[xmca] AT and dispersed practice

Dear All,

I've been trying to understand activity theory alongside theories of social practice (Schatzki, 1996). I find a lot of overlap. For example, in Schatzki mind/action is socially instituted, the body is socially produced, integrative practices are linked through understandings, rules and teleoaffective, hierarchical structures of actions etc. The main differences are obviously Schatzki's emphasis on language and Wittgensteinian roots of his theory. I was wondering if anyone is aware of any work explicitly comparing the two perspectives, or if you have any thoughts on what the elements of such comparison might be.

I am particularly interested in the concept of "dispersed practices" and if people on the list think that it has any parallel within activity theory. In Schatzki practices of this sort are "widely dispersed among different sectors of social life. Examples of dispersed practices are the prectices of describing, ordering, following rules, explaining, questioning, retorting, examining and imagining." In other words, dispersed practices are temporally unfolding and spatially dispersed nexuses of doings and sayings, governed mostly by a linkage of understandings, and rarely by rules. Dispersion requires the absence of teleoaffective components.

Regards,

Dr Mira Slavova
Research Fellow in Information Management
AIM TECH
Maurice Keyworth Building
The University of Leeds
Leeds LS2 9JT
Tel: 0113 343 7818

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