Practice Theory Reading Rooms
Welcome to a series of online reading rooms. Each focuses on a specific article or chapter. A panel of readers discuss the text (for an hour).
If you want to join this panel, get in touch with Stan Blue, S.Blue@lancaster.ac.uk. We have a limited number of places.
At the end of the reading room discussion the author will have a chance to react and to respond to questions from the livestream audience.
All take place at 11.00 Lancaster time and last for around an hour and a half.
Reading Room: 14th May 2025, 11am Lancaster time. Violetta Splitter, Said Business School, Oxford, UK. Getting heard? How employees learn to gain
senior management attention in inclusive strategy processes. Strategic Management Journal. 2024;1–49.
Reading Room 41: 19th March 2025, 11am Lancaster time. Donoxti Baylon, Montpellier Business School, France. How epistemic cultures interact in a joint artificial intelligence project: The case of diplomats and the AI Unit computer engineers with AI political risk forecasting at the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Reading Room 40: 21st February 2025, 11am Lancaster time. Benedikt Schmid, Geography, University of Freiburg; “Social Transformation and Postcapitalist Possibility: Emerging Dialogues between Practice Theory and Diverse Economies”
Reading Room 39: 29th January 2025, 11 am. Lancaster time. Andreas Hepp, Media & Communications, University of Bremen; ‘Why digital futures matter’ a chapter from a forthcoming book.
Reading Room 38: 11th December, 11am. Lancaster time. A special panel on the Theory of Practice Architectures with presentations from: Ela Sjølie; Stephen Kemmis, Jane Wilkinson, and Nick Hopwood.Stephen Kemmis.
Reading Room 37: Anna Wanka, 6th November at 11am, Lancaster time. Wanka, A. (2020) ‘No time to waste – how the social practices of temporal organisation change in the transition from work to retirement’, Time and Society, 29(2)494-517. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0961463X19890985
Reading Room 36: Andreas Pettenkofer, 16th October at 11am Lancaster time. Pettenkofer, A. (2022) ‘Does Practice Theory Work? Reckwitz’s Study of the “New Middle Class” as an Example’, Analyse & Kritik, 44(2), pp. 279–304. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1515/auk-2022-2036.
Reading Room 35: Bill Green, 18th September at 11am Lancaster time. Green, B. (2015) ‘Thinking Bodies: Practice Theory, Deleuze, and Professional Education’, in B. Green and N. Hopwood (eds) The Body in Professional Practice, Learning and Education. Cham: Springer International Publishing (Professional and Practice-based Learning), pp. 121–136. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-00140-1_8
Reading Room 34: Robert Schmidt, 29th May at 11am Lancaster time – Toward a Culture‑Analytical and Praxeological Perspective on Decision‑Making, Human Studies (2022) 45:653–671.
Reading Room 33: Silvia Gherardi and Barbara Poggio, 3rd April at 11am Lancaster time, ‘Gender and Entrepreneurship as an intertwined social practice: evidence from Italy’
Reading Room 32: Deborah Giustini 22nd February at 11am Lancaster time. Giustini, D. (2023). Embedded strangers in one’s own job? Freelance interpreters’ invisible work: a practice theory approach. Work, Employment and Society, 37(4), 952-971.
Reading Room 31: 24th January 2024 at 11am Lancaster time. Hanna Carlsson on ‘Sports and space invaders: practice theoretical tools to undertand change towards inclusion’
Reading room 30: 13 December 2023 at 11am Lancaster time. Special session on practice theory and the urban – Panel presentations by
Bhavna Middha, RMIT University; Ralph Horne, RMIT University Melbourne; Marta Smagacz-Poziemska, Jagiellonian University, Krakow; Torik Holmes, University of Manchester UK; Natalia Martini, Humboldt University, Berlin.
addressing the questions: What does practice theory bring to the study of urban phenomena?; What ideas does practice theory challenge or complement? What does the study of urban phenomena call for in practice theory?
followed by an open discussion.
Reading room 29: 22nd November at 11.00 am, Lancaster time. Katy Mason, on ‘Implementing Marketization in Public Healthcare Systems: Performing Reform in the English National Health Service’, Mason and Araujo, British Journal of Management, Vol. 32, 473–493 (2021)
Reading room 28: 25th October 2023 at 11.00 am, Lancaster time. Davide Nicolini and Jeanne Mengis. ‘Towards a Practice-Theoretical View of the Situated Nature of Attention’ 2023, Strategic Organization
Reading room 27: 17th May 2023 at 11.00 am, Lancaster time. Joe Rouse, Wesleyan University, USA. Chapter on normativity from Social Practices as Biological Niche Construction.
Reading room 26: 19th April 2023 at 11.00am Lancaster time. John Postill, RMIT, Postill, J., 2022. Media practices and their social effects. In Costa, E., Lange, P.G., Haynes, N. and Sinanan, J. eds., The Routledge Companion to Media Anthropology (pp. 119-131). London: Taylor & Francis.
Reading room 25: 8th March 2023 at 11am Lancaster time. Susann Wagnknecht, TU Dresden, ”Circulate and Leak’, manuscript in progress.
Reading room 24: 15th February 2023 at 11am Lancaster time. Ted Schatzki, University of Kentucky and University of Lancaster, Schatzki, T.R., 2022. The Trajectories of a Life. In: Stauber, B., Walther, A., Settersten, Jr., R.A. (eds) Doing Transitions in the Life Course. Life Course Research and Social Policies, vol 16. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-13512-5_2
Reading room 23: 14th December 2022 at 11am Lancaster time. Ulla Connor, University of Luxemborg. ‘Border or bordering practice: changing perspectives on borders and challenges of praxeological approaches’.
Reading room 22: 19th October 2022 at 11am Lancaster time.Jörg Sydow and Waldemar Kremser, ‘When Practices Control Practitioners: Integrating Self-reinforcing Dynamics into Practice-based Accounts of Managing and Organizing’
Reading room 21: 21st September 2022 at 11am Lancaster time. Seweryn Rudnicki and Agnieszka Zwolinska “Knowledge that fits: A practice-oriented approach to the adoption of social research knowledge”
Reading room 20: 25th May 2022 at 11am Lancaster time.
Matt Watson, Sheffield University, and Elizabeth Shove, Lancaster University, “How infrastructures and practices shape each other,” forthcoming Sociological Research Online – if you want to join, email s.blue@lancaster.ac.uk
Reading Room 19: 6th April 2022 at 11am Lancaster time
Ela Sjølie, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, “Learning of Academics in the Time of the Coronavirus Pandemic,” Journal of Praxis in Higher Education 2(1) 2020. If yu want to join, email s.blue@lancaster.ac.uk
Reading room 17: 23rd February 2022 – special event on Archaeology – 11am – 1pm Lancaster time
Workshop on Practice Theory and Archaeology, with Axel Christophersen (Norwegian University of Science and Technology), Andrew Gardner (University College London), Duncan Garrow (University of Reading), and Tobias Kienlin (Universität zu Köln). Each will speak about an object and practice theory for around 10 minutes, followed by a discussion organised around a few cross cutting themes. If you want to join email s.blue@lancaster.ac.uk
Reading room 16: 19th January 2022 at 11 am Lancaster time
Stephen Kemmis, Charles Sturt University, “Addressing the Climate Emergency: A view from the theory of practice architectures” (under review, Journal of Environmental Education). If you want to join, email s.blue@lancaster.ac.uk
Reading room 15: December 15th at 11am Lancaster time
Silvia Gherardi, “A Posthumanist Epistemology of Practice,” forthcoming.If you want to join the discussion, contact e.shove@lancaster.ac.uk. We have the recording and are working on how to make it available to people outside Lancaster.
Reading room 14: 10th November at 11am Lancaster time
Paul Spee, “The influence and impact of social practice theory on strategy and strategic management,” book chapter in progress.If you want to join the discussion, contact e.shove@lancaster.ac.uk. Sorry, no recording of this one either.
Reading room 13: 13th October at 11.00am Lancaster time
Dale Southerton. Southerton, D. (2003) ‘Squeezing time’ – Allocating practices, coordinating networks and scheduling society. Time & Society, 12(1), 5-25.
If you want to join the discussion, contact e.shove@lancaster.ac.uk. Sorry there is no recording of this one.
Reading room 12: 22nd September at 11.00am Lancaster time
Jorgen Sandberg, University of Queensland. Gonzalez-Arcos, C., Joubert, A. M., Scaraboto, D., Guesalaga, R. & Sandberg, J. (2021) “How Do I Carry All This Now?” Understanding Consumer Resistance to Sustainability Interventions. Journal of marketing, 85(3), 44-61, https://doi.org/10.1177/0022242921992052 . If you want to join the discussion, contact e.shove@lancaster.ac.uk. Link to VIEW the recording of the event.
Reading room 11: 30th June 2021 at 11.00 am Lancaster time
Stanley Blue, Michael P. Kelly and Elizabeth Shove, ‘Obese Societies: Reconceptualising the Challenge for Public Health‘, Sociology of Health & Illness, May 2021. if you want a preview, here is a short blog on the article. If you want to join the discussion, contact e.shove@lancaster.ac.uk. Link to VIEW the recording of the event.
Reading room 10: 12th May 2021 at 11.00am Lancaster time
Marta Smagacz-Poziemska, Andrzej Bukowski & Natalia Martini from the Institute of Sociology, Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland.
‘Social practice research in practice. Some methodological challenges in applying practice-based approach to the urban research’, 2020, International Journal of Social Research Methodology, DOI:10.1080/13645579.2020.1760577
Link to VIEW the recording of the event..
Reading room 9: 24th March 2021 at 11.00am Lancaster time
Basil Wiesse, Catholic University Eichstätt-Ingolstadt, ‘Situated Affectation as a Practical Problem.’.
Link to VIEW the recording of the event
Reading room 8: 17th February 2021 at 11.00am Lancaster time
Mervi Kaukko and Jane Wilkinson, University of Oulu/Monash University, “’Learning How to Go on: Refugee students and informal learning practices.”
Link to VIEW the recording of the event.
Reading room 7: 20th January 2021 at 11.00am Lancaster time Thomas Alkemeyer and Nikolaus Buschmann, Oldenburg University, ‘Beyond routine. Practice theory and cultural innovation.’.
Link to VIEW the recording of the event.
Reading room 6: 25th November 2020
Davide Nicolini and Maja Korica, ‘Attentional engagement as practice. A study of the attentional infrastructure of healthcare CEOs. Host Ted Schatzki.
Link to VIEW the recording of the event.
Reading room 5: 21st October 2020
Niklas Woermann, University of Southern Denmark.’Focusing ethnography: theory and recommendations for effectively combining video and ethnographic research‘ Journal of Marketing Management Volume 34, 2018 – Issue 5-6: Screening Marketing: Videography and the Expanding Horizons of Filmic Research. Host: Elizabeth Shove. Link to VIEW the recording of the event.
Reading room 4: 16th September 2020
Matthew Hannah:Universität Bayreuth. Chapter 5: ‘Turning and alienation. Direction, alienation and montage’ from Hannah, M. (2018). Direction and Socio-spatial Theory: A Political Economy of Oriented Practice, Routledge. Host: Ted Schatzki.
Unfortunately there is no recording of this session.
Reading room 3: 19th August 2020
Hilmar Schaefer, Humboldt Universitat, Berlin: ‘The dynamics of repetition: Translocal practice and transnational negotiations’ Host: Elizabeth Shove
Link to VIEW the recording of the event.
Reading room 2: 22nd July 2020
Megan Warin: University of Adelaide. Warin, M., V. Moore, M. Davies and S. Ulijaszek (2016). “Epigenetics and Obesity: The Reproduction of Habitus through Intracellular and Social Environments.” Body and Society 22(4): 53-78. Host: Stanley Blue
Link to VIEW the recording of the event.
Reading room 1: 17th June 2020
Paula Jarzabkowski, City University, London:Jarzabkowski, P. and Bednarek, R.(2018). ‘Toward a social practice theory of relational competing.’ Strategic Management Journal 39(3): 794-829. Host: Ted Schatzki
Link to VIEW the recording of the event.