230166 SE Research(ing) Practices: Methods and Concepts (2013W)

In recent years, we witness a turn to practices in STS which has changed both the conceptions of science and technology as well the modes of researching and analyzing them. Social orders, knowledge, science, bodies, technologies, power etc. are understood to be enacted in practices. This has methodological consequences as it directs our attention to what is actually done and instructs us to proceed empirically. Against this background this seminar focuses on why and how to research practices. Aside from looking at how these phenomena can be conceptualized in a practice-based approach, we will pay particular attention to the methodological consequences and look at how we can research and analyze practices and what methods are suitable. We will examine, discuss and reflect upon the basic assumptions underlying different qualitative research approaches to practices.
'Research(ing) practices' does not only refer to our focus on practices but points to a reflection of our own research as a practice. STS has shown how sciences and their methods construct the way how we understand and act upon the world. By that, methods cannot be considered as mere tools that can be applied to study and understand the world. Methods enact the object of study in a certain kind of way.