Vadim Volkov and Oleg Xarxordin [Kharkhordin], Теория практик - Teorija praktik, EUSP Press, 2008
10.6092/issn.2038-3460/17008
application/pdf
2038-3460
17008
1
en
Alessandro Mongili
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/
Tecnoscienza – Italian Journal of Science & Technology Studies
Vadim Volkov and Oleg Xarxordin [Kharkhordin], Theory of Practice, EUSP Press, 2008
Text.Serial.Journal
https://tecnoscienza.unibo.it/
2
Book Reviews
2011-06-27
2023-05-22
2011-06-27
2023-07-03
129-133
TS
Alessandro Mongili
2011/06/27
10.6092/issn.2038-3460/17008
129
Università di Padova
2038-3460
1
en
133
Vadim Volkov and Oleg Xarxordin [Kharkhordin], Theory of Practice, EUSP Press, 2008
https://tecnoscienza.unibo.it/article/download/17008/15904
2
                                                                          TECNOSCIENZA – 2(1)               129



    As for the second point, Verganti                     PUF, pp. 181-214 (Eng. transl. Opinel: In-
pays overwhelming attention to man-                       telligence at Knifepoint, in “Visual Identi-
                                                          ties”, London, Continuum, 2000, pp. 145-
agers and their super-mediations,                         171).
compared with the almost non-existent                 Hennion A. (1993) La passion musicale. Une so-
attention given to the users. However,                    ciologie de la médiation, Paris, Métaillé.
the latter do not just constitute the                 Krippendorff K. (2006) The Semantic Turn, Bo-
                                                          ca Raton, CRC Press.
market through the expression of their
                                                      Latour B. (2008) A Caustious Prometheus? A
present needs and desires. Users some-                    Few Steps toward a Philosophy of Design, in
times innovate too, through more dis-                     F. Hackne, J. Glynne and V. Minto (eds.),
tributed processes than the manager-                      “Proceedings of the Annual International
centered ones privileged by Verganti.                     Conference of the Design History Society”,
                                                          Universal Publishers, pp. 2-10.
    Thus, Verganti’s version of DDI can
                                                      Mangano D. (2009) Semiotica e design, Milano,
interestingly bridge innovation studies                   Carocci.
and STS, but, in order for the bridge                 Parolin L.L. (2010), Sulla produzione materiale.
to be solid, we still have much work to                   Qualità sensibili e sapere pratico nel processo
do.                                                       di stabilizzazione degli artefatti, “Tecnos-
                                                          cienza”, 1 (1), pp. 39-56.
                                                      Verganti R. (2003) Desing as Brokering of
                                                          Languages: Innovation strategies in Italian
References                                                firms, “Design Management Journal”, 13
                                                          (3), pp. 34-42.
Akrich M. (1990) De la sociologie des techniques      Verganti R. (2008) Design, Meanings, and Radi-
    à une sociologie des usages: l’impossible inté-       cal Innovation: A Metamodel and a Research
    gration du magnétoscope dans le réseaux               Agenda, “The Journal of Product Innova-
    câblés de première génération, “Technique et          tion Management”, 25, pp. 436-456.
    culture”, 16, pp. 83-110.
Barthes R. (1964) Sémantique de l’objet, now in
    “L’aventure sémiologique”, Paris, Seuil,
    1985, pp. 249-260; Eng. transl. Semantics of                             ***
    the Object, in “The Semiotic Challenge”,
    London, Blackwell, 1988, pp. 179-190.
Celaschi F. and Deserti A. (2007) Design e inno-         Vadim, Volkov, Oleg Xarxordin
    vazione, Roma, Carocci.
Dell’Era C., Marchesi, A. e Verganti R. (2008)
                                                                 [Kharkhordin]
    Linguistic Networks Configurations: Mana-         Теория практик - Teorija praktik
    gement of Innovation in Design Intensive                   [Theory of Practice]
    Firms, “International Journal of Innovation            2008, EUSP Press, 298 pp.
    Management”, 12 (1), pp. 1-9.
Dell’Era C., Marchesi, A. e Verganti R. (2010)
    Mastering Technology in Design-Driven In-                       Alessandro Mongili
    novation, “Research-Technology Manage-                         (Università di Padova)
    ment”, 53 (2), pp. 12-23.
De Michelis G. (2001) La creazione di conoscen-       Teorija praktik is a book addressed to
    za e l’innovazione design-driven nei distretti
    allargati, “Studi Organizzativi”, 1, pp. 121-     the Russian public, which gives an
    136.                                              overview of the pragmatic turn taking
Dosi G. (1982) Technological Paradigms and            place in contemporary social sciences.
    Technological Trajectories, “Research Poli-       Pragmatic Turn is also the name of a
    cy”, 11, pp. 147-162.
                                                      series of books published by the newly
Floch J. M. (1995) L’intelligence au bout de
    l’Opinel, in “Identités Visuelles”, Paris,        founded European University at Saint
130   BOOK REVIEWS



      Petersburg, where this book was pub-          ing on background practices, and Max
      lished. In Russian culture, attempts to       Weber’s analysis of traditional agency
      provide overviews of “western” ap-            and power of conventions, are juxta-
      proaches and theories are an estab-           posed with a more established line of
      lished tradition, sometimes achieving         research, drawing on the philosophical
      great results. In this case, the authors      speculation on this topic, which is here
      have chosen to focus on a line of re-         described in a history-of-ideas style.
      search rooted in the French and Ger-          The authors are very detailed in point-
      man tradition, with few references to         ing out Ludwig Wittgenstein’s contri-
      symbolic interactionism and ethno-            bution and explaining it to the Russian
      methodology, as well as to workplace          readership, with particular regard to
      studies and learning theories dealing         the different role that ‘discourse’ and
      with the concept of community of              ‘word’ (both expressed in Russian by
      practice. STS approach is not appreci-        the same word: slovo) play in different
      ated for its heterogeneous contribution       situations, and how different linguistic
      to this pragmatic turn, with the sole         games, or forms of life, can produce
      exception of Bruno Latour, who is giv-        different conditions of significance in
      en credit for his key role in this field.     everyday language. Another important
      Even if the book does not explicitly          aspect considered is the relationship
      adopt a specific approach, it eventually      between rules, habits, and ways of us-
      follows a twofold order in the analysis       ing rules, a perspective that makes it
      of the theoretical reference framework.       possible to finally overcome any ap-
      First, it traces a sort of genealogy of the   proach considering the regulatory as-
      main concepts related to practices in         pect as a cogent factor. A similar im-
      contemporary philosophy, with partic-         portance is attributed to Michael Po-
      ular reference to Heidegger’s, Witt-          lanyi’s studies on personal and tacit
      genstein’s and Deleuze’s works. Sec-          knowledge, and to his relativization of
      ondly, it analyses the use and different      the commitment to rules.
      ways of understanding practices, with             The authors recommend that prac-
      regard to their origin, their causes and      tices should be studied following Witt-
      their effects, with an extensive analysis     genstein’s invitation: “Don’t think, but
      of the works of (among others) Marcel         look”. However, they don’t discuss this
      Mauss, Michel Foucault, Pierre Bour-          aspect in further detail, and do not
      dieu, Michel de Certeau, Luc Boltanski        make any reference to the abundance
      and Laurent Thévenot.                         of fieldwork studies on this issue, just
          The increasing importance of              limiting their discourse to the need to
      studying practices in social sciences         observe visible practices and examine
      first emerged in the Seventies (follow-       contrasts and discussions. Following a
      ing the studies of Clifford Geertz and        Russian tradition, they consider litera-
      Pierre Bourdieu), as a both semiologi-        ture as an important source for social
      cal and cultural reaction to structural-      sciences, at the conceptual level too. As
      ism. Starting from that, the authors          an example of a correct perspective in
      trace a genealogy of this perspective.        studying practices, they consider An-
      Marcel Mauss’ research on gift, focus-        drej Platonov’s evnux duši and Daniil
                                                              TECNOSCIENZA – 2(1)          131



Xarms       [Kharms]’s       idea     that   tion in a field and of a habitus, which
knowledge is “seeing” (vidit’) much          would make it possible to predict the
more than znat’ (knowing) or uznat’          practices of a certain agent. Here they
(learning). Evnux duši (The Eunuch of        agree with the criticisms recently made
the Soul) is a character from Čevengur,      by Sloterdijk (2010), pointing out a
a cult novel written in 1928-1929, but       contradiction between the “condi-
published only in 1988, who observes         tioned spontaneity” of predispositions
the overall transformation of society in     and their “authenticity”, both support-
revolutionary times, without adopting        ed in Bourdieu’s works, and conversely
conceptual frames. Daniil Xarms was a        emphasize their unpredictability.
prominent surrealist and a children’s            They also make a very interesting
book writer, founder of the OBeRIu           criticism of Bourdieu’s concept of illu-
movement and very close to the trans-        sio, a pillar of the Bourdieusian theo-
sense (zaum) perspective expressed by        retical framework, which is based on
the great poet Velimir Xlebnikov             the assumption that “to play a game,
[Khlebnikov] in the avant-garde art          one must believe in it”. The authors
movement. Both of them were among            argue that the well-known phenome-
the most popular samizdat (clandes-          non of the absolute lack of belief in
tine) authors in Soviet times. Surpris-      their system on the part of the Soviet
ingly, the authors don’t mention Mixail      citizens, back in the early Seventies,
Baxtin’s [Bakhtin] methodological            did not result in a refusal to play that
concept of outsideness [vnenax-              huge game. So, practices are not gen-
odimost’], while emphasising the same        erated by strategies, but result from
need to abandon chronotopic con-             processes, and their study has made it
straints in order to develop ponimanie,      possible to bridge conceptual divides
the understanding of processes.              such as private/public, micro/macro,
    The book examines the issue of           and so on. Surprisingly, the authors do
practices in contemporary social sci-        not make any reference to the seminal
ences, following four axes: the causes       work of Lev Vygotskij and Aleksandr
and origin of practices, the role of         Lurija, and in particular to their con-
things in practices, the role of dis-        cept of kollektivnaja dejatel’nost’ (col-
courses in practices and the centrality      lective activity, or practice), so influen-
of practices in articulating relationships   tial in western practice studies (Cole
between power and everyday life. Re-         1998). They prefer to turn only to
ferring to Norbert Elias’s classical re-     “Westerners”, who explain the process
search on the western process of civili-     of assimilation of new habits into a pre-
zation, the authors stress two points,       existing, taken for granted, body of
the “morality” and the regulatory per-       practices by virtue of their moral supe-
formance of dominant practices and           riority (Wittgenstein) or due to a con-
their embeddedness in bodies, conver-        flict    between      opposing       forces
sations, emotions and spaces. They           (Deleuze, Fleck).
dwell on Pierre Bourdieu’s extensive             This attitude clearly emerges in
elaboration of the concept of practice,      their analysis of the role of things in
regarded as a result of an agent’s posi-     practices. Latour’s analysis of the pos-
132   BOOK REVIEWS



      sibility to develop analogous practices     the dominant ones, generating order,
      in different contexts and environments      spatiality, effect of power, hierarchy,
      thanks to a network and inscription         production of identity – and tactical
      devices, and his idea that the same         practices, i.e. the “weak ones”, mimetic
      network develops agency as an infra-        and conformist, aimed at avoiding
      structure, as well as his theory on the     stigmatisation, generating mobility, de-
      assemblage of heterogeneous elements,       spatialisation, networking of small
      regardless of their humanity or non-        groups, manipulation of identities,
      humanity, are presented to the Russian      slang and multiplicity.
      readership quite appropriately (con-            However, the most surprising as-
      sidering that Latour is little translated   pect of this book is its confidence in
      into Russian, contrary to other authors     sticking to a divide between Russian
      quoted in this book). Vygotskij and his     and “western” (in this case) theory of
      ideas about “acting with tools” are in-     practices, which seems to be taken for
      stead ignored, despite their reintroduc-    granted. This is a great sign of continu-
      tion in contemporary western debate         ity with the Soviet tradition. In the
      as “activity system” by Yrjö Engström       past, in every Institute (Graham 1975)
      and Michael Cole.                           there was a sektor, or department, de-
          Analysing the role of discourse in      voted to the study of “bourgeois” areas
      practices, the authors present the most     of research, which were obligatorily
      interesting part of their work, compar-     subject to criticism, with a number of
      ing the various perspectives of Michel      scholars conveying the contents of
      Foucault, Michel De Certeau, Luc            western debates into the Soviet world
      Boltanski and Laurent Thévenot. In          (Mongili 1998). By doing so, they re-
      particular, they underline how Fou-         garded “western” or “bourgeois” sci-
      cault studied “serious” discourses          ence (during the Soviet period) as a
      (such as medicine), while Boltanski         phenomenon apart from the Soviet
      and Thévenot developed a sociology of       (now Russian) culture. They often
      criticism focusing on an analysis of re-    achieved a very high level of analysis,
      gimes of accountability or justification,   as we can see if we compare Steven
      studying the kinds of regulatory forms      Shapin’s (1995) review of SSK with a
      used in everyday reasoning in relation      Soviet analogous work (Kelle et al.,
      to behaviours and practices, and ana-       1988). However, the price for this kind
      lysing the impact of these types of dis-    of approach was not only the denial of
      cursive commitments (engagement)            any direct influence of Soviet thinkers
      and constraints (régimes of coordina-       (such as Vygotskij) on the western de-
      tion). Similarly, the authors examine       bate, but also of some original intellec-
      Foucault’s idea of power as a “strategy     tual perspectives on practices, such as
      without a strategist”, a configuration of   Baxtin’s. The only justification the au-
      forces operating in everyday life           thors have for this attitude is a mean-
      through practices transforming the Self     ingful discussion on the replacement of
      into a Subject, and compare it with De      the Russian word for practice, deja-
      Certeau’s perspective, based on the         tel’nost’, with the more westernizing
      double register of strategic practices –    praktika.
                                                                        TECNOSCIENZA – 2(1)          133



                                                                   Sophie Houdart
                                                        La cour des miracles. Ethnologie
References                                                  d’un laboratoire Japonais
                                                           [The Court of Miracles: Ethnology
Bakhtin M.M. (1990) Author and hero in aesthe-                 of aJapanese Laboratory]
    tic activity, in M. Holquist and V. Liapunov            2007, CNRS Éditions, 335 pp.
    (eds), Art and Answerability: Early Phi-
    losophical Works by M.M. Bakhtin, Austin,
                                                                    Assunta Viteritti
    University of Texas Press (orig.: Avtor i
    geroj v ėstetičeskoj dejatel’nosti, in “Ėstetika              (Università di Roma)
    slovesnogo tvorčestva”, Moskva, Iskusstvo,
    1979).
Cole M. (1998) Cultural Psychology, Cambridge,
                                                           In this very absorbing book, Sophie
    Harvard University Press.                          Houdart flits ably from one role to an-
Graham L.R. (1975) The formation of Soviet Re-         other, becoming in turn an ethnologist,
    search Institute: A Combination of Revolu-         an anthropologist and a sociologist of
    tionary Innovation and International Bor-
                                                       science. Laboratory life – that of hu-
    rowing, “Social Studies of Science”, 3, pp.
    303-329.                                           mans both divided and united by cul-
Graham L.R. (1990) Science and the Soviet Social       ture (national, scientific, professional)
    Order, Cambridge, Harvard University               and that of other species, in this case
    Press.                                             the drosophila fly – is enriched
Holquist M. (1990) Dialogism, London, Rout-
    ledge.
                                                       through a totally cultural vision of sci-
Kelle V. Ž., E.Z. Mirskaja and A.A. Ignat’ev           entific knowledge (Pickering 1992;
    (1988) Sovremennaja zapadnaja sociologija          McCarthy Doyle 1996; Goodwin
    nauki. Kritičeskij analiz, Moskva: Nauka.          1994).
Mongili A. (1998) La chute de l’U.R.S.S. et la
                                                           The author tells the fascinating sto-
    recherche scientifique, Paris, L’Harmattan.
Shapin, S. (1995), Here and Everywhere – Socio-        ry of how a Japanese research labora-
    logy of Scientific Knowledge, “Annual Re-          tory describes and characterizes the
    view of Sociology”, 21, pp. 289-321.               homosexual gene of the drosophilia fly
Sloterdijk P. (2010) Devi cambiare la tua vita.        in the 1990s. In fact, man is believed to
    Sull’antropotecnica, Milano, Raffaello Corti-
    na Editore (orig.: Du mußt dein Leben
                                                       be the ultimate branch on the tree of
    ändern. Über Anthropotechnik, Frankfurt            life. The research hypothesis is that the
    am Main, Suhrkamp Verlag, 2009).                   “forebears” of our sexual behaviour
Todorov T. (1984) Mikhail Bakhtin. The Dialo-          patterns can be found in animals, bac-
    gical Principle, Minneapolis, The University
                                                       teria or flies. In its behaviour and in its
    of Minnesota Press (orig.: Mikhaïl Bakhtine.
    Le principe dialogique, Paris, Seuil, 1981).       genetic mutations, the fruit fly mani-
                                                       fests many intermediate stages between
                                                       hetero-and homosexuality. Above all,
                                                       it focuses on the laboratory manager,
                       ***                             Yamamoto, who evolves from being a
                                                       lover of insects (mushi mushi maniac)
                                                       according to the “naturalistic” culture
                                                       prevalent in Japan, and becomes a la-
                                                       boratory scientist in line with the more
                                                       “rational” western vision, without ever
                                                       losing his cultural identity.
