‘Stand back and watch us’: Post-capitalist practices in the maker movement

2019 ◽  
Vol 52 (3) ◽  
pp. 593-610 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas S.J. Smith
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Economic Geography ◽  
Social Practice ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Maker Movement ◽  
Social Practice Theory ◽  
Conceptual Approach ◽  
Diverse Economies ◽  
The Social ◽  
Economic Practices

This paper examines the economic practices of maker spaces – open workshops that have increased in number over recent years and that aim to provide access to tools, materials and skills for small-scale manufacturing and repair. Scholarly interest in such spaces has been increasing across the social sciences more broadly, parallel to a growing interest in craft and making in economic geography. However, to rectify the ‘capitalocentrism’ of much existing work, the paper examines the case of a workshop in Edinburgh, Scotland, through the dual theoretical lens of diverse economies and social practice theory. This conceptual approach sees the space as a novel form of economic ‘being-in-common’, providing diverse and contradictory opportunities for post-capitalist practice. The paper draws conclusions regarding the limits and potential of such spaces for sowing the prefigurative seeds for a more inclusive, sustainable and democratic urbanism.

Beyond rhetoric: re-thinking entrepreneurial marketing from a practice perspective

2014 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 105-127 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicole Gross ◽  
David Carson ◽  
Rosalind Jones
Keyword(s):  
Social Practice ◽  
Small Firms ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Social Practice Theory ◽  
Conceptual Approach ◽  
Marketing Practice ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Entrepreneurial Marketing ◽  
The Social ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to propose the application of social practice theory for the investigation of entrepreneurial marketing (EM) practices. Design/methodology/approach – A theoretical gap has been found between scholarly efforts to explain the nature of EM practice and the actual marketing practice or marketing doings of small firms. Findings – The paper covers some of the EM literature and perspectives and examining the notion of “practice” in small- and medium-sized enterprises (SME) and entrepreneurship research. Based on an increasing focus on practice in the social theory literature and the contributions of key social theorists, a discussion is framed in terms of how EM practice can be studied through the investigation material and bodily observations and common interpretations. Research limitations/implications – The paper offers a proposal that the observations of practitioners’ actions and activities and the investigation of common interpretations can be conceptualized to explain the nature of EM practice. It also gives avenues for future research. Practical implications – The paper suggests that marketing comprises a wide scope of activities or practices and, in the case of a small firm, is all-pervasive. It also suggests that scholars engage in understanding the collective, distributed, situated, ongoing and tacit nature of EM. Originality/value – The paper provides a fresh conceptual approach about how EM practice can be studied through the investigation material and bodily observations as well as common interpretations.

scholarly journals Conceptual Usage of Systems Dynamics in Patients Rehabilitation Management

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 23
Author(s):  
Tudor Irimiaș ◽  
Giuseppe Carbone ◽  
Adrian Pîslă
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Moral Values ◽  
Systems Dynamics ◽  
Rehabilitation Management ◽  
Major Research ◽  
Conceptual Approach ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World ◽  
The Brain

The essence of social sciences is well encompassed in Green’s (2006) quote “People were created to be loved. Things were created to be used. The reason why the world is in chaos is because things are being loved and people are being used. ” For this reason, social sciences are important, as major research paradigm on how and why individuals interrelate. The aim of the actual research is to look for a conceptual approach activity, as part of a larger project focused on individual rehabilitation. The brain is trained to react to the stimulus and command a behavior. The premise, for the considered approach, is understanding the social sciences as revealing the individuals interests for self conscience, well being and moral values and drawing the line to it’s importance for governments authorities, policymakers or NGO’s.

Is, ought and being careful what you wish for

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 267-272 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heather Whiteside
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Economic Geography ◽  
Critical Realism ◽  
Uneven Development ◽  
Cautionary Tale ◽  
Rigor Mortis ◽  
Geographical Analysis ◽  
Causal Mechanisms ◽  
The Social ◽  
Realist Ontology

This brief commentary on Henry Wai-chung Yeung’s “Rethinking Mechanism and Process in the Geographical Analysis of Uneven Development” makes three points. First, the commentary supports the article’s assertions that ‘analytical rigor’ is compromised when process and mechanism are conflated, that causal mechanisms are under- theorized in much economic geography, and that a latent realist ontology often lurks beneath interpretive and process-based approaches. Second, it explores the inherent hurdles that a revival of critical realism presents for efforts of engaged pluralism given geography’s contending perspectives on ontology and epistemology and multiple social and substantive theories. Third, the commentary concludes with a hopeful yet cautionary tale of what multidisciplinary engagement on causal mechanisms might entail given the ‘rigor mortis’ mainstream orthodoxy elsewhere in the social sciences.

scholarly journals Appreciating formal and informal knowledge transfer practices within creative festival organizations

2016 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 146-161 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raphaela Stadler ◽  
Simone Fullagar
Keyword(s):  
Problem Solving ◽  
Knowledge Transfer ◽  
Social Practice ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
Social Practice Theory ◽  
Conceptual Approach ◽  
Content Type ◽  
For Profit ◽  
Informal Knowledge ◽  
Not For Profit

Purpose – Problem-solving approaches to research have dominated the not-for-profit festival management field. Little attention has been paid to how festival organizations successfully create cultures where knowledge transfer is practised within the high intensity of a festival life cycle. Drawing upon insights from social practice theory and appreciative inquiry (AI), the purpose of this paper is to offer a different conceptual approach to understanding how knowledge transfer “works” as an organizational practice to produce a collaborative festival culture. Design/methodology/approach – This paper draws upon an ethnographic case study with the highly acclaimed Queensland Music Festival organization in Australia. The research questions and methods were framed around an appreciative approach that identified formal and informal practices that " worked " rather than a conventional problem-focused analysis. Findings – This research focused on appreciating the cultural context that shaped the interrelationships between formal and informal knowledge transfer practices that enabled trust and collaboration. A range of knowledge transfer practices was identified that contributed to the creation of a shared festival ethos and the on-going sustainability of the festival vision. Practical implications – The not-for-profit sector brings numerous challenges for festival organizations, and there is a need to appreciate how collaborative and creative knowledge transfer can occur formally and informally. Festival organizers can benefit from understanding the relational and practice dimensions of knowledge management as they are performed within specific organizational contexts. Originality/value – An appreciative understanding of knowledge transfer practices has not yet been applied to not-for-profit festival organizations, where problem-solving approaches dominate the field.

Beyond the Case

2020 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Field Research ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Case Method ◽  
Singular Case ◽  
The Social ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Extended Case Method ◽  
History Of ◽  
Comparative Ethnography

The social sciences have seen a substantial increase in comparative and multisited ethnographic projects over the last three decades, yet field research often remains associated with small-scale, in-depth, and singular case studies. The growth of comparative ethnography underscores the need to carefully consider the process, logics, and consequences of comparison. This need is intensified by the fact that ethnography has long encompassed a wide range of traditions with different approaches toward comparative social science. At present, researchers seeking to design comparative field projects have many studies to emulate but few scholarly works detailing the process of comparison in divergent ethnographic approaches. Beyond the Case addresses this by showing how practitioners in contemporary iterations of traditions such as phenomenology, the extended case method, grounded theory, positivism, and interpretivism approach this in their works. It connects the long history of comparative (and anti-comparative) ethnographic approaches to their contemporary uses. Each chapter allows influential scholars to 1) unpack the methodological logics that shape how they use comparison; 2) connect these precepts to the concrete techniques they employ; and 3) articulate the utility of their approach. By honing in on how ethnographers render sites or cases analytically commensurable and comparable, these contributions offer a new lens for examining the assumptions, payoffs, and potential drawbacks of different forms of comparative ethnography. Beyond the Case provides a resource that allows both new and experienced ethnographers to critically evaluate the intellectual merits of various approaches and to strengthen their own research in the process.

Visual Literacy

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frank Serafini
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Cognitive Skills ◽  
Social Practice ◽  
Visual Literacy ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
Visual Images ◽  
Design Elements ◽  
The Social ◽  
Wide Range

Visual literacy was originally defined as a set of visual competencies or cognitive skills and strategies one needs to make sense of visual images. These visual competencies were seen as universal cognitive abilities that were used for understanding visual images regardless of the contexts of production, reception, and dissemination. More contemporary definitions suggest visual literacy is a contextualized, social practice as much as an individualized, cognitively based set of competencies. Visual literacy is more aptly defined as a process of generating meanings in transaction with multimodal ensembles that include written text, visual images, and design elements from a variety of perspectives to meet the requirements of particular social contexts. Theories of visual literacy and associated research and pedagogy draw from a wide range of disciplines including art history, semiotics, media and cultural studies, communication studies, visual ethnography and anthropology, social semiotics, new literacies studies, cognitive psychology, and critical theory. Understanding the various theories, research methodologies, and pedagogical approaches to visual literacy requires an investigation into how the various paradigm shifts that have occurred in the social sciences have affected this field of study. Cognitive, linguistic, sociocultural, multimodal, and postmodern “turns” in the social sciences each bring different theories, perspectives, and approaches to the field of visual literacy. Visual literacy now incorporates sociocultural, semiotic, critical, and multimodal perspectives to understand the meaning potential of the visual and verbal ensembles encountered in social environments.

scholarly journals THE BRAZILIAN ‘JEITINHO’ IN THE CONTEXT OF TEACHING OF PORTUGUESE FOR FOREIGNERS: BEYOND THE COMMON PLACE

Diacrítica ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 23
Author(s):  
Thais De Freitas Mondini Belletti
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Social Practice ◽  
Accurate Analysis ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Common

The concept of ‘jeitinho’ is present in a series of discourses that express a set of values that Brazilians perceive as their own. Thus, a foreigner in the process of learning Portuguese FL/2L will eventually come into contact with this style of Brazilian social practice. The concept of ‘jeitinho’, however, shows different forms of representation in discourse. Our aim with this work is to approach such concept from a more accurate analysis that moves away from a simplistic discourse, which associates the jeitinho to the image of a Brazilian who seeks to take advantage of everything. In this process, we reviewed the literature that approaches this concept based on analyzes from the Social Sciences, with emphasis on the studies of Barbosa (2006) and Borges (2006). As a possible material to be inserted in a context of teaching Portuguese for foreigners, we chose the reading and analysis of the Brazilian literary chronicle “Dar um jeitinho”. The analysis of chronicles was carried out from the perspective of discursive semiotics, aiming to search for meanings that are related to the concept of jeitinho.

scholarly journals Professional Discourse as Social Practice

2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 108 ◽  
Author(s):  
Silvia Blanca Irimiea
Keyword(s):  
Social Practice ◽  
Professional Socialization ◽  
Social Constructionist ◽  
Institutional Discourse ◽  
Social Practice Theory ◽  
Professional Discourse ◽  
Identity Creation ◽  
The Social ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Shed Light

Professional discourse (PD) has come under close scrutiny for the last two-to-three decades. The discipline termed ’professional discourse’ developed side by side with the related fields of organizational discourse, workplace discourse, institutional discourse, and more recently, corporate discourse, all related to or rather subservient to specific forms of communication. From the earliest studies and continuing today, communication-related studies have been interdisciplinary, drawing on sociology, psychology, anthropology, linguistics, and any discipline that could shed light on human behaviour in particular settings. It is the purpose of the present article to show the link between professional discourse and social practice and to link it to sociological theories. The study goes out from a presentation of PD (Gunnarson 1997), the differences between the terms ‘institutional discourse’ and ’professional discourse’ as proposed by Sarangi and Roberts (1999: 15-19), Koester’s definition of ’institutional discourse’, Gotti’s notion of ’specialist discourse’, Drew and Heritage’s (1992:3) notion of ’institutional talk’. The characteristics of PD are viewed in terms of the functions it may perfom and draw on Chiappini and Nickerson (1999), Linell (1998), Mertz (2007), and Kong (2014). Social practice and social practice theory, on the other hand, build on the tenets of Bourdieu (1989), Giddens (1984), Schatzki (2002), Reckwitz (2002), Jackson (2005) and Holtz (2014). While discourse, in general, has been viewed from the social structuration perspective by SFL and CDA scholars, the PD relationship to social practice followed the social constructionist appfoach. PD is explicated through the role discourse plays in professional socialization and identity creation (Kong 2014, Smith 2005). Other notions, such as Wenger’s (1998) ’community of practice’, ’shared repertoire’ are discussed in relation to the use of PD as well. Finally, possible directions for further research inquiry are put forward.

scholarly journals Professional Discourse as Social Practice

2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 108
Author(s):  
Silvia Blanca Irimiea
Keyword(s):  
Social Practice ◽  
Professional Socialization ◽  
Social Constructionist ◽  
Institutional Discourse ◽  
Social Practice Theory ◽  
Professional Discourse ◽  
Identity Creation ◽  
The Social ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Shed Light

Professional discourse (PD) has come under close scrutiny for the last two-to-three decades. The discipline termed ’professional discourse’ developed side by side with the related fields of organizational discourse, workplace discourse, institutional discourse, and more recently, corporate discourse, all related to or rather subservient to specific forms of communication. From the earliest studies and continuing today, communication-related studies have been interdisciplinary, drawing on sociology, psychology, anthropology, linguistics, and any discipline that could shed light on human behaviour in particular settings. It is the purpose of the present article to show the link between professional discourse and social practice and to link it to sociological theories. The study goes out from a presentation of PD (Gunnarson 1997), the differences between the terms ‘institutional discourse’ and ’professional discourse’ as proposed by Sarangi and Roberts (1999: 15-19), Koester’s definition of ’institutional discourse’, Gotti’s notion of ’specialist discourse’, Drew and Heritage’s (1992:3) notion of ’institutional talk’. The characteristics of PD are viewed in terms of the functions it may perfom and draw on Chiappini and Nickerson (1999), Linell (1998), Mertz (2007), and Kong (2014). Social practice and social practice theory, on the other hand, build on the tenets of Bourdieu (1989), Giddens (1984), Schatzki (2002), Reckwitz (2002), Jackson (2005) and Holtz (2014). While discourse, in general, has been viewed from the social structuration perspective by SFL and CDA scholars, the PD relationship to social practice followed the social constructionist appfoach. PD is explicated through the role discourse plays in professional socialization and identity creation (Kong 2014, Smith 2005). Other notions, such as Wenger’s (1998) ’community of practice’, ’shared repertoire’ are discussed in relation to the use of PD as well. Finally, possible directions for further research inquiry are put forward.

scholarly journals Heuristic Interventions in the Study of Intellectual Property

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica Silbey
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Intellectual Property ◽  
Social Practice ◽  
Patent Law ◽  
Property Law ◽  
Economic Analysis Of Law ◽  
Law Schools ◽  
Intellectual Property Law ◽  
Social Sciences And Humanities ◽  
The Social

In this Essay, I review and elaborate on Dan's Burk's On the Sociology of Patenting with three "heuristic interventions" for the study of intellectual property law. These interventions derive from sociology and anthropology, and to some extent also from critical literary theory. Unoriginal in the social sciences, these heuristic interventions remain largely original to the study of law within law schools and traditional legal scholarship (as opposed to the study of law from within the social sciences and humanities). Burk joins a small but growing group of legal scholars, reaching beyond legal doctrinal analysis and the economic analysis of law to explain intellectual property law as a social practice. The interventions he begins and this essay explains in further depth reframe the understanding or analysis of intellectual property (1) from individuals to institutions, (2) from causation to explanation and (3) in the context of the domestication of IP in contemporary social and political culture. In this way, Burk's Article and this essay demonstrate how law (not only intellectual property or patent law) is a social practice both reflecting and forming social structures, the understanding of which requires attention to organization and culture as much or more than statutes, cases, administrative filings, and economic theory.

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