From "Repertoires of Practice" to "Reservoirs of Power": Developing a Critical Social Practice Theory

• In Event: Fairmont Roundtable Session Two
  In Roundtable Session: Critical and Activist Perspectives on Cultural-Historical Research (Table 11)

Abstract

The development of critical approaches to Cultural Historical Activity Theory has included evolving theorizations of “practice” as a specific unit of analysis. This focus on practice parallels empirical and theoretical work in the closely neighboring strand of Social Practice Theory. Developing a more critical theory of social practices is an urgent task in the field. Gutiérrez & Rogoff’s (2003) rendering of “repertoires of practice” represents one widely known and used perspective on practices that illustrates commonalities of approach held across SPT and CHAT. In this paper I argue for the development of a critical extension of their “repertoires of practice” analytic that I call reservoirs of power, a framing around which a Critical Social Practice Theory can continue to be shaped.

Author

• Jacob Barton, University of California - Berkeley
  Presenting Author