The Practice Turn in Contemporary Theory

Agreement, negotiation, interaction, skills and interpretation are primary aspects of practice. It is through our practical understanding of events and interactions with people that our knowledge is mediated. During the past decade, practice theory has emerged as a challenging new approach to prevalent ways of thinking, which have until now been concerned with individual minds and social structures. The Practice Turn in Contemporary Theory is the first volume to bring together philosophers, sociologists and scientists to explore and examine the role of practices in human activity: as underlying subject and object, 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. They show how practice theory stands in opposition to modes of thought such as structuralism, system theory, semiotics, as well as many strains of humanism; and how its approach to science and technology as an activity opposes representations and rethinks humanist dichotomies between human and non human entities. The Practice Turn in Contemporary Theory will be of invaluable to all those interested in the role that practices play in our lives as well as across a large number of disciplines including philosophy, sociology, science, cultural theory, history and anthropology. Barry Barnes, University of Exeter, UK, Jeff Coulter, Boston University, USA, Theodore R. Schatzki, University of Kentucky, USA, Laurent Thevenot, Ecoles des Hautes Etudes,