The Constitution of Social Practices

This book contends that practices are perhaps the most fundamental building-block of social reality and asks what social scientists’ research would look like if they took this insight seriously. Arguing for the importance of detailed empirical study of human practices to effective social-scientific inquiry, and the centrality to social theory of a well-developed practice theory, the author examines the generic features of human practices, the means by which they can be identified, characterised and explained, how they function and how they might change across time and space.

Practices – specific, recurrent types of human action and activity – are perhaps the most fundamental "building blocks" of social reality. This book argues that the detailed empirical study of practices is essential to effective social-scientific inquiry. It develops a philosophical infrastructure for understanding human practices, and argues that practice theory should be the analytical centrepiece of social theory and the philosophy of the social sciences.

What would social scientists’ research look like if they took these insights seriously? To answer this question, the book offers an analytical framework to guide empirical research on practices in different times and places. The author explores how practices can be identified, characterised and explained, how they function in concrete contexts and how they might change over time and space.

The Constitution of Social Practices lies at the intersection of philosophy, social theory, cultural theory and the social sciences. It is essential reading for scholars in social theory and the philosophy of social science, as well as the broad range of researchers and students across the social sciences and humanities whose work stands to benefit from serious consideration of practices.