The Contamination of Practices:  How Practice Theories Matter in Multiple Domains

Paolo Magaudda; Emanuela Mora

doi:10.6092/issn.1971-8853/10269

Authors

Paolo Magaudda FISPPA Department, University of Padova http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0830-8299
Paolo Magaudda is Assistant Professor in Sociology of Culture and Communication at the FISPPA Department, University of Padova (Italy), where he is member of the PaSTIS Research Unit (Padova Science Technology & Innovation Studies). The main focus of his work is on the relationship between culture, technology and society, with a specific attention to digital media, consumer culture and music. His most recent books are A History of Digital Media. An Intermedia and Global Perspective (with G. Balbi, Routledge, 2018) and Vite Interconnesse. Pratiche Digitali attraverso Smartphone, App e Piattaforme (in Italian, with M. Driusian and M. Scarcelli, Meltemi, 2019). He is co-editor-in-chief of the journals Tecnoscienza. Italian Journal of Science & Technology Studies (STS Italia) and Studi Culturali (Il Mulino).
Emanuela Mora University Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0906-9074
Emanuela Mora is Professor of Culture and Communication Sociology at the Faculty of Political and Social Sciences of the University Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan. She is director of ModaCult (Centre for the study of fashion and cultural production), and director of the PhD School in Sociology at the same University. She is Co-editor in chief of the International Journal of Fashion Studies. Since 2004 she has worked on the theme of sustainable fashion and consumption, both in Italy and abroad. Among her books: Fare Moda. Esperienze di Produzione e Consumo (Bruno Mondadori, 2009); Fashion Tales. Feeding the Imaginary (with M. Pedroni as eds., Springer, 2017).

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.1971-8853/10269

Keywords:

Practice theory, contamination, sociology, Symposium, introduction

Abstract

This introduction presents the genesis of The Contamination of Practices: How Practice Theories Matter in Multiple Domains Symposium. The Symposium is the outcome of a research network established to explore new ways to adopt, criticize and expand the approaches that fall under the definition of practice theory, in relation to different topics, and to answer multiple research questions. The shared foundation underlying the contributions is developed around the metaphor of "contamination": while up to the present the efforts of scholars of major practice theory have been to sharpened to specify a common theoretical framework, we argue that practice theory is at the verge of entering a new stage of diffusion and contamination. Contamination is intended here in a double sense: on the one hand, practice theory is contaminating several fields and domains of social research; on the other hand, its conceptual framework is also being contaminated by other intellectual and theoretical traditions, as it is being innovatively adopted and adapted based on the different topics and questions it addresses. Each of the nine articles comprising the Symposium addresses this contamination in a specific way.

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