Theory in Practice, Practice in Theory

IASH Research Theme: January 2009 - December 2011

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Context
Description
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Context

The past few decades have been dominated by a 'theoretical turn' in most if not all fields of the social sciences and literary and cultural studies. As well as the rise of social, literary, cultural theory and so forth, perhaps the most striking feature of the period was the existence of something like 'theory' as such, without any qualifying adjective. This involved a substantial migration of ideas from continental Europe to the English-speaking countries, as well as the reconfiguration of these ideas in local terms under categories such as 'post-structuralism'. Derrida's mutation from French philosopher to North American and global 'theorist' is emblematic of this process.

The prevalence of 'theory' as something transcending the existing academic disciplines in their various national configurations coincided, however, with a substantial side-product: the orientation of the leading 'practitioners' and their followers to 'practical' issues of politics or policy. Foucault's activities in relation to prisons or Derrida's in relation to the University as institution are again exemplary of this. More recently, philosophers have discerned a 'practical turn' in their subject, where this means more than just 'applied philosophy', philosophy applied to ethical or political dilemmas, but a broader conception of the historicity of philosophy and other forms of intellectual life. Theorizing comes to be seen as a human practice among others, and philosophy as what Jurgen Habermas has called a 'place-holder and interpreter'. Habermas in Germany, Jean-Luc Nancy and Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe in France, Alasdair MacIntyre, Richard Rorty and Charles Taylor in North America can stand here for many of their contemporaries, as well as thinkers of the subsequent generation such as Seyla Benhabib, Axel Honneth or Judith Butler.

In other fields, such as psychoanalysis, art or architecture, a practical orientation was built in from the start. What was called in the 1970s the 'finalization' of science, its application to practical purposes, is exemplified by environmental science and, more recently, by biotechnologies of all kinds. The diffusion of mapping technologies in satellite imagery and global positioning systems is an example of the application of a previously hermetic technology which changes our representation of space and opens up new relationships between conceptualization and visualization. While on the one hand, researchers have grown increasingly distant from their objects of study (as a result of technology and virtual representation) there has been a counter-move towards a direct engagement with them. This can be seen in environmental writings, in which the researcher is also the walker, 'mapping' the landscape through the body, and, more generally, in participatory research. In a different context, neuroscience re-makes something like phrenology in the forms of modern science and technology. A theme such as memory has been a major focus of recent thought, approached from such diverse perspectives as those of neuroscience, the psychopathology of trauma, and oral history and life-writing (the subject of a recent IASH research theme).

The practical application of theory is only one aspect of this development. From the other direction, in social and political policy, 'evidence-based' policy and 'practice-led' theory and research in social work have become increasingly prominent. ('Evidence-based' has been cited by the THE (August 28 2008) as one of three increasingly frequent terms in recent social science.) 'Reflexivity' is one way which thinkers have sought to capture this feature of our modernity; the concepts of memes and viral transmission (featured in the work of a 2009 IASH fellow) represent another. Neuroscience has also been seen as increasingly relevant to literary reflection on consciousness, and environmental concerns have become increasingly prominent in literary theory.

Description

This research theme will bring together thinkers from a variety of disciplines who are exploring or exemplify this practical turn and act as a bridgehead to practitioners seeking a forum in which to theorize their practice. It should therefore also function as an innovative contribution to current initiatives in knowledge transfer. Relevant areas of research might include:

  • Evidence-based practices (for example, policy research, procedures in crime and detection such as forensics and psychological profiling.)
  • The transformations of theory into practice, and the dialogue between theory and practice, in therapeutic interventions such as psychoanalysis and psychotherapy.
  • The relationship of theory to practice in cultural production, such as creative writing, performance and performativity, the visual arts, architecture and the built environment, media practices.
  • The translations of religious beliefs into political discourse.
  • The articulation of the theory/practice interface with that of the relationship between distance and proximity in, for example, anthropology, documentary media practices, environmental research and activism.

Events

Mental Health and the Disciplines: Contributions to mental health practice from Biology, Geography, Sociology, Architecture, Theology and Philosophy: 17 February 2012

Symposium: "The Acknowledgement of the Aesthetic": 20 June 2011

Thursday, 19 March: "Reading the Photographic Image": A Symposium. For full details of the programme click here.

Workshop Series, Autumn 2009: "Thinking Animals"

Further events will be announced shortly

Fellowships

Applications for Fellowships in relation to any aspect of this theme are invited from researchers in any field of the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences. See the Fellowships Programme.

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