Roots of the Normative Practice Approach

2019 ◽  
pp. 15-30
Author(s):  
Gerrit Glas
Keyword(s):  
Systematic Philosophy ◽  
Practice Approach ◽  
Normative Practice

This chapter focuses on the philosophy of Dutch philosopher Herman Dooyeweerd (1894-1977), whose systematic philosophy has informed and inspired the initial formulations of the normative practice approach. Central concepts like mode, aspect, entity, meaning, heart, and ground motive will be discussed. The relevance of these concepts for the normative practice approach will be pointed out.

Positioning the Normative Practice Approach

2019 ◽  
pp. 31-54
Author(s):  
Jan Hoogland
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Social Action ◽  
Social Practices ◽  
Stepping Stones ◽  
Normative Structure ◽  
The Social ◽  
Practice Approach ◽  
Normative Practice ◽  
Normative Practices ◽  
Definition Of

The concept of social practices has received growing attention in interpretative social sciences. This concept is based on a long tradition of hermeneutical, interpretative, action-theoretical, pragmatist, and phenomenological theories in the social sciences, starting with Weber's famous definition of social action. In this chapter, some crucial stepping stones of this tradition are highlighted. In the line of these theories, a new approach of normative practices will be introduced, partially based on core philosophical insights of the Dutch philosopher Herman Dooyeweerd. Central features of this approach are 1) the multi-layered, intrinsically normative structure of social practices (constitutive side) and 2) the importance of regulative convictions, ideals, and attitudes leading the disclosure and development of those practices (regulative side).

Education

2019 ◽  
pp. 185-202
Author(s):  
Roel Kuiper
Keyword(s):  
Professional Practice ◽  
Critical Reflection ◽  
Christian Tradition ◽  
Human Flourishing ◽  
Learning And Teaching ◽  
Practice Approach ◽  
Normative Practice ◽  
The Right ◽  
Practice Education

Present discontents and concerns about schooling and learning call for critical reflection about education as a practice. Education is not to be degraded to instrumentalism. The profession is about the formation of pupils in a process of interaction to bring them to “human flourishing.” Learning implies mastery and self-responsibility, guided by the “right desire” to do what is ultimately good. This “right desire” in the Aristotelian and Christian tradition precedes the work of any professional or practitioner. The normative practice approach serves as a valuable help for the reflection that is needed. It presents a given set of norms that are appropriate to understand a professional practice. Reflection on the “right desire” in schooling, learning, and teaching helps to redirect education in our time of discontent.

Engineering

2019 ◽  
pp. 84-114
Author(s):  
Mehdi F. Harandi
Keyword(s):  
Water Management ◽  
Network Analysis ◽  
Social Practices ◽  
Environmental Damage ◽  
Actor Network ◽  
Practice Analysis ◽  
The Social ◽  
Practice Approach ◽  
Normative Practice

Engineering is one of the social practices for which a normative practice approach in analyzing tensions in the practice can be fruitful, particularly when combined with an actor-network analysis. That is illustrated in this chapter by the Zayandehrud river case of water management in Iran. The modernist hydrocracy that was installed appeared to backfire strongly and resulted in serious environmental damage. The normative practice analysis shows how conflicting norms between different sub-practices can explain the problems that emerged. The analysis also suggests an alternative for this modernist hydrocracy.

Corporate Communication

2019 ◽  
pp. 231-249
Author(s):  
Jan van der Stoep ◽  
Peter Jansen
Keyword(s):  
Public Trust ◽  
Corporate Communication ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Main Task ◽  
Car Exhaust ◽  
Practice Approach ◽  
Volkswagen Group ◽  
Normative Practice ◽  
To Come ◽  
Specific Duty

In September 2015, it appeared that the Volkswagen Group had circumvented the rules for testing diesel car exhaust gases. Although the organization presents itself as eco-friendly, it used a “default device” for diesel cars to produce less CO2 during test situations. Due to this kind of scandal, corporate communication is often associated with greenwashing and the manipulation of minds. Using the normative practice approach, the authors introduce some basic distinctions that may help to come to a better understanding of what the specific duty and responsibility of communication professionals is. They argue that corporate communication stands or falls with public trust. Building confidence and public legitimation is the main task of communication professionals. Although communication is about the construction of a communal world, that does not mean that framing and strategic reasoning are not important. In order to bring in a legitimate point of view, one has to present this point of view in an impactful way. Communication professionals have to balance between the interests of the organization and the requirements of public legitimation. They also have to make convincingly clear how their personal biography and the narrative of the organization are interrelated.

A Normative Practice Approach to Health Care

2019 ◽  
pp. 164-184
Author(s):  
Gerrit Glas
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Clinical Practice ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Expert Knowledge ◽  
Medical Professionals ◽  
Rapid Changes ◽  
Practice Approach ◽  
Normative Practice ◽  
Point Of Reference

This chapter explains how and why healthcare might profit from a normative practice approach (NPA). This approach sketches a conceptual and normative framework that helps to locate and identify relevant points of view for clinical practice as well as for policy making in healthcare. The chapter starts in medias res: in the consulting room, in the encounter between clinician and patient. What kinds of relations are relevant for the understanding of what is going in the patient who feels ill and between the patient and the doctor (or nurse)? Are there normative principles and values which guide these relationships? The focus then broadens to the meso- and macro-contexts of current medicine and healthcare. The NPA will be re-introduced. Its relevance is shown for topics like the increase in the administrative burden in medicine, the role of expert knowledge, the hospital and its purposes, and the changing focus of medicine given the rapid changes in the macro-sphere. The chapter ends by saying that the NPA may help in different ways: by taking it as a point of reference; by relating the different normative dimensions to core responsibilities of doctors, other employees, and stakeholders beside medical professionals; and by relating these core responsibilities to the relevant contexts in which these doctors, other employees, and stakeholders are working.

The Crisis in Professionalism and the Need for a Normative Approach

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Gerrit Glas
Keyword(s):  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Professional Practices ◽  
Normative Approach ◽  
Normative Framework ◽  
Practice Approach ◽  
Normative Practice ◽  
Working Processes

This chapter analyzes the crisis in professionalism from a historical and conceptual point of view. It describes the development of professional practices as part of the process of modernization (i.e., the rationalization of working processes and the increasing division and specialization of labor). This process was successful, but has also been accompanied by tendencies to bureaucracy, alienation, meaninglessness, and dehumanization. The chapter describes a set of desiderata for a conceptual framework that successfully avoids these pitfalls and sketches how a so-called normative practice approach could provide a conceptual and normative framework that enables professionals to disentangle and remedy the tensions and ambivalences within their professional practices.

Professional Practices and User Practices: An Explorative Study in Health Care

2017 ◽  
Vol 82 (2) ◽  
pp. 167-191 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maarten J. Verkerk ◽  
Fred C. Holtkamp ◽  
Eveline J.M. Wouters ◽  
Joost van Hoof
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Health Care System ◽  
Professional Practices ◽  
Present System ◽  
New Concepts ◽  
The Social ◽  
Practice Approach ◽  
Normative Practice ◽  
Care System

In Western countries the health care system faces numerous challenges. We explore the potential of the normative practice approach to analyze the present system, to provide new insights in the redesign of the health care network, and to offer new concepts to understand the needs and wishes of patients. We present a case study of assistive devices in orthopaedics. This article shows that the Triple I variant of the practice model is very fruitful to understand the organizational embedding of professional practices, to understand the health care system as chains of professional practices, and to understand the influence of stakeholders. In this study we introduce the idea of user practices to investigate the social environment of patients and to make the needs and wishes of patients explicit.

A Process Model of Social Development Supervision in Social Work

2019 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mpumelelo Ncube
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Social Development ◽  
Process Model ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Supervision Practice ◽  
The Social ◽  
Practice Approach ◽  
Dialectical Relationship ◽  
Development Approach

Supervision practice in social work is understood as the mainstay of the profession. However, various studies have pointed to the inadequacies of supervision to facilitate quality service provision. Previous studies have reflected a general misalignment between the approach to supervision practice and the approach to social work practice as one inadequacy leading to the failure of supervision practice. Although there are numerous supervision models in the profession, some of which are aligned with certain practice approaches, none is directly identifiable with the social development approach, which should be at the core of social work orientation in South Africa. Thus, this article provides a process model of supervision in social work that aims to establish a dialectical relationship between supervision and the social development practice approach. The study was underpinned by Thomas’ research and design process, which was used to design and develop a social work supervision model mirroring a social development approach. The paper concludes with recommendations related to the use of the developed model.

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