The Relationality Weblog

In this section, we hope we can extend the discussion we had at our workshop on dealing with practices.

During our workshop, we discussed in groups the challenges we faced when dealing with practices.

Some of these are shown in the posters we created with clusters of post-its. We reproduce some of these below.

Please join us in the discussion of these challenges, add new ones, or add tips or things that helped you deal with some of these issues!!

Post-its: Challenges facing the study of practices

HOW?

• Talking and doing as both being practices, doing different things.
• Being everywhere: which methods?

§ How to account for our own practices

§ Problems with documenting/recording

• Ethical issues

• Problems of access

• Skills (or lack of) to do this kind of work

• What research practice can capture what I want to find out?

• Sense-making: how to capture the meanings of what happens?

• How do you access historical practices? Learn to read in a different way – imagination leap

• Intervention: for instance by filming – the thing is it to focus on it, in this case, focus the camera on your filming for instance

• Knowledge practices vs other practices – how does the theory travel?

• How do we attend data? Especially regarding the non-human? Representational/phenomenological trap

• Document process of learning and the nebulous process it involves

WHAT?

• Who/what defines the practical?

• What is practice?

• Interfering with practice as researchers

• Relating practices

• Problems with describability

• Are all practices theoretical?  Are all theories practical?

• Different sites? Spaces and practices relations

• What are practices good for?

• What do practices include? (intentions, words, do/say division?)

• Limits of practice: where/when does something stop being practice?

• How to account for layers of practices?

• Accessibility

• What happens when you are not there?

• Linguistic practice (in relation to question of representation)

• Practice and agency: making it real – what is moving, what is driving something? Not as independent actors

• Body/practice

• Historical/remembered practices

• Affect

• Connection with discourse (or lack of it)

• Reality

• Banality

• Politics

• Non-Human: looking at practices – it needs a style of writing? Bringing richness of description, speak with the material

After this discussion, we thought of questions we would like to ask the speakers, but that are really open questions too, about practices. Here they are:

Questions

• What are the methodological consequences of practices having (fluid) boundaries?
• stop
• Could you give us examples of how you negotiate movements between research questions and research practice?
• How do you deal with accessing: a) the past? B) multiple spaces?
• How do you attend to boring/banal practices?