Theodore Schatzki’s practice theory and its implications for organization studies

Loscher, Georg; Splitter, Violetta; Seidl, David

doi:10.4324/9780429279591-7

Cited by 21 publications

(43 citation statements)

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“…Looking at the acceptance of Schatzki's practice theory in the field of organisation studies, the application of his work in the field is still in its infancy, with a few theoretical and empirical studies building on his work (Loscher et al, 2019). Due to the nature of Schatzki's practice theory, which is both overwhelmingly detailed and abstract at the same time, the few empirical studies in the field that build on his work usually adopt selected theoretical concepts from his practice theory and interpret them in different ways.…”

Section: Choosing An Appropriate Practice Approach For My Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…My first contribution is in further introducing the practice theory of Schatzki (1996Schatzki ( , 2002 and its analytical potential to the field of organisation studies. Currently there are few theoretical and empirical studies in the field that build on Schatzki's work (Loscher et al, 2019). These studies usually adopt different sets of Schatzkian concepts and interpret them in different ways to investigate their organisational phenomena of interest.…”

Section: Framework Summary and Contributionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Affective Leadership Practices: A Framework for Studying Affect and Leadership from a Schatzkian Practice Approach

Maggeni¹

2021

Preprint

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In this study, I develop a new research avenue through which the leadership phenomenon can be better understood. I do so by developing a novel framework for studying leadership and affect from a Schatzkian practice approach. I developed this framework through a dialogue between theory and my empirical study. The empirical part of my research consisted of a seven-month ethnographic study in one nonprofit service organisation in Israel. I built the theoretical part of this framework by integrating and further synthesising the literatures on affective practices (Wetherell, 2012) and leadership-as-practice (Carroll, Levy, & Richmond, 2008; Raelin, 2016c) based on the practice theory of Theodore Schatzki (1996, 2002). I have called this integrated conceptual framework affective leadership practices. The methodological part of my framework was developed through an experimental process, in which I used different methods and occupied different organisational positions. I found that the method of “apprenticeship”, which entails the active participation of the researcher as a practitioner in the practice that is being studied (Wacquant, 2004, 2005, 2015), was very appropriate to use as the primary research method. This method allows the researcher to generate valuable embodied understanding of the practice that is being studied, while gaining great sensitivity to power relations. This theory-method package (Nicolini, 2017) that I have developed has served me as a heuristic device, a synthesising framework for empirical research. It offered me a certain way to see and analyse leadership and affect (Reckwitz, 2002). Through my data analysis, I illustrate the type of understandings that this framework makes possible to generate. I illuminate the type of normative realities that prevail in the organisation that I studied, and offer nuanced understandings of the ways in which leadership and affect are involved in the construction and reconstruction of these realities. I illustrate how this takes place in reciprocal processes of affective influence that involve multiple human and non-human participants, through which organisational realities are constantly being reproduced, modified, and even resisted. My analysis also illuminates the embeddedness of leadership and the organisation where it manifests in the wider local context. This allows us to comprehend why the organisational realities that I investigated turned out to be in the way they are, who is empowered in these realities, and what effects these realities generate in their local context. The research tools that I have developed in this study and this type of analysis that can be generated with them offer researchers critical, holistic, and situated understandings of leadership and the organisations it transpires from. It places the affective human body and its relations with other human and non-human participants in leadership at centre stage.

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Section: Choosing An Appropriate Practice Approach For My Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Framework Summary and Contributionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Affective Leadership Practices: A Framework for Studying Affect and Leadership from a Schatzkian Practice Approach

Maggeni¹

2021

Preprint

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“…In his theory, Schatzki maintained that social reality remains the same within both macro and micro levels. Furthermore, he also believed in the interconnectedness of social practices within all social phenomena (Loscher et al , 2019).…”

Section: Fundamentals Of Social Practicesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Days of post-pandemic future: re-imagining corruption practices in a world that won’t stop changing

Prabowo

2021

JFC

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Purpose The purpose of this paper is to propose a new analytical framework in examining corruption from the social ontology perspective by using the Schatzkian practice theory to assess the interconnectedness among social practices constituting the social reality. Design/methodology/approach This exploratory paper is part of the author’s study to assess the complex corruption phenomenon in Indonesia from multiple perspectives to gain a better understanding of its nature and dynamics. By drawing from the existing literature on the Schatzkian practice theory, the COVID-19 pandemic and the corruption phenomenon, this study investigates the potential changes of the new constellation of practice-arrangement bundles within the social reality and how such changes may alter corruption practices in the future. Furthermore, this study also uses publicly available reports from several national and international agencies to explore possible future scenarios from the interconnectedness of corruption, anti-corruption and pandemic practices. This paper constructs a new analytical framework for assessing the corruption phenomenon and designing the most appropriate anti-corruption strategy from such an exploration. The framework also serves as a reference for future anti-corruption research. Findings The author establishes that all social phenomena are constructed by an interconnected, dynamic and ever-changing constellation of practice-arrangement bundles within the social reality. As a largely social phenomenon (at least in Indonesia), corruption is also constructed by webs of practice-arrangement bundles. For decades, corruption practices in Indonesia have always been interconnected with anti-corruption practices in ways that changes in one group of practices will drive changes in the others. With the adoption of the pandemic practices centered around social distancing, social restriction and social safety net, corruption practices appear to transform to adapt to the new environment. Therefore, future anti-corruption research should aim to examine the structure and dynamics of corruption, anti-corruption and pandemic practices to highlight changes or potential changes within the three groups of practices to determine the most appropriate intervention measures and anti-corruption strategy. Research limitations/implications This exploratory study is self-funded and relies primarily on documentary analysis to explore the corruption phenomenon in Indonesia. Future studies will benefit from in-depth interviews with former corruption offenders and corruption investigators. Practical implications This exploratory paper contributes to developing a sound corruption prevention strategy by proposing a new analytical framework for assessing various social practices, particularly those associated with corruption and the COVID-19 pandemic. Originality/value This paper highlights the importance of understanding the structure, interconnectedness and dynamics of social practices, particularly associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, to better understand the corruption phenomenon.

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“…The merits of CoP for theorizing organizational learning are already established in the literature (Lave & Wenger, 1991;Wenger, 1998;Brown & Duguid, 1996), and the resources of PT are also clearly pertinent for understanding processes of organizing and coming to know in organizations (Schatzki, 2005(Schatzki, & 2006Losche et al, 2019).…”

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confidence: 99%

People and practices in organizational learning

Buch

2020

Forskning og forandring

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This article discusses the role of practices and people’s participation in practices in conceptual accounts of organizing, learning, and organizational learning. Specifically, the discussion takes its point of departure in Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger’s account of learning as legitimate peripheral participation in practices, and Theodore Schatzki’s practice theory account of organizing and organizations. Both accounts center on the role of practices as people come to know, and as changes occur in social activity and organizational settings. However, the two accounts are based on different ontologies. Borrowing the terminology of John Dewey and Arthur Bentley, Lave and Wenger instantiate a substantivist, and ultimately individualist, ontology, whereas Schatzki’s event ontology is relational. It is argued that both ontologies have merits of their own, but the article seeks to integrate the two approaches by utilizing Ole Dreier’s notion of the life trajectories of persons across social practices. In this perspective, organizational learning shows when people’s life trajectories are affected by the bundles of social practices they engage with, and when the bundles of social practices are transformed by the way people enact the practices.

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Theodore Schatzki’s practice theory and its implications for organization studies

Cited by 21 publications

References 1 publication

Affective Leadership Practices: A Framework for Studying Affect and Leadership from a Schatzkian Practice Approach

Affective Leadership Practices: A Framework for Studying Affect and Leadership from a Schatzkian Practice Approach

Days of post-pandemic future: re-imagining corruption practices in a world that won’t stop changing

People and practices in organizational learning

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