Outline of a Theory of Practice.
About: This article is published in Contemporary Sociology.The article was published on 1980-03-01. It has received 14683 citations till now. The article focuses on the topics: Practice theory.
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TL;DR: In this article, the authors focus on the underdeveloped field of high-skilled female migration and rely on life story interviews with high skilled women immigrating for reasons other than work, and show how some women, mostly with skills from the natural sciences, were able to retain former professional identities.
Abstract: Focusing on the underdeveloped field of high-skilled female migration, this article relies on life story interviews with high-skilled women immigrating for reasons other than work.The article conceptualizes migration as a`vital conjuncture', a critical life period in which both different futures and different identities are at stake, and shows how some women — mostly with skills from the natural sciences — were able to retain former professional identities. Other women, facing the threat of becoming `just housewives', found work in the higher-skilled sectors of the labour market in different ways: through re-educating themselves; by becoming `cultural brokers' for other immigrants; or by returning to their home country. Women unable to follow through on one of these four options lost claims to being high-skilled. The analysis contributes to our understanding of both high-skilled female migration and the centrality of identity in constraining or enabling movement within social structures.
150 citations
TL;DR: The authors examine Bourdieu's conception of symbolic domination as based on misrecognition and compare it with Gramsci's notion of hegemony based on consent, drawing on ethnographic research in workplaces in the USA and Hungary.
Abstract: In this article I examine Bourdieu’s conception of symbolic domination as based on misrecognition and compare it with Gramsci’s notion of hegemony based on consent. Drawing on ethnographic research in workplaces in the USA and Hungary I show how both theories are flawed. Gramsci does not appreciate the importance of mystification as a foundation for stable hegemony in advanced capitalism while Bourdieu’s notion of misrecognition, based on the notion of habitus, is too deep to comprehend the fragility of state socialist regimes. Comparative analysis, I argue, calls for a concept of domination that is more contingent than Bourdieu’s symbolic domination, yet deeper than Gramsci’s hegemony.
149 citations
TL;DR: It is demonstrated how, as IT was used to support the exchange and combination of depersonalized objects, other aspects of the practice also changed and the related changes in these diverse aspects of a boundary-spanning practice supported the trend toward greater objectification.
Abstract: This paper examines how information technology (IT) transforms relations across fields of practice within organizations. Drawing on Bourdieu's practice theory, we argue that the production of any practice involves varying degrees of embodiment (i.e., relying on personal relationships) and objectification (i.e., relying on the exchange of objects). We subsequently characterize boundary-spanning practices according to their relative degrees of embodiment and objectification. We distinguish between "market-like" boundary-spanning practices, which rely primarily on an objectified mode of practice production, from "community-like" practices, which involve mostly the embodied mode of practice production. IT is then conceptualized as a medium for sharing objects in the production of practices. As such, IT use allows for the sharing of objects without relying on embodied relationships. We use data from an in-depth ethnographic case study to investigate how IT was used to transform community-like boundary-spanning practices within an organization into market-like ones. Moreover, we demonstrate how, as IT was used to support the exchange and combination of depersonalized objects, other aspects of the practice (such as the roles of intermediaries and the nature of meetings) also changed. The related changes in these diverse aspects of a boundary-spanning practice supported the trend toward greater objectification. IT use also increased visibility of the terms associated with object exchange. This increased visibility exposed the inequity of the exchange and encouraged the disadvantaged party to renegotiate the relationship.
149 citations
TL;DR: The co-creation of value and the coproduction of value proposition have attracted enormous interest in the B2B service and solutions research as discussed by the authors, and many papers have been published in the areas of management, marketing, strategy, and operations.
149 citations
TL;DR: Most of Pierre Bourdieu's work describes struggles over symbolic capital and hierarchies among the economic and cultural elite as discussed by the authors. However, his theories and concepts are not exclusive to studies of th...
Abstract: Most of Pierre Bourdieu's work describes struggles over symbolic capital and hierarchies among the economic and cultural elite. However, his theories and concepts are not exclusive to studies of th...
149 citations