Provides coal for scientific unit (6)
I believe the answer is:
stokes
'provides' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both to do with social activities as well as being verbs in their -s form.
Maybe you can see an association between them that I can't see?
'coal for scientific unit' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'for' could be 'to' (eg both can mean 'in the opinion of') and 'to' is found in the answer.
'unit' could be 's' (S is an example) and 's' is present in the answer.
The remaining letters 'kes' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for stokes that I've seen before include "Feeds (a furnace)" , "Viscosity units; fuels (furnace)" , "Adds coal to (a furnace)" , "Feeds with fuel" , "Builds up a fire" .)