Abstract
This chapter introduces the theory of practice architectures and locates it within the theoretical terrain of practice theory. It highlights what is distinctive about the theory as a practice theory, and discusses its affordances as a theoretical, analytical, and transformational resource for practitioners and researchers. We argue that, to create new possibilities for practice in our disciplines and professions, and/or to challenge unsustainable or untoward practices in education and professional practice more broadly, our current practices must be interrogated. The theory of practice architectures can inform such interrogative work. This chapter provides a foundation for the case chapters in this book which variously illustrate the kinds of insights yielded by exploring education and professional practice through the lens of practice architectures.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsNotes
- 1.
Readers are encouraged to consult this work for a more comprehensive explication of practice theory . Nicolini (2013) has explored in detail the contribution of various theoretical and/or methodological traditions including cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT), ethnomethodology, actor network theory, discourse analysis, and traditions related to the work of Giddens , Bourdieu , Wittgenstein , Heidegger , and Schatzki . Reckwitz (2002), in contrast, has located practice theory in relation to other cultural theories (mentalism, culturalism, and intersubjectivism). Schatzki (2001) provided an historical account of practice theory as an introduction to an edited collection of chapters exemplifying his notion of a ‘practice turn’. Other authors have provided a brief history of practice theory as a way of locating their own philosophical/empirical work, shedding light on, or critiquing, the contributions and relevance of practice theory to their fields (e.g., Feldman and Orlikowski 2011; Corradi et al. 2010); and/or contextualising their arguments (Green 2009; Shove et al. 2012).
- 2.
Mental processes are not ignored. Rather they are treated as embedded “in a complex of doings ” (Reckwitz 2002, p. 258).
- 3.
- 4.
- 5.
Referred to in Kemmis and Grootenboer (2008) as “extra-individual conditions ” (p. 37) to distinguish these arrangements from conditions brought to a practice by the person doing the practice.
- 6.
This is a point of divergence between the theory of practice architectures and the work of Schatzki (2002). Rather than specifying three different kinds of arrangements that prefigure practice, Schatzki (2005) referred to such arrangements using a more general term: material arrangements . Following Wittgenstein (1957), Schatzki (1996, 2002) refers frequently to the ‘sayings ’ and ‘doings ’ that compose practices; the theory of practice architectures makes the ‘relatings ’ of a practice explicit and prominent (rather than leaving them implied), because, as we discuss later, they point towards the dimension of solidarity and power that also permeates practices.
- 7.
Schatzki (2012) described the relationship between practices and material arrangements in terms of bundling . He depicted sites as “bundles” of practices and “material arrangements ” (2012, p. 16). He used the word ‘bundle’ to reflect the inseparability of practices (e.g., teaching practice) and material arrangements (e.g., classrooms arrangements ) within a site : “practices affect, use, give meaning to, and are inseparable from arrangements while … arrangements channel, prefigure , facilitate, and are essential to practices” (2012, p. 16). Kemmis and colleagues, in contrast, use the term enmeshment in preference to ‘bundling’ when describing the relationship between practices and arrangements , and reserve their use of the word ‘bundle’ and its variants for describing how sayings , doings , and relatings ‘hang together ’, or how arrangements ‘hang together’.
- 8.
- 9.
For a more detailed elaboration of the theory of ecologies of practices see Kemmis et al. (2012).
- 10.
Note that a practice landscape is also a site of practice. It is a site that has multiple sites of practice nested within it.
- 11.
This is not to suggest that practice is not already political.
- 12.
The word ‘constrain ’ is not necessarily associated with negative outcomes. What constrains a practice may be preventing paths from being open because it is channe ling action (via particular fences and boundaries) towards something else that has positive consequences.
- 13.
This is a point of distinction between the theory of practice architectures and other theories that ascribe agency to material artefacts (e.g., actor network theory ) as mentioned in the first part of the chapter. “Matter matters” (Fenwick 2010, p. 106) in the theory of practice architectures , but not to the point of assuming agentic status equivalent to that of humans in practice. How and that matter (i.e., the material) matters, is still seen as a matter of human sense-making.
- 14.
Practice architectures.
References
Bourdieu, P. (1977). Outline of a theory of practice (R. Nice, Trans.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Bourdieu, P. (1990). The logic of practice (R. Nice, Trans.). Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Bourdieu, P., & Wacquant, L. (1992). An invitation to reflexive sociology. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Brennan Kemmis, R., & Green, A. (2013). Vocational education and training teachers’ conceptions of their pedagogy. International Journal of Training Research, 11(2), 101–121.
Bristol, L. (2014). Leading-for-inclusion: Transforming action through teacher talk. International Journal of Inclusive Education. doi:10.1080/13603116.2014.971078.
Butler, C., Parkhill, K., & Pidgeon, N. (2014). Energy consumption and everyday life: Choice, values and agency through a practice theoretical lens. Journal of Consumer Culture. doi:10.1177/1469540514553691.
Capra, F. (1997). The web of life. New York: Anchor.
Capra, F. (2004). The hidden connections: A science for sustainable living. New York: Anchor.
Capra, F. (2005). Speaking nature’s language: Principles for sustainability. In M. K. Stone & Z. Barlow (Eds.), Ecological literacy: Educating our children for a sustainable world (pp. 18–29). San Francisco: Sierra Book Club Books.
Corradi, G., Gherardi, S., & Verzelloni, L. (2010). Through the practice lens: Where is the bandwagon of practice-based studies heading? Management Learning, 41, 265–283. doi:10.1177/1350507609356938.
Edwards-Groves, C., & Rönnerman, K. (2012). Generating leading practices through professional learning. Professional Development in Education. doi:10.1080/19415257.2012.724439.
Engeström, Y. (1999). Activity theory and individual and social transformation. In Y. Engeström, R. Miettinen, & R. L. Punamäki (Eds.), Perspectives on activity theory (pp. 19–38). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Feldman, M. S., & Orlikowski, W. J. (2011). Theorizing practice and practicing theory. Organization Science, 22(5). doi:10.1287/orsc.1100.0612.
Fenwick, T. (2010). Rethinking the “thing”: Sociomaterial approaches to understanding and researching learning in work. Journal of Workplace Learning, 22(1/2), 104–116. doi:10.1108/13665621011012898.
Fenwick, T. (2012). Co-production in practice: A sociomaterial analysis. Professions and Professionalism, 2(2), 1–16. doi:10.7577/pp/v2i1.323.
Foucault, M. (1976). The archaeology of knowledge (A. M. Sheridan Smith, Trans.). New York: Harper and Row.
Foucault, M. (1980). Power/knowledge: Selected interviews and other writings. New York: Pantheon.
Garfinkel, H. (1967). Studies in ethnomethodology. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall.
Gherardi, S. (2006). Organisational knowledge: The texture of workplace learning. Malden: Blackwell.
Gherardi, S. (2009). Introduction: The critical power of the ‘practice lens’. Management Learning, 40, 115–128. doi:10.1177/1350507608101225.
Gherardi, S., & Nicolini, D. (2000a). The organizational learning of safety in communities of practice. Journal of Management Inquiry, 9(1), 7–18.
Gherardi, S., & Nicolini, D. (2000b). To transfer is to transform: The circulation of safety knowledge. Organization, 7(2), 329–348.
Giddens, A. (1976). New rules of sociological method. London: Hutchinson.
Giddens, A. (1979). Central problems in social theory. Basingstoke: Macmillan.
Giddens, A. (1984). The constitution of society: Outline of the theory of structuration. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Green, B. (2009). Introduction. In B. Green (Ed.), Understanding and researching professional practice (pp. 1–18). Rotterdam: Sense.
Green, B., & Hopwood, N. (2015). The body in professional practice, learning and education: A question of corporeality. In B. Green & N. Hopwood (Eds.), The body in professional practice, learning and education: Body/practice (pp. 15–33). London: Springer.
Green, W., Hibbons, R., Houghton, L., & Ruutz, A. (2013). Reviving praxis: Stories of continual professional learning and practice architectures in a faculty-based teaching community of practice. Oxford Review of Education, 39(2), 247–266.
Habermas, J. (1972). Knowledge and human interests (J. J. Shapiro, Trans.). London: Heinemman.
Habermas, J. (1974). Theory and practice (J. Viertel, Trans.). London: Heinemann.
Hager, P. (2012). Theories of practice and their connections with learning: A continuum of more and less inclusive accounts. In P. Hager, A. Lee, & A. Reich (Eds.), Practice, learning and change: Practice-theory perspectives on professional learning (pp. 17–32). Dordrecht: Springer.
Hager, P. (2013). Practice and group learning. Educational Philosophy and Theory. doi:10.1080/00131857.2013.779212.
Hager, P., Lee, A., & Reich, A. (2012). Problematising practice, reconceptualising learning and imagining change. In P. L. Hager, A. Lee, & A. Reich (Eds.), Practice, learning and change: Practice-theory perspectives on professional learning (pp. 1–14). Dordrecht: Springer.
Hardy, I. (2010a). Academic architectures: Academic perceptions of teaching conditions in an Australian university. Studies in Higher Education, 35(4), 391–404.
Hardy, I. (2010b). Teacher talk: Flexible delivery and academics’ praxis in an Australian university. International Journal for Academic Development, 15(2), 131–142.
Hargreaves, T. (2011). Practice-ing behaviour change: Applying social practice theory to pro-environmental behaviour change. Journal of Consumer Culture, 1, 79–99. doi:10.1177/1469540510390500.
Heidegger, M. (1962). Being and time (J. Macquarrie, & E. Robinson, Trans.). New York: Harper and Row.
Hemmings, B., Kemmis, S., & Reupert, A. (2013). Practice architectures of inclusive education teaching in Australia. Professional Development in Education, 39(4). doi:10.1080/19415257.2013.796293.
Hodder, I. (2012). Entangled: An archaeology of the relationships between human beings and things. New York: Wiley.
Hopwood, N. (2014). A socio-material account of signatures, partnerships and accountabilities in practice. Professions and Professionalism, 4(2). doi:10.7577/pp.604.
Hopwood, N., Fowler, C., Lee, A., Rossiter, C., & Bigsby, M. (2013). Understanding partnership practice in child and family nursing through the concept of practice architectures. Nursing Inquiry. doi:10.1111/nin/12019.
Kemmis, S. (2005). Knowing practice: Searching for saliences. Pedagogy, Culture and Society, 13(3), 391–426.
Kemmis, S. (2009). Understanding professional practice: A synoptic framework. In B. Green (Ed.), Understanding and researching professional practice (pp. 19–38). Rotterdam: Sense.
Kemmis, S. (2010a). Research for praxis: Knowing doing. Pedagogy, Culture and Society, 8(1), 9–27.
Kemmis, S. (2010b). What is professional practice? Recognising and respecting diversity in understandings of practice. In C. Kanes (Ed.), Elaborating professionalism: Studies in practice and theory (pp. 139–166). London: Springer.
Kemmis, S., & Brennan Kemmis, R. (2014, April). VET [Vocational Education and Training] practices and practice architectures. Paper presented at the annual conference of the Australian Vocational Education and Training Research Association (AVETRA), Surfers Paradise, Queensland, Australia.
Kemmis, S., & Grootenboer, P. (2008). Situating praxis in practice: Practice architectures and the cultural, social and material conditions for practice. In S. Kemmis & T. Smith (Eds.), Enabling praxis: Challenges for education (pp. 37–62). Rotterdam: Sense.
Kemmis, S., & Heikkinen, H. (2012). Future perspectives: Peer-group mentoring and international practices for teacher development. In H. Heikkinen, H. Jokinen, & P. Tynjälä (Eds.), Peer-group mentoring for teacher development (pp. 144–170). Milton Park: Routledge.
Kemmis, S., & Mutton, R. (2012). Education for sustainability (EfS): Practice and practice architectures. Environmental Education Research, 18(2), 187–207. doi:10.1080/13504622.2011.596929.
Kemmis, S., & Smith, T. (2008). Praxis and praxis development. In S. Kemmis & T. Smith (Eds.), Enabling praxis: Challenges for education (pp. 3–13). Rotterdam: Sense.
Kemmis, S., Edwards-Groves, C., Wilkinson, J., & Hardy, I. (2012). Ecologies of practices. In P. Hager, A. Lee, & A. Reich (Eds.), Practice, learning and change: Practice-theory perspectives on professional learning (pp. 33–49). Dordrecht: Springer.
Kemmis, S., Heikkinen, H., Aspfors, J., Fransson, G., & Edwards-Groves, C. (2014a). Mentoring as contested practice: Support, supervision and collaborative self-development. Teaching and Teacher Education, 43, 154–164.
Kemmis, S., Wilkinson, J., Edwards-Groves, C., Hardy, I., Grootenboer, P., & Bristol, L. (2014b). Changing practices, changing education. Singapore: Springer.
Latour, B. (1996). On actor-network theory: A few clarifications. Soziale Welt, 47, 369–382.
Latour, B. (2005). Reassembling the social: An introduction to actor-network-theory. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Lave, J., & Wenger, E. (1991). Situated learning: Legitimate peripheral participation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Lloyd, A. (2010). Framing information literacy as information practice: Site ontology and practice theory. Journal of Documentation, 66(2), 245–258.
MacIntyre, A. (1981). After virtue: A study in moral theory. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press.
Mahon, K. (2014). Critical pedagogical praxis in higher education. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga.
Marx, K. (1845). Theses on Feuerbach. Retrieved from https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1845/theses/theses.htm.
Marx, K. (1852). The eighteenth brumaire of Louis Bonaparte. Retrieved from https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1852/18th-brumaire/.
Nicolini, D. (2011). Practice as the site of knowing: Insights from the field of telemedicine. Organization Science, 22(3), 602–620.
Nicolini, D. (2013). Practice theory, work, and organisation: An introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Nicolini, D., Gherardi, S., & Yanow, D. (Eds.). (2003). Knowing in organizations: A practice-based approach. Armonk: M. E. Sharpe.
Orlikowski, W. J. (2007). Sociomaterial practices: Exploring technology at work. Organization Studies, 28, 1435–1448.
Orlkowski, W. J. (2010). Practice in research phenomena, perspective and philosophy. In D. Golsorkhi, L. Rouleau, D. Seidl, & E. Vaara (Eds.), Cambridge handbook of strategy as practice (pp. 23–33). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Price, O., Sheeres, H., & Boud, D. (2009). Remaking jobs: Enacting and learning work practices. Vocations and Learning, 2, 217–234.
Reckwitz, A. (2002). Toward a theory of social practices: A development in culturalist theorizing. European Journal of Social Theory, 5(2), 243–263.
Rönnerman, K., & Kemmis, S. (2016). Stirring doctoral candidates into academic practices: A doctoral course and its practice architectures. Education Inquiry, 7(2). doi:10.3402/edui.v7.27558.
Salamon, A., Sumsion, J., Press, F., & Harrison, L. (2015). Implicit theories and naïve beliefs: Using the theory of practice architectures to deconstruct the practices of early childhood educators. Journal of Early Childhood Research. doi:10.1177/1476718X14563857.
Salo, P., Nylund, J., & Stjernstrøm, E. (2014). On the practice architectures of instructional leadership. Educational Management Administration Leadership. doi:10.1177/1741143214523010.
Schatzki, T. (1996). Social practices: A Wittgensteinian approach to human activity and the social. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Schatzki, T. (2001). Introduction: Practice theory. In T. Schatzki, K. Knorr Cetina, & E. von Savigny (Eds.), The practice turn in contemporary theory (pp. 1–14). London: Routledge.
Schatzki, T. (2002). The site of the social: A philosophical account of the constitution of social life and change. University Park: The Pennsylvania State University Press.
Schatzki, T. (2003). A new societist social ontology. Philosophy of the Social Sciences, 33(2), 174–202.
Schatzki, T. (2005). Peripheral vision: The sites of organizations. Organization Studies, 26(3), 465–484.
Schatzki, T. (2006). On organizations as they happen. Organization Studies, 27, 18631873. doi:10.1177/0170840606071942.
Schatzki, T. (2010). The timespace of human activity: On performance, society, and history as indeterminate teleological events. Lanham: Lexington.
Schatzki, T. (2012). A primer on practices: Theory and research. In J. Higgs (Ed.), Practice-based education: Perspectives and strategies (pp. 13–26). Rotterdam: Sense.
Shove, E., Pantzar, M., & Watson, M. (2012). The dynamics of social practices: Everyday life and how it changes. Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Sjølie, E. (2014). Pedagogy is just common sense: A case study of student teachers’ learning practices. Doctoral dissertation, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway.
Swidler, A. (2001). What anchors cultural practices. In T. Schatzki, K. Knorr Cetina, & E. von Savigny (Eds.), The practice turn in contemporary theory (pp. 74–92). London: Routledge.
Taylor, Charles (1985). Philosophy and the human sciences: Philosophical papers 2. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Taylor, Carol (2012). Student engagement, practice architectures and phronesis in the student transitions and experiences project. Journal of Applied Research in Higher Education, 4(2), 109–125.
Wilkinson, J., Olin, A., Lund, T., Ahlberg, A., & Nyvaller, M. (2010). Leading praxis: Exploring educational leadership through the lens of practice architectures. Pedagogy, Culture and Society, 18(1), 67–79.
Wittgenstein, L. (1957). Philosophical investigations (3rd ed.) (G. E. M. Anscombe, Trans.). New York: Macmillan.
Acknowledgements
We are very grateful to the reviewers of this chapter – especially Hannu Heikkinen, Christine Edwards-Groves, Nick Hopwood, Nicole Mockler, Kiprono Langat, and Jane Wilkinson – all of whom have been invaluable critical friends in the drafting of this chapter. We would also like to thank Lill Langelotz who shared a draft of the chapter with Swedish colleagues at a practice symposium hosted by the University of Borås, and to acknowledge the symposium audience members for their helpful feedback. We are grateful, too, to the authors of other chapters in this volume who participated in discussions and debates about the ideas presented.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 Springer Science+Business Media Singapore
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Mahon, K., Kemmis, S., Francisco, S., Lloyd, A. (2017). Introduction: Practice Theory and the Theory of Practice Architectures. In: Mahon, K., Francisco, S., Kemmis, S. (eds) Exploring Education and Professional Practice. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-2219-7_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-2219-7_1
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-10-2217-3
Online ISBN: 978-981-10-2219-7
eBook Packages: EducationEducation (R0)