Learning and Knowing in Practice-based Studies

Why is it that so many aspects of organizations are now spoken of as practices? How can organizations be studied within a practice-based approach? How can workable knowledge about them be produced? The authors answer these questions theoretically and through empirical examples. They provide an overview on practice-based studies illustrating their main topics, research methods, and the theoretical reflections that support a non-rationalist and non-cognitivist view of organizations. The book addresses the principal features of practice-based theorizing and its key concepts, then concludes with methodological reflections on the practice-based approach. Written for a university public already in possession of basic notions in organizational studies and intending to conduct analysis of organizing as a social practice, it will also prove essential for master and PhD students as well as organizational scholars designing research within Practice-Based Studies. Including a lively and wide-ranging debate conducted at international level, the book will be of interest to practitioners curious about a view of work as a practical activity that develops within ecology of social, economic and material relationships.