Studying Engineering Practice

Abstract

The study of engineering practices has been the focus of Engineering Studies over the last three decades. These studies have used ethnographic and grounded methods in order to investigate engineering practices as they unfold in natural settings – in workplaces and engineering education. However, engineering studies have not given much attention to conceptually clarifying what should be understood by ‘engineering practices’ and more precisely account for the composition and organization of the entities and phenomena that make up the practices. This chapter investigates and discusses how a ‘practice perspective’ can make a contribution to Engineering Studies by clarifying the theoretical and methodological presumptions behind this widely used – but only vaguely conceptualized – study of practices. The chapter highlights the inspirations of practice theory and delimits practice theory from other accounts of human activity in order to clarify what a practice perspective suggests. Further, it clarifies the concept of practice and highlights how practices are fundamental in understanding the fabric of social orderings. Having accounted for these theoretical perspectives of practice theory the chapter will draw out some methodological consequences and discuss the ramifications of a practice theoretical approach for Engineering Studies.