Conceptualizing the human body within practice theory

Abstract

This article explores the status of the human body within configured social practices. It argues that the body is at once situated in configurations of practices and transcended by the horizons of possibilities upon which these practices project their existence as a potentiality-for-being. The human body’s status of situated transcendence is addressed in terms of a hermeneutic theory of practices that conceptualizes the interplay of practices and possibilities. Placed within this interplay, the body cannot be taken as a static point of reference. This conclusion is employed for the purpose of criticizing a series of conceptions that defends or at least leaves enough room for essentialist conceptualization of the body.