Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
routines? What rules constitute specific practices and how do they affect what individuals'
do? To what extent do individuals past experiences and upbringings influence their
practices? How and why are practices changing?”
In the last two decades various analytical approaches were developed which could be called
“Theories of Social Practices” (Reckwitz 2003, 282). Practice theory seeks to overcome the
dichotomy between structure and action, and to understand structures as the repetition of
micro-situations (Collins 2000, 107) as well as the habitus of people as a product of social
conditions (Bourdieu 2005, 45). Furthermore, practices are built on materiality of things and
artifacts in a specific arrangement, which relate to a space-time context, follow routines, but are
also open to change. A series / bundle of these social practices create lifestyles, constitute
structures or social fields - networks, organizations or institutions (Reckwitz 2003, 285, 294,
295). These routines of behavior, which emerge as interplay between actor and actant, together
create the site of the social (Reckwitz 2003, 287), in contrast to most cultural theories in which
the site of the social is a cognitive and mental-intentional structure (Reckwitz 2004, 318).
Practice theory is not a cognitive scheme, or something embedded in discourses and
communications, but a practical knowledge, a know- how, a series of every day life concrete
practices (Reckwitz 2003, 287) which are reproduced, routine-embodied performances;
“objects are handled, subjects are treated, things are described and the world is understood “
(Reckwitz 2002b, 250). The understanding of this practical knowledge includes both -
“consciously reflected and semi- or deeply embedded knowledge” (Strengers 2010, 8).
We argue that there is need to add cognitive-mental and structural perspectives with the
concrete practices and the related materiality. There are several reasons to adopt this
perspective. As Nicolini (2009) summarizes:
“the meaningful, purposive and consistent nature of human conduct descends from
participating in social practices and not from the deployment of rules, goals and beliefs”
(Nicolini 2009, 4); Further more: „practices constitute the horizon within which all
discursive and material actions are made possible and acquire meaning; that practices
are inherently contingent, materially mediated, and that practice cannot be understood
without reference to a specific place, time, and concrete historical context“ (Engeström,
2000; Latour, 2005; Schatzki, 2002; 2005; cit in Nicolini 2009). While practices depend on
reflexive human carriers to be accomplished and perpetuated, human agential
capability always results from taking part in one or more socio-material practices
(Reckwitz, 2002b; cit in Nicolini 2009,5). Practices are mutually connected and constitute
a nexus, texture, field, or network (Giddens, 1984; Schatzki, 2002; 2005; Latour, 2005
Czarniawska, 2007). Social co- existence is in this sense rooted in the field of practice,
both established by it and establishing it. At the same time, practices and their
association perform different and unequal social and material positions, so that to study
practice is also the study of power in the making (Ortner, 1984; cit. in Nicolini 2009, 5).
Transformation is not only a change of one technique, it's a systems change that involves social
relations and structures; it is a far reaching break with former practices (Reckwitz 2002b, 255),
common understandings, how to do things, following certain norms, conventions, customs,
traditions, and what is acceptable in practice or not (cf. Turner 1991). If we follow Bourdieu
(2005, 47) the characteristic of habitus change is constantly and continuously a change between
historical given structures and new practices. With the transformation process, the farmer
moves a big step forward and rejects most former social practices.
To conclude, we picture our approach to organic transformation as an interplay of four
analytical-theoretical dimensions: structure, individual performance, materiality and
Search WWH ::
Custom Search