Idea Playgrounds are one-off events that present new ideas for discussion and feedback.

May 8th 2024 at 11.00 am -12.00 am UK time: Practice theory and microbes

This playground is inspired by an interest in what social practices theories bring to the study of microbial life, and vice versa.  Although practice theorists have a long history of taking the ‘material’ seriously, they have tended to focus on devices, artefacts and infrastructures, not on bacteria, fungi and viruses.  How do the lives of these tiny material ‘elements’ relate to the many practices on which they depend? Equally, does a focus on social practice bring anything new to those who study micro-organisms and the ways in which they adapt and change? 

These are open questions for playground participants to toss about. Feel free to join even if you’ve not read anything about microbes or biology.

email e.shove@lancaster.ac.uk if you’d like to join

Forthcoming playgrounds: September 2024 on markets and November 2024 on plastics.