Research practices. Practice turn and more than representational theories

摘要

Practice approaches have a long tradition in social sciences and urban studies. However, the article does not focus on this tradition or on the elements of change (if any) introduced by the book Practice turn in contemporary theory, published in 2001 by Theodore Schatzki, Karin Knorr-Cetina e Eike von Savigny, but on the relationship between practice approaches and non-representational theories. The aim is to understand if the practice turn may be considered as a turn in and of research practices through which tackle some of the discontents emerging from mainstream urban discourses and policies. Adopting a more than representational stance rather than a non representational one, the change opened by the practice turn is seen as a process of continuos exploration in order to bring into existence the even hard and conflictual multeplicity of urban life.