1. ID501
Toward a Theory of Social
Practices
A Development in Culturalist Theorizing
Andreas Reckwitz
Selma Kadiroğlu
1561729
2. Key words
action, culture, knowledge, practice , discourse
body, mind, social
Aim
• the points at which a theory of social practices can be distinguished from its
alternatives
• how its basic vocabulary changes
• effects of practice theory
3. Social Theories
Classically Modern High Modern
Theories Theories
subjectivist
Homo Mentalism
economicus
objectivist
Homo
Intersubjectivisim
sociologicus
Textualism
Practice Theory
4. High Modern Theories vs Classically Modern Theories
-a different form of explaining and understanding action;
by having recourse to symbolic structures of meaning
-their way of treating human action and social order
Homo economicus Homo sociologicus Cultural theories
recourse to individual reconstruct symbolic structures
Action purposes, intentions and point to collective of knowledge to interpret the
interests norms and values world and
behave corresponding ways
embedded in collective cognitive
Social a product of the guaranteed by a and symbolic structures,
order combination of single normative consensus in a shared knowledge
interests
-Homo economicus and homo socius have a blind point: dismiss the implicit, tacit
or unconscious layer of knowledge that enables a symbolic organization of reality.
5. Cultural theories
*practice theory *mentalism *intersubjectivisim *textualism
• conceptualization of the body, mind, things, discourse, structure/process and the agent
• localization of the social
mentalism mind
textualism discourse or sign systems
intersubjectivism interaction
practice theory practices
6. forms of bodily activities motivational knowledge
forms of mental activities know-how
practice
things and their use states of emotion
a backround knowledge in the form of understanding
7. Practice Theory
carrier: the single individual –as a bodily and mental agent
Schatzki ;
‘The practice should be understandable to the agent or the agents who are the carrier,
and also to the potential observers.’
Body
not a mere instrument which the agent uses, but the routinized actions themselves
bodily performances.
-handling objects, intellectual activities(talking, reading,writing)
Mind
certain mental activities and knowledge are integral parts of practices.
Ex: playing football with certain aims and know-how
8. Things
most social practices consists of routinized relations between several
agents(body/mind) and objects.
ex: the ball and playing football
subject-subject relation , subject-object relation
Knowledge
constitutive element of a practice, a way of understanding of objects, of humans and
of oneself , know-how and a certain way of wanting and feeling
ex: falling in love: a routinized behavior and
a certain way of understanding(oneself and other one)
every practice implies a particular routinized mode of intentionality (of wanting, desiring
certain things and avoiding others)
9. Discourse/Language
different forms in which the world is meaningfully constructed in language or in other
sign-systems
contains bodily patterns, routinized mental activities, motivation, objects
ascribe certain meanings to certain objects
Structure/Process
routine social practices ( moving the body, understanding, wanting, using things)
social fields and institutionalized complexes are structured by routines
the sequence of time, in repetition (social order is thus social reproduction)
10. The Agent/Individual
• body/mind who carry social practices
• understand the world and themselves, use know-how and knowledge according to a
particular practice
“individual”
diverse social practices the unique crossing point of different mental
every agent carry out different practices and bodily rouitines in one
mind/body
11. The Effects of Practice Theory
• opens up a certain way of seeing and analysing the social phenomena.
• Change ‘our’ self understanding.
Social theories;
• define our position as human beings in a social world (politicalðical)
• provide cultural traditions of grasping ourselves
• ways of breaking with cultural traditions of human self perception, changing them
and opening up new possibilities of self-understanding.
12. Summary of Cultural Theories
Mentalism
encourages to understand ourselves as either
- systems of unconscious mental categories (objectivist) or
- intentional streams of individual consiousness (subjectivist)
Intersubjectivism
invites to understand ourselves as participant in the constellation of conversational
acts
Textualism
invites to regard the social world as a chain of discourses, symbols and communication
so, as an unintended play of meanings
Practice Theory
encourages to shift self-understanding,
invites to regard agents as carriers of routinized bodily movements, interpreting,
knowing how, wanting and the usage of things.
13. • Practice theory vs Mentalism
-does not analyse the mental phenomena
-the exploration of the mental activities of understanding&knowing and the
analysis of interconnected bodily routines, mental routines and the use of object
-in mentalism; body gains the status of an epiphenomenon, it carries out what
mind commands,
thinking has priority over bodily acting.
14. • Practice theory vs Textualism & Intersubjectivism
-does not regard of instutional complexes only as spheres of discourse,
communication but their consideration as routinized body/knowledge/things-
patterns of which discursive practices are components.
-knowledge is a backround for communication, not for practice and body appears
as a referrent(intersubjectivism)
-body is just an object which can become a symbol, a theme of
discourse(textualism).
15. • Cultural theories vs Classical Models (homo economicus-homo sociologicus)
-consist of the symbolic and the cognitive spheres and ask how these structures give
meaning to the world.
-the agent is not at the centre.
16. • Practice theory vs All Others
- a rigid rationalization of what human agency and social order are.
-Bourdieu;
“ modern social theories have a tendency to present the agent as a highly reflexive
and rational enterprise;
in the form of calculating or duty-obeying agents
consciousness or mental machines .”
shifted
-bodily movements
-things decentred
-practical knowledge -mind
-text
- conversation
