices, which can contribute to the literature that traditionally discusses consumer engagement (Brodie et al., 2011; Dessart et al., 2016). Nevertheless, the notion that engagement is dynamic and that through time consumers may adopt different temporal orientations toward the activity has not received sufficient attention. Next, I highlight how consumer research deals with the notion of recurrent and meaningful forms of engagement and what can be deployed from these studies.

Higgins and Scholer (2009), for instance, consider engagement strength as derived from the active work involved in dealing with the focal object. Specifically, these authors propose that dealing with the challenges of opposing forces, preparing for something likely to happen and using proper means to achieve desired ends foster engagement strength. Appau et al. (2020) explain the process of becoming highly engaged with the broad worldview of Pentecostals. Pentecostals deeply engage in the avoidance of dangerous subjects, places, times and products and the incorporation of safe ones into their lives. While Appau et al. (2020) are not interested in theorising deep engagement per se and their case is idiosyncratic given the severe social sanctions of non-conformance to the Pentecostal worldview, their work, as well as Higgins and Scholer's (2009), empirically illustrate how deep engagement involves not only the establishment of goals but also the recurrent efforts to sustain the necessary behaviours in the search for something meaningful.

Consumer research also empirically illuminates how consumers become deeply engaged in some context-specific cases. For instance, Belk et al.'s (1991) landmark work on collecting explains its formation as derived from the purpose, affects, meanings, fulfilment and sense of mastery involved in collecting, an engagement which evolves through time, as a cumulative experience. Additionally, in the personal finance context, Dholakia et al. (2016) investigate the formation of the personal savings orientation. Going beyond the conceptualisation of saving orientation as a goal-directed behaviour, Dholakia et al. (2016) propose that the failure to consistently save money is not due to the lack of motivation (goals) but to the lack of behavioural strategies to act by one's goals so that consumers can perform consistently and incorporate personal saving into their lifestyle. Collectively, these works provide interesting empirical illustrations of the formation of deep engagement as derived from one's personal goals, the meaning (affects) of the activity, and the recurrent efforts to turn these goals into effective actions incorporated into one's life. Furthermore, the temporal component of becoming deeply engaged with activities is implicit in some of these studies (Appau et al., 2020; Belk et al., 1991; Dholakia et al., 2016), as they describe the dynamic of engagement through time (Appau et al., 2020; Dholakia et al., 2016) and the engagement with the activity as a

progressive experience (Belk et al., 1991). Yet, there has not been an attempt to theorise how consumers may adopt different temporal orientations through time and how these temporal orientations may affect the evolution of engagement (Flaherty et al., 2021). Practice-oriented research offers an ontology which is adequate to investigate temporal orientations within goals and affectivities (i.e. within the teleoaffective component). Next, I describe how practice-oriented consumer research has investigated the notion of deep engagement.

Practice-oriented consumer research provides interesting cases illustrating the formation of deep engagement. My reading of this literature informs three patterns highlighting how individuals become deeply engaged with practices. I derive these patterns from Schatzki's (1997, 2001, 2002, 2019) perspective of the practice blueprint – the constitutive elements of practices. Importantly, I suggest that these studies can be conceptually separated given their emphasis but since they explicitly adopt the elements of the practice blueprint (Schatzki, 1997, 2002, 2019) in their data analysis, some of these studies can be allocated in more than one pattern – that is, Maciel and Wallendorf (2017) and Spotswood et al. (2023).

The first pattern is the ongoing pursuit of goals – which in Schatzki's blueprint is the equivalent of the teleological element of teleoaffective structures. This pattern is represented in Maciel and Wallendorf's (2017: 733) work, which explains practice progression in the craft beer industry, where consumers develop a 'disproportional engagement in the practice'. Craft beer drinkers ('aficionados') 'formulate the goal of mastering it' (p. 733), through the development of cultural competencies – body techniques, perceptions and sayings – adopting learning practices to achieve this goal. Similarly, Weinberger et al. (2017) describe how middle-class young adults in the USA become seriously engaged with lifestyle practices and consumption of exploratory experiences that are learning-oriented and potentially rich in cultural capital. Young adults urgently seek these experiences as they anticipate the dearth of time when they become parents. Additionally, Spotswood et al. (2023: 11) describe how 'a narrow set of end goals dominated by muscle bulking and strength... shape participants' weekly training' in the practice of strength training. In short, while these studies emphasise the role of the ongoing pursuit of goals in fostering deep engagement with practices and while they investigate phenomena that develop through time, they limit the notion of goals to a future perspective derived from the aim of accumulating cultural capital and connecting to taste regimes, which, as I highlight in this study, is just one of the temporal orientations within the temporal diversity of teleoaffective structures, which differently affect the formation of deep engagement with practices.

The second pattern is the progressive acquisition of skills and practical understandings which requires an extended temporal engagement for the development of cognitive and embodied knowledge, doings and sayings (Beverland et al., 2024; Canniford and Shankar, 2013; Kuuru, 2022; Maciel and Wallendorf, 2017; Seregin and Weijo, 2017; Woermann and Rokka, 2015). For instance, in craft beer tasting (Maciel and Wallendorf, 2017), the development of cultural competence – the mastering of cognitive abilities to understand the complex bodily sensations involved in the practice – is a path for intense engagement and progress in the mastery of craft beer tasting, for which consumers develop an 'obsession' instead of simple interest (p. 736). Additionally, Akaka and Schau (2019: 508) highlight how practice continuity in surfing provides challenges and the acquisition of new skills, enhancing consumption experience and value creation. Similar connections between skill development, optimal performance and practice engagement can be seen in the practices of skiing (Woermann and Rokka, 2015), cosplaying (Seregin and Weijo,

2017), video games (De Almeida et al., 2018), wooden boating (Jalas, 2006), do-it-yourself for home improvement (Watson and Shove, 2008) and yoga (Kuuru, 2022), which are challenging and demand progressive learning, since ‘expertise accumulates through sequences of variously successful accomplishment’ (Shove et al., 2012: 75). Although these articles empirically illustrate the role of the progressive acquisition of skills and understandings for fostering deep engagement with practices, they do not account theoretically for the implicit connection between skills acquisition, practical understandings, ends and the short-term (and long-term) goals and strategies that consumers engage in to sustain recurrent and meaningful engagements with practices.

The third pattern is the development of meaningful relations with the practice and its materiality, for instance with surfing and surfboards (Canniford and Shankar, 2013), with cosplaying and costumes (Seregin and Weijo, 2017), with strength training and specialist gym equipment (Spotswood et al., 2023), and the material aspects of places in which practices are performed, such as the natural environments of surfing (Canniford and Shankar, 2013), rock climbing (Rickly, 2017) and the gym’s atmosphere (Spotswood et al., 2023). For Reckwitz (2017: 120), for an individual to participate in the practice ‘there must be some affective incentive’. Thus, the attribution of meaningful relations to the practice fosters continuous engagement with the practice through time. Although these articles empirically illustrate how meaningful relations are part of being deeply engaged with practices, they do not account theoretically for how the temporal orientations of the goals and affectivities within these meaningful relations foster deep engagement with practices.

In short, it can be deployed from the aforementioned practice-oriented studies that deep engagement is derived from the ongoing pursuit of goals, the progressive acquisition of skills and practical understandings and the development of meaningful relations with the practice and its materiality. Nevertheless, these studies overlook the range of temporal orientations within teleo-affective structures. A notable exception is Molander and Hartmann (2018) who highlight how three ‘teleo-affective episodes’ with multiple temporalities organise mothering practices performances. Another exception is Thomas and Epp (2019) who investigate the role of planning (i.e. future orientation) for envisioned practices – a detailed image of how culturally instituted social practices can be transformed into enacted practices shortly. Planning allows consumers to adapt to the many misalignments that occur when they enact newly adopted practices. Yet, as I explain next, the future orientation is just one of the temporal orientations involved in goals. Individuals may differently engage with practices based on future expectations, but also past orientations and present experiences regarding the activity (Schatzki, 2009).

In this section, I connect Schatzki’s (2006, 2009) important observation that individuals may differently engage with practices based on future expectations, past orientations and present experiences regarding the activity with Thévenot’s (2001, 2007) notion of regimes of engagement, which allows an understanding of how practitioners reflexive engage with their reality, and how through different temporal orientations enmeshed within teleo-affective structures practitioners form deep engagement with practices.

Schatzki’s (2006, 2009) notion of teleo-affective structure draws from Heidegger’s (1962) concept of being-in-the-world as projection, thrownness and being-amid, which are ‘the future, past and present dimensions of human activity’ (Schatzki, 2009: 37). Projection (the future orientation) is ‘acting for the sake of a way of being’ that organises what one does (Schatzki’s (2006, 2009: 37). Thrownness (the past orientation) is when a person ‘responds to or acts in the light of particular states of affairs’ (p. 37). Finally, being-amid (the present orientation) is ‘acting amid,

towards and at' the material entities within a context (p. 37). Albeit involving this theoretically sophisticated underpinning, Schatzki's definition of teleoaffective structures does not incorporate projection, thrownness and being-amid.

Teleoaffective structures contain 'enjoined and acceptable ends, ... projects and actions to carry out for those ends, and... emotions' (Schatzki, 2009: 39). Teleology is the orientation toward ends, goals and projects (Schatzki, 2019) and emotions determine 'which actions make sense to people to perform' (p. 125). This research develops on the concept of teleoaffective structures (Schatzki, 1997, 2001, 2002, 2019), avoiding breaking it down merely into 'goals' and 'affectivities'. Instead, this research seeks to unpack the multifaceted temporal orientations within teleoaffective structures. For that, it borrows from Thévenot's notion of regimes of engagement.

While elaborating a theory of action (Hansen, 2023), Thévenot (2001) presents the notion of 'pragmatic regimes of engagement' as 'social devices which govern our way of engaging with our environment...' (Thévenot, 2001: 75). Thévenot (2001) argues that practice theory does not provide 'good accounts of our dynamic confrontation with the world' (p. 65), lacking a 'pragmatic versatility' regarding everyday life and its modes of engagement with the world (Mandich, 2020: 683). Thévenot understands practices as reflexive activities through which individuals coordinate activities in time and space (Hansen, 2023) and project themselves into the future, not only circumscribed by habits (Mandich, 2020). The main idea is that people interact with the world through multiple regimes of engagement, each one with its notion of value (Hansen, 2023). Importantly, Thévenot's (2001, 2007) regimes of engagement embed different temporal orientations of engagements with the environment (Mandich, 2020), which are useful to unpack the broad category of goals in teleoaffective structures and explain the formation of deep engagement through time.

In the regime of familiar engagement, the individual engages with the immediate human and material surroundings to feel at ease and familiarises 'with a milieu shaped by continued use' (Thévenot, 2007: 416). In this regime, bodies gradually become accommodated to the familiar environment, feeling comfort while in action. The regime of familiar engagement configures action through personal dispositions that incline one to act 'by turning to and making use of familiar, appropriated things and inhabited places' (p. 416). In the regime of familiar engagement, the individual acts and adjusts to the immediate reality through a temporal orientation of 'practical anticipation' (Mandich, 2020: 698), bridging the past and the present, by 'selective reactivation... of past patterns', and the immediate future, anticipating the ends within the following instants. In the regime of familiarity, the main temporal dimension 'relates more to the present', to the lived time and space (Mandich, 2020: 690). Accordingly, in this manuscript, I connect this type of engagement with the present orientation.

In the regime of engagement with a plan, the individual realistically engages with the future and seeks satisfaction based on the 'accomplished action' (Thévenot, 2007: 417). Additionally, worth is associated with the 'exercise of the will by an individual endowed with autonomy and capable of projecting herself successfully into the future' (Thévenot, 2007: 417) and reality is functionally grasped to facilitate the plan, to confer control on its execution. In the regime of engagement with a plan, the individual acts in the present for the sake of possible future benefits (i.e. ends), or because of past conditions, thus projecting future expectations (and meanings) into present actions, 'within a logic of probability' (Mandich, 2020: 698). In this manuscript, I connect this type of engagement with the future orientation.

Finally, in the regime of engagement with justifiable actions, 'the individual is oriented by demands of a public order' (Thévenot, 2007: 417), of what has been consolidated as socially fair and legitimate. In this regime, justifiable actions are grasped according to established social conventions and reality is accessed and engaged in search for legitimacy. In this regime, the individual acts in the

present, given conventions and norms established in the past, for the sake of a negotiated future, in public situations in which the ends that are of worth (i.e. legitimate) are submitted to external evaluation and scrutiny, connecting the individual goals with the dilemmas, ambiguities and demands of wider contexts and social norms (Mandich, 2020). The regime of engagement with justifiable actions explains engagements in public (or ‘common’) situations (Hansen, 2023) and, therefore, does not have a specific temporality. Therefore, in this manuscript, I connect this type of engagement with both the past and the future orientations.

Accordingly, I adopt Thévenot’s notion of regimes of engagement as an enabling theory (Dolbec et al., 2021) to understand how varied temporal orientations within teleoaffective structures affect the formation of deep engagement with practices, extending Schatzki’s ideas about the temporal dimensions of human activity and the role of teleoaffective structures in explaining the formation of deep engagement with practices through time. Next, I describe the context of swimming and running practices and the methodological approach.

The notion of transformative orientations explains how individuals are captured by some practices, triggering initial engagements with the practice. In the transformative orientation, goals and affectivities embed past and future orientations, connecting the present moment with affectivities of the past and of the possible future. Importantly, transformative orientations may involve not only individual reflections, plans and decisions but also the reflexive search for what is socially legitimate. Also, the dataset reveals a type of value within transformative orientations which involves

the successful ‘exercise of the will’, a cornerstone of the regime of engagement with a plan (Thévenot, 2007: 417).

The dataset highlights how many (but not all) interviewees describe the adoption of the practice within life contexts full of negative affectivities that demanded ‘turning points’ from their unwanted pasts. In these negative contexts, interviewees established the goal of adopting running or swimming to change their habits, in search of positive affectivities, such as the hope for better health in the future. Interviewees provided many stories of rupture from the past, full of negative affectivities, characterised by the lack of consideration for their health, including heavy drinking, workaholism and other unruly lifestyles, as the following quotations illustrate:

“I was sedentary, I weighed 103 kilos, I drank a lot, I smoked three packs a day, I had pneumonia, with half of a lung removed. The doctor told me to walk, then at the club, I saw the people running and I started.” (Beto, 65 years old)

“At that time in my life, I got chubby... Then I took a ‘turn off’ in my life and started to swim. I was in my mid-30s. I already had two kids, I was married. Then I decided to change my life, I went to therapy... I even cut my hair, I changed everything.” (Helain, 65)

Transformative orientations involve not only establishing goals; instead, transformative orientations comprise negotiated decisions within social pressures for breaking habits and changing lifestyles. For instance, many interviewees vividly described how the decision to break from unwanted past selves was often motivated by doctors’ warnings about the implications of their unhealthy lifestyles and by significant others’ support, as Gerald’s quotation illustrates:

“I used to work a lot, in sales... I weighed 103 kilos, travelled, and drank every day with clients... my wife said I didn’t stop at home. One day I had a burnout. Then I said to myself ‘This life is not cool’... I went to the doctor and he said ‘You have no high pressure, no diabetes, but you are near it. ‘I cried in front of him... I was 50 years old at the time and I asked my wife ‘Give me 6 months’... I quit smoking, I started to walk, to eat well, to see a nutritionist, I completed my first São Silvestre and decided to train for the Blumenau marathon.” (Gerald, 64)

Transformative orientations are enmeshed in positive affectivities and social dynamics in which practitioners are oriented toward what is socially legitimate. In hindsight, interviewees reflectively realise how the adoption of swimming or running has turned them into better versions of themselves, to the point of perceiving themselves as distinguished individuals. This positive affectivity is connected to the general understandings – that is, conventions and social norms – that position ‘old age’ individuals as ‘responsible citizens’ (Katz and Marshall, 2003) and sports practices as part of the ‘successful ageing’ lifestyle (Bülow and Söderqvist, 2014; Rowe and Kahn, 1997), which positions individuals as ‘old’ or ‘not old’ given how active, independent and integrated they are (Bamhart and Peñaloza, 2013), becoming a source of distinction and pride for practitioners.

This type of engagement cannot be understood merely from the atomistic perspective of the rational individual being caught by sports practices due to their benefits. The engagement within the transformative orientation is private (i.e. individual) and public (i.e. social), as goals and affectivities are enmeshed in social dynamics that favour practice adoption. Positive affectivity and social distinction become widely experienced within the quotidian, not only with significant others and doctors but also in quotidian social encounters with other individuals within the same cohort who

are not engaged in sports practices. Marcello, for instance, feels well and even distinguished on social occasions with sedentary friends, as the following quotation illustrates:

“I have a very heterogeneous circle of friends... sometimes we don’t talk about it when we are in a group of sedentary people, people who get drunk, who smoke... there’s not much to talk about because I don’t identify with them, but they’re friends... I feel better than the rest, without modesty... I have friends who are against any kind of exercise...” (Marcello, 61)

The analysis also describes how a transformative orientation triggers the engagement with practices abandoned in the past or with new practices that seemed suitable options at the time, similar to the (re)enactment of identity projects in the retirement phase described by Schau et al. (2009). For instance, some interviewees – that is, Gerald – were not engaged in sports practices in their youth. Others – that is, Alan and Rey – were assiduous practitioners in the past, but disengaged from the practice for many years due to conflicting life contexts, as Rey’s comment illustrates:

“I always played sports... until about 23, 25 years old... Then I got married and I stopped... I was sedentary for 16 years, I smoked and worked a lot. One day I thought I should stop smoking. At that time, jogging was very popular... I started to like the thing... I formed a group of four or five runners... I left home early, worked, and ran at night. In the first year, I lost 12 kilos... When you run, you feel well-being, and you have an improved cardiovascular system... I hardly get sick.” (Rey, 78)

Finally, while transformative orientations trigger initial engagements with the practice, they are chronologically followed by maintenance orientations, which are, hierarchically, the cornerstone of the formation of deep engagement with practices. While some interviewees told stories of ruptures with the past (i.e. Beto, Helaine, Gerald and Rey), all interviewees described how, after practice adoption, they engaged in processes of familiarisation. Next, I will describe how familiarisation with the regular experience and the embodied benefits of the practice nurture deep engagement with the practice.

The notion of maintenance orientations explains how individuals continuously nurture deep engagement with practices. Maintenance orientations enable practitioners to familiarise themselves with the immediate reality, to act and adjust goals and doings within the quotidian, through present temporal orientations. Maintenance orientations involve a type of engagement in which value is measured through the capacity to act in the present for the sake of that which makes one feel stable and at ease, which is a key element of the regime of familiar engagement (Thévenot, 2007).

The main end (benefit) within the maintenance orientation is achieved through familiarisation with the practice in the quotidian. Through time, the milieu of running or swimming increasingly colonises the quotidian (Blue et al., 2021), as practitioners experience the embodied sensations of well-being derived from the recurrent performance – an end that reinforces deep engagement. The author, for instance, took extensive notes on how good it feels throughout the weeks when he manages to swim regularly – that is, 3 to 4 times per week – ‘finding time’ and setting rigid routines – that is, sleeping early and waking up 05:30 a.m. – to perform adequately in the training, early in the morning. Similarly, many interviewees provided rich descriptions of how maintaining the recurrent performance fosters embodied well-being sensations, physically and mentally, as Jara’s and Richard’s quotations illustrate:

“I swim every day because my body asks for it... and I have absolutely nothing [regarding health problems]... no injuries... swimming gave me everything, this musculature... I think it helps with the synapses too... now I am studying neurosciences.” (Jara, 77)

“I feel that my spine improved, everything improved and then I started feeling better and better, with better results. Today, I realise that my good old age, all my strength from a physical, mental and psychological point of view... I’m sure it’s due to swimming.” (Richard, 76)

Maintenance orientations allow routinising engagements, as practitioners adjust performances to maintain their quality within the parameters of ‘the acceptable’ or ‘the desired’. Maintenance orientations involve goals, projects and affectivities that nurture deep engagement with the practice. The author, for instance, decided to adopt a self-tracking watch (a Garmin) which allows him to track his performance in each training occasion and also through time. Accordingly, the new object and its capacities allowed the author a more intense and recurrent training routine, as he actively sought within each training occasion higher peaks of heart rate (i.e. above 160 bpm) and larger distances (i.e. beyond 2500 m per occasion). Self-tracking generated feedback (i.e. objective information and also subjective experiences) which often felt good, creating a positive cycle which strengthened the engagement with swimming.

The routinisation of engagement enables a sense of order in life and quality of time within performance occasions. Many interviewees describe how swimming and running not only become part of their lives but also afford them states similar to flow (Csikszentmihalyi, 1993). The author, for instance, after 2 weeks of regular training, described a particular training occasion as ‘a really good rhythm, the feeling of improvement, of being able to swim equally against good swimmers in the next lane, sometimes even faster... it feels good and it motivates me for the next day’. These experiences are similar to Thévenot’s (2007) notion of bodies becoming gradually accommodated to the familiar environment, in comfort while in action.

Maintenance orientations also nurture recurrent engagements with the practice in non-quotidian contexts – that is, on travelling occasions. In these non-quotidian contexts, short-term goals and adjustments in doings help to maintain the performance and the sensation of well-being, turning the performance into a non-negotiable activity, as illustrated by Makito’s quotation:

“I travel a lot, with friends who don’t run, don’t do anything. Then, I ran before starting the tour. The girls say ‘You are a masochist. A nice bed, papaya, why are you going to run? What’s for?’ They call me a ‘masochist’... for those who run and know the benefits... not being lazy, always willing... you know that’s not it.” (Makito, 76)

In the same way that practitioners become accustomed to the practice, feeling the embodied sensations of the recurrent performance, they immediately feel the difference, when they do not maintain regular performances, with the everyday sensations changing toward unpleasantness, frustration and irritation, as the following quotations illustrate:

“If I stay out for a month I get crazy, I feel bad, with pain all over my body... but why? You didn’t twist anything... but it hurts, the neck gets stiff, your back gets tense, it’s horrible, it’s really bad, it’s the worst thing in the world.” (Alan, 68)

“When I’m out, I feel like someone else. I feel like I’m stopped, that I’m not functioning well. That my body is not working well.” (Helaine, 65)

Maintenance orientations also allow increasingly frequent and intense levels of engagement with the practice as it spreads over the available temporal slots. A common point in many interviews was that changing life conditions increases the available temporal slots to perform the practice. Rey, for instance, explains how retirement (which happened 8 years before the interview) allowed him free time to join a running group and to set ambitious goals which helped to improve his performance. In Rey's case, the temporal slot was an opportunity to establish a more rigid training routine, aiming to evolve within the running practice career and becoming a 'professional amateur':

"[Retirement] changed me... I somehow took it almost as an obligation. I joined [coach's name]'s team, he gave me a weekly worksheet to complete... something more professional, a 'professional amateur' [laughs]." (Rey, 78)

Indeed, engagements within maintenance orientations are dynamic and adaptive, as practitioners pragmatically engage with the practice amid their life context. Challenging events (i.e. injuries), institutions (i.e. doctors and work) and social groups (i.e. family) demand from practitioners adjustments in their doings – that is, altering the intensity or frequency of training. For instance, as Rey approached 79 years old, he decided to reduce the physical intensity involved in competitions. He was a marathon runner and he decided to only attempt half-marathons. Although half-marathons seem a challenge for non-runners and recreational runners, for Rey, they were described as simply 'a little challenge':

"I want to continue with half marathons. In July, for example, I'm going to be 79 years old and I decided to celebrate differently, with one competition every Sunday... on the 3rd, 10th, 17th and 31st... I'm going to take these 4 challenges to show that I'm in good health, satisfied with myself... [it's nice] to face a little challenge." (Rey, 78)

Marcello also explains how he adapted his goals due to a heart condition and the effects of some medicines he was taking:

"I feel that these frequency blockers are like speed limiters in cars... you accelerate and you can't go any faster because something's blocking you... but there's also the recovery... I feel blocked but today I was one second faster, tomorrow it will be two seconds, the day after tomorrow it will be three seconds and there will come a time when I will be performing similarly to what I had before, despite the medication." (Marcello, 61)

Finally, although maintenance orientations nurture practice engagement in the quotidian, being fundamental for the formation of deep engagement with practices, maintenance orientations also intertwine with envisioned-futures orientations – that is, goals, projects and ends foreseen by practitioners. Maintenance orientations are chronologically followed by envisioned-future orientations, which become present when practitioners reflect on their desires and expectations for the practice in the future, which all do. In this sense, envisioned-future orientations are, hierarchically, secondary to maintenance orientations in the sense that envisioned-future orientations are a means to sustain practice engagements in the future. Therefore, maintenance orientations are a critical condition to sustain deep engagement with the practice in the long term, as I describe next.

The notion of envisioned-future orientations explains how individuals foresee future engagements, establishing plans and goals which project themselves into possible futures, which, in turn, sustain recurrent and meaningful engagements with the practice in the present. Envisioned-future orientations involve a type of engagement in which value is measured through the capacity to project oneself into the future, a key element of the regime of engagement with a plan, and through the desire for invaluable social identities, a cornerstone of the regime of engagement with justifiable actions (Thévenot, 2007).

Interestingly, all interviewees declared that they foresee their future engagement with the practice (i.e. for as long as possible) and that they think about and envision some goals for the future (i.e. from 5 to 20 years ahead of the moment of the interview). This future orientation is connected to the expected ends (i.e. benefits) of achieving good health and physical conditions in 'old age'. Although the examples provided in this section are from individuals with more than 64 years old, all interviewees are aware of the relationship between the recurrent performance of sports practices and these benefits. For instance, all interviewees answered the question 'How do you see yourself in 5, 10 or 20 years?', by saying that they want to keep performing it for as long as they can and that they expect the embodied benefits of these engagements, as the following quotations illustrate:

"I hope to stay the way I am, not to lose myself too much, that's all... staying is good. 2,000 m is fine, 1,500 m is fine. I want to stay active, and healthy, not to become a boring person." (Helaine, 65)

"I will swim for as long as I can if I live to be 100 years old... maybe I'll do only 100 m, it doesn't matter, I want to be in the water, the water is good for me..." (Alan, 68)

Importantly, envisioned-future orientations involve not just abstract plans, goals and affectivities of the distant future; envisioned-future orientations affect the engagement with the practice in the present because they organise present performances, connecting present projects and doings to future-oriented ends and goals. Rey, for instance, wants to keep running for as long as possible, an abstract future goal that is turned into the present goal of participating in the centenary edition of the most popular competition in Brazil – the Sao Silvestre:

"I have a friend who is 87 years old and he is still running... so I usually say that at 87 years old I would like to be running... in 2025 it will be the hundredth Sao Silvestre... one of my goals is to participate in this race... my blood glucose is a little above normal, above 120, so it's another reason for concern but I try to take care of myself so it doesn't escalate." (Rey, 78)

Envisioned-future orientations with running and swimming are particularly affected by symbols – that is, older individuals whom they believe to be in unquestionably good mental and physical conditions, which they attribute to the recurrent performance of sports practices. All interviewees told stories about role models and even about themselves being taken as role models, often by younger practitioners (such as the author, who also considers many of the interviewees as role models), as the following quotation illustrates:

"I'm always asked to tell others about my experience... I'm a guy who's willing to do anything, I don't take any medication, I don't have any depressive syndrome, and I face stress with great serenity... the

gain is absurd compared to my age group. I'm able to dive, to play tennis, to work many hours, to bear not sleeping, to help anyone in need." (Richard, 76)

In short, the envisioned-future orientation involves distant-future temporal orientations, and their imagined projects, doings, ends and affectivities, through which practitioners reflexively engage with the practice and 'project successfully into the future' (Thévenot, 2007: 417). These plans and long-term goals organise present goals and doings, helping to sustain deep engagement with the practice through time, potentially extending, chronologically, practice careers.