One turn … and now another one: Do the turn to practice and the turn to affect have something in common?

Abstract

The turn to practice has been prominent in the community of Management Learning and still occupies an important place in the debate that approaches practice from the standpoint of learning and knowing. On considering how the turn to practice contributes to the ongoing conversation on post-epistemologies, one notes a convergence with another 'turn'. The turn to affect started more or less in the same years as the turn to practice, but the conversation between the two has not yet been fully articulated. I argue that both share a concern for (1) a relational epistemology, (2) the body and (3) sociomateriality. To show how they may interact, three vignettes are presented to illustrate their commonalities and how they try to produce in the reader an affective reaction. This article is also the outcome of an experimentation conducted with a visual writer during the Organizational Learning, Knowledge and Capabilities conference in Milan, and it proposes a reflection on the limits of representationalism.

The mark of the researcher’s hand: the imperfections of craft in the process of becoming a qualitative researcher

“…Recycling the clay at the potter's bench involves embracing the muscles of the core, firmly planting one's feet on the floor, positioning the body in relation to the bench, pushing into the clay with the shoulders and torso, maintaining rhythm with the arms, and breathing steadily with the lungs; all the while listening and responding to the movement of the clay, and adhering to the traditions of the field. Within this dynamic, the clay is not passive and inert, but rather the material holds an 'active' energy that presses into the maker at the same time as the maker presses into the clay (Gherardi, 2017). This subtle, affective feeling of resistance highlights the 'vitality' of the material that guides the potter's bodily choreography, and is central to the meaning that craft work brings (Bell and Vachhani, 2020; see also Ingold, 2000Ingold, , 2013Marchand, 2010;O'Conner, 2017).…”

Unplugged - "Carte blanche"

“…With few exceptions (Reckwitz, 2017;Gherardi, 2017) the turn to affect has rarely been put in relation with the turn to practice. While Reckwitz wonders what is the particularity of a practice theory perspective on affect, I explored, in my keynote speech to the 2015 OLKC conference in Milan, what the turn to practice and the turn to affect have in common.…”

Disturbing the AcademicConferenceMachine: Post‐qualitative re‐turnings

“…The earthworm figuration acts as a decomposer of the familiar, it reveals sites of re‐turning (Barad, ) which is more than a reflective reviewing of life and events. Re‐turning is dynamic and generative, invigorating past/present/future connections and dissolving the Cartesian boundaries on nature/culture to generate new knowledge practices (Ripamonti, Galuppo, Gorli, Scaratti, & Cunliffe, ; Gherardi, ). In addition, the cyborg metaphor (Haraway, ), with its origins in challenging the nature/culture binary, helps re‐view phallocentric hegemony and posit a new feminist position as a hybrid chimera which moves beyond traditional notions of the feminine body.…”