Practice research is a paradigm that studies practices as meaningful arrangements of actors, actions, documents and artifacts. It aims to generate knowledge that improves practices. Practice research is based on ontological assumptions that see practices as the primary units of study, and epistemological foundations of pragmatic, provisional knowledge co-created through action and dialogue between researchers and practitioners. It uses situational inquiries, action research, and design research to study local practices and generate abstract knowledge in the form of practical theories, models and methods that can be applied in general practices and contribute to the scientific body of knowledge.

1. Practice research
- fundamentals
Göran Goldkuhl
Research group VITS
Dep. of Management & Engineering
Linköping University
&
SYSLAB, DSV
Stockholm University
Practice research
Practice research has evolved as a fruitful
research paradigm for research in information
systems and also for other profession oriented
disciplines.
It is based on a set of ontological and
epistemological assumptions.
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2. Practice research:
Ontolological assumptions
Primary study objects are practices
A practice is meaningful unit of work
A practice is a meaningful assemblage of actors (and
their inner worlds), actions, utterances and documents,
and material artefacts
A practice means that some people conduct something in
favor of some people
A practice has an internal logic (meaningful and coherent
but also including tensions) which is related to and
determined by external practices and their expectations
and other conditions
A practice is shaped by humans as an organised,
artificial and continually evolving arrangement, enabled
and restricted by human knowledge and financial,
semiotic and material conditions
Practice research:
Ontolological assumptions
The elements of a practice is determined of
their functions in relation to the whole of the
practice and the other elements of the practice
Practices are related to each other in
complicated ways (overlaps, cooperation,
governance, sequences, subsets etc)
Without seeing the practices, the social world
become fragmented
Studying social objects without considering
their practice habitat is very risky and may
imply confusion and misunderstanding
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3. Practice research:
Epistemological foundations
A functional and prescriptive orientation
towards useful knowledge aiming for
development and improvement
A normative orientation towards what is
conceived as valuable and promising in
practices
A diagnostic orientation towards evaluation of
practices
A critical orientation in order to reveal
deficiencies in practices
A prospective and design orientation for the
new and innovative
Prospective knowledge
Knowledge about new possible situations
“An empiricism which is content with repeating facts
already past has no place for possibility and liberty.”
John Dewey (1931)
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4. Practice research:
Epistemological foundations
Knowledge is generated through action
(learning through exploration)
Knowledge is provisional and developed
through evolutionary processes
Knowledge is co-created through dialogues
Knowledge development equals language
development and conceptual enhancement
Practice research
Practical research is based on a pragmatic
paradigm that sees commonsense as well as
scientific knowledge as means to improve
human practices (Dewey, 1938)
Scientific knowledge about human practices
needs to be useful for management and
improvement of such practices
The main goal is to create scientific
knowledge of practical value
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5. The anatomy of practice research
Practice research
Research
community
Theorizing (OR)
(R)
General practice
(OP)
Local
Situational
operational
inquiry
practice
(P & R)
(P)
Different roles
Researchers (active in practice research) = R
Practitioners (active in local practice) = P
Other researchers
(target group in research community) = OR
Other practitioners
(target group in general practice) = OP
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6. Results from practice research
Situational knowledge
Local practice contributions
Abstract/general knowledge
General practice contributions
Contribution to scientific body of knowledge
Practice research uses/produces
abstract knowledge
Abstract knowledge
Practical theories
Models
Methods
Used as instruments in situational inquiries
Emerging during theorizing and situational
inquiry
End result from practice research as
transferable knowledge for general practice
reviewable and cumulative knowledge for research
community
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7. Different kinds of practice research
Case studies
Action research
Design research
Evaluation research
Collaborative inquiries
Documentation
Goldkuhl G (2008) Practical inquiry as action
research and beyond, ECIS-2008, Galway
Goldkuhl G (2008) What kind of pragmatism in
information systems research?, AIS SIG Prag
Inaugural meeting, Paris
Cronholm S, Goldkuhl G (2004)
Conceptualizing Participatory Action Research –
Three Different Practices, Electronic Journal of
Business Research Methods, Vol 2 (2)
Goldkuhl G, Lind M (2010) A multi-grounded
design research process, DESRIST-2010,
St Gallen
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8. Workshop on Practice Research
International workshop, 8/6 2011, Helsinki
Inter-disciplinary Workshop
Information systems
Social work
Issues
How should we conduct inquiries in workpractices?
What kind of knowledge is expected?
What are the driving knowledge interests?
How is practical relevance ensured?
What kinds of interventions are adequate in work
practices?
How should we arrange cooperation between
researchers and practitioners?
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