How to Conduct a Practice-Based Study. Problems and Methods. By Silvia Gherardi, University of Trento, Italy. Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, UK, Northampton, MA, USA, 2012, 241 pages

Abstract

The aim of Silvia Gherardi's book is to develop the readers' methodological sensibility. She does so through a presentation and discussion of the work of scholars, who use a practice-based approach in organization studies. In order to develop this method-ological sensibility, she poses four basic questions: 1) which types of questions have the scholars posed?, 2) how have the scholars sought answers to their questions?, 3) what further questions remain?, and 4) how should future research be set up? In this review I first present the structure of the book. Thereafter I focus on selected chapters. These are Chapter 2: How ordinary work is practically accomplished. The chapter is chosen because of its overall centrality of the relation between work, organization , and practice. Also selected is Chapter 3: Sensible knowledge and knowledgeable bodies. The chapter is chosen because it acknowledges the body and its senses as integrated part of understanding work.