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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01 Jan 1993
TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue that it is unacceptable to dismiss problems encountered by development projects as the inadequate implementation of knowledge, and suggest that failures stem from the constitution of knowledge and its object.
Abstract: Questioning the utopian image of western knowledge as a uniquely successful achievement in its application to economic and social development, this provocative volume, the latest in the EIDOS series, argues that it is unacceptable to dismiss problems encountered by development projects as the inadequate implementation of knowledge. Rather, it suggests that failures stem from the constitution of knowledge and its object. By focussing on the ways in which agency in development is attributed to experts, thereby turning previously active participants into passive subjects or ignorant objects, the contributors claim that the hidden agenda to the aims of educating and improving the lives of those in the undeveloped world falls little short of perpetuating ignorance.
408Â citations
TL;DR: The conceptual reception of Bourdieu's sociology in the United States through a conceptual re-examination of the concept of Habitus is discussed in this paper, where it is shown to have roots in structural anthropology and in the developmental psychology of Jean Piaget, especially the latter's generalization of the idea of operations from mathematics to the study of practical, bodily mediated cognition.
Abstract: This paper aims to balance the conceptual reception of Bourdieu's sociology in the United States through a conceptual re-examination of the concept of Habitus. I retrace the intellectual lineage of the Habitus idea, showing it to have roots in Claude Levi-Strauss structural anthropology and in the developmental psychology of Jean Piaget, especially the latter's generalization of the idea of operations from mathematics to the study of practical, bodily-mediated cognition. One important payoff of this exercise is that the common misinterpretation of the Habitus as an objectivist and reductionist element in Bourdieu's thought is dispelled. The Habitus is shown to be instead a useful and flexible way to concep-tualize agency and the ability to transform social structure. Thus ultimately one of Bourdieu's major contributions to social theory consists of his development of a new radical form of cognitive sociology, along with an innovative variety of multilevel sociological explanation in which the interplay of different structural orders is highlighted. In keeping with the usual view, the goal of sociology is to uncover the most deeply buried structures of the different social worlds that make up the social universe, as well as the "mechanisms" that tend to ensure their reproduction or transformation. Merging with psychology, though with a kind of psychology undoubtedly quite different from the most widely accepted image of this science, such an exploration of the cognitive structures that agents bring to bear in their practical knowledge of the social worlds thus structured. Indeed there exists a correspondence between social structures and mental structures, between the objective divisions of the social world . . . and the principles of vision and division that agents apply to them (Bourdieu, 1996b[1989], p. 1).
406Â citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that community remains a potent symbol and aspiration in political and intellectual life, and that it has largely passed out of sociological analysis, and they show why this has occurred.
Abstract: Community remains a potent symbol and aspiration in political and intellectual life. However, it has largely passed out of sociological analysis. The paper shows why this has occurred, and it devel...
405Â citations
TL;DR: It is argued that understanding resources through a social practice perspective enables us to understand more about the role of resources in change and provides a new way to understand organizational change.
Abstract: In this paper I argue that understanding resources through a social practice perspective enables us to understand more about the role of resources in change. In particular, social practice theory enables us to view resources in context as mutable sources of energy rather than as stable things that are independent of context, and to analyze the reciprocal relationship between actions and resources as they change. This approach to understanding resources requires an elaboration on current social practice theory and provides a new way to understand organizational change. This perspective is used to show how resources transform in unexpected ways as a result of change in organizational routines and how this transformation of resources makes resistance to change difficult to predict.
403Â citations
TL;DR: The authors provide an overview of some of the dominant empirical and conceptual themes in the area of graduate employment and employability over the past decade, and argue for a broader understanding of employability than that offered by policymakers.
403Â citations