The Pratice Turn In Contemporary Theory

This work provides a diverse philosophical exploration of the role of practice and practices in human activity. It contains essays and critiques of this philosophical and sociological attempt to move beyond current problematic ways of thinking in the humanities and social sciences and explore several conceptions of practice: as underlying subjects and objects, as conditions of knowledge and as a building-block of social phenomena. The essays discuss philosophers such as Wittgenstein, Heidegger and Derrida, whose contributions have been influential in practice theory. It also shows how practice theory stands in opposition to numerous prevalent ways of thinking, such as structuralism, system theory, semiotics, and many strains of humanism. Among the motivations of practice theory study is its approach to science and technology as an activity opposed to representation and its attempt to rethink humanist dichotomies between human and non human entities. This text should be useful to all those interested in the role that practices play in our lives and across a large number of disciplines including philosophy, sociology, science, cultural theory, history and anthropology.