One More Time - what is practice ?

Abstract

Despite the recent hype what practice means remains unclear at best. This paper presents a fresh perspective on practice as a social phenomenon in Management and Organization Studies. It focuses on the dynamic nature of practice and draws attention to the power of tensions within and between practices as a reflection of the social complexity of organizing. The dynamic nature of practice reveals how tensions create ex-tensions stretching the boundaries of organizing. The analysis reveals the importance of embodying practice, the role of intentionality in the way practice is performed and conceptualizes the dynamic nature of practice in relation to the interconnections between internal and external goods of a practice. Tensions between internal and external goods within and between practices in an organizational field explain the ongoing reconfiguration of practice. A focus on practising provides an avenue for engaging with the fluid and emergent nature of practice as it is formed, performed and constantly transformed. The discussion explores the value added contribution of a practice perspective to our understanding of organizing and outlines ways of rethinking the practitioner by drawing attention to the role of practical judgment, passion and personality. The paper concludes by examining the implications for future research providing specific suggestions for the ways in which researchers engage with the world of practice, the methodological tools for capturing the immediacy of practice and further research avenues that this inquiry opens up.