Positioning the Normative Practice Approach

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

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.

Food Systems

Today's predominant food system on the one hand produces plenty of food, making food relatively cheap for most people in the world. However, for many people, the food they can afford is insufficiently nutritious. Major global health problems like obesity are partly a result of the present food system. Furthermore, the modern industrial way of producing food has negative environmental consequences, consisting among others of a decline in soil fertility and a loss of biodiversity. Another food system is required to obtain sustainable global food and nutrition security. This food system should observe the normativity of the agricultural practices that produce food. The authors' analysis of agricultural practices shows that the farm is economically qualified but that the primary process of care for soil, crops, and animals can best be seen as an ethically qualified supporting practice that steers the “meaningful shaping” of the interventions foundational for agricultural practices.

Engineering

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.

Security Networks

Studies into organizational networks and governance tend to analyze professional behavior through the lens of rational (self)interest, resources, conflict, and power relations. However legitimate, this viewpoint overlooks the normative dimensions of networks. Therefore, in studying nodal security governance, the authors introduce the concept of “social practice,” which highlights the intrinsic normativity of what networked actors do. Social practices, they argue, deepen the theory of nodal governance by focusing more precise attention on the mentalities and value-laden characteristics of actors in highly complex settings. Drawing on this insight, the chapter presents a theoretical framework for analyzing social practices in nodal security governance, after which an empirical example concretizes our rather abstract line of reasoning.

International Cooperation in Development

The development aid of affluent to poor countries is currently much debated. Though in the decades of aid many people have been helped to survive and improve their living conditions, the problem of severe poverty and injustice is far from solved. Three types of critique explain this failure to a large extent: first, the way in which the development assistance is provided, or not; second, the observation that motivational and informational problems frustrate the collective-actions that should lead to “development”; third, ideological critique that the cooperation is too much an extension of the predominant modernist, neoliberal economic, and financial system of our time. Analyzing development cooperation and assistance with the NPA leads to the identification of normative characteristics of this practice. If the actual realization of development cooperation and the larger institutional context of this professional practice would respect that normativity, the effectiveness and justice of the cooperation could significantly be improved.

Management as a Supportive Practice

In this chapter, the nature of the management practice is investigated. The scene is sketched by telling a couple of stories from the experience of the author. Then, it is argued that an organizational approach is needed to understand the thinking and behavior of managers. It is shown that practice approaches are very suitable because they take their starting point in the daily activities, do justice to the nature of different activities, and make underlying ideals, values, and basic beliefs explicit. The Triple I model is used to investigate the practice of management in detail. It is shown that practices and management practices are intimately intertwined. The author's conclusion is that management is a supportive practice that is disclosed by the intrinsic values of the specific domain.

Modern Military Operations

Modern military operations are characterized by ubiquitous use of technology, in particular the use of information and communication technologies for real-time information sharing. The use of technology on the battlefield is assumed to improve decision making in military practice. By making use of a friendly fire incident in Afghanistan, namely the Sangin incident in 2011, the author highlights why moral decision making could be hampered by technology. This is partly due to the fact that information and communication technologies subtly connect sub-practices that exist within the broader military practice, thus potentially blurring normative structures. Blurring of normative structures can cause problems for moral decision making on the battlefield, because it is suddenly not clear who is responsible for the course of action.

Roots of the Normative Practice Approach

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.

Corporate Communication

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.