Special Issue of Human Affairs. A Postdisciplinary Journal for Humanities and Social Sciences on Action and Practice Theory

Guest Editor: Theodore R. Schatzki, University of Kentucky, USA

Human affairs are composed of human activities to a substantial degree. Much of the social world also results from human activities, whether it is intended or outside people’s control, whether it is cause for pride or for shame. The venerable task of the human sciences has been to comprehend the activity-sociality nexus and whatever bears on it. Traditional approaches to this task, such as those which emphasize the individual and the psychological or those that highlight society or the structural, have proved inadequate. New conceptions and accounts of action, performance, practice and the human world are needed, as the recent practice turn, among other developments, demonstrates.

Human Affairs
invites submissions of papers for its next issue
Volume 17, Number 2, December 2007

devoted to exploration of the above topic. Contributions drawing on all fields of the humanities and the social sciences—but also transcending them—are welcome, focusing primarily (though not exclusively) on topics such as

• Conceptions of action and practice in philosophy and social science
• Teleological, instrumental, expressive, ceremonial, ritualistic action & practice
• Action, practice and communication
• The constitution of individual and collective identities in practices
• The foundation of memory in actions, practices and related sociality
• Practice, the performance of action and the body
• The times and spaces of activity and of practice
• Practices and learning
• The production and use of knowledge, artifacts and works in practices
• Practices, digital culture and virtual objects
• Practices and individual responsibility
• Understanding & explaining actions and practices
• Social practices and nature
• Practices, rules/norms, and social order
• Producing, maintaining & transforming social structure and organization in practices

Submission Guidelines
Please follow the submission guidelines on the cover or the website of Human Affairs.
Abstracts due: December 15, 2006 (in English, Slovak, Czech)
Manuscripts due: June 15, 2007 (in English, Slovak, Czech)

All information and communications concerning submissions should be addressed to the Editorial Office:
Department of Social and Biological Communication
Slovak Academy of Sciences, Klemensova 19, 813 64 Bratislava, SLOVAKIA
tel: 00421-2-54 77 56 83
fax: 00421-2-54 77 34 42
E-mail: humanaffairs@humanaffairs.sk
Website: www.humanaffairs.sk