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Reflecting on Grounded Practical Theory

Reflecting on Grounded Practical Theory. Robert T. Craig University of Colorado at Boulder International Communication Association Montreal, Quebec May 24, 2008. Grounded Practical Theory (GPT).

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Reflecting on Grounded Practical Theory

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  1. Reflecting on Grounded Practical Theory Robert T. Craig University of Colorado at Boulder International Communication Association Montreal, Quebec May 24, 2008

  2. Grounded Practical Theory (GPT) • “The grounded description, critique, and theoretical reconstruction of communication problems, techniques, and situated ideals…” (Craig & Tracy,1995, p. 250) • Alternative to scientific theory – addresses normative (ought) questions • Grounded in empirical description & critique • Weak normativity – reasoned arguments potentially useful for practical reflection and deliberation

  3. Philosophical Sources • Aristotle (praxis, phronesis) • Pragmatism (Dewey – theory of inquiry; Schön – reflection in action) • Hermeneutics (Gadamer – understanding as application) • Critical Theory (Habermas – critique as discursive reflection) • Practical Discipline (Craig, 1989; communication studies as cultivation of communication as a social practice)

  4. Aristotle’s Organization of the Sciences Adapted from Levine, 1995, p. 111.

  5. Outline of GPT Method • Specifying a practice (unitizing, naming, positioning) • Empirical data collection (contextual background, samples of situated discourse and metadiscourse illustrating key problems and practices) • Theoretical reconstruction (generalization and idealization of selected elements “such that values and principles implicit in the practice are made explicit and a reasoned basis for ‘good practice’ and critical judgments of practice is constructed”)

  6. A Problem-Centered Ideal Model • GPT reconstructs a practice on three interrelated levels: • Problem: Dilemmas typically encountered • Technical: Repertoire of strategies for problems • Philosophical: Reasoned principles to govern the use of techniques

  7. Selected Applications • Academic colloquia (Tracy, 1997) • Feminist organizing (Ashcraft, 2001, 2006) • GDSS facilitation (Aakhus, 2001) • “The issue” (Craig & Tracy, 2005) • Crisis negotiation (Agne, 2007) • International NGOs (Dempsey, 2007) • Dialogue (Craig, 2007) • Public meetings (Tracy, 2007)

  8. Toward GPT 2.0 • Addressing essential tensions in GPT: • descriptive – normative (validation criteria?) • theoretical – applied (practical impact?) • positioning – universalizing (political stance?) • Right-sizing the scope: • methodology: AIDA, ethnography, narrative inquiry, action research, etc. • site-based & dispersed practices • collective agents? communities of practice? non-human agents? • policies vs. practices (e.g., regulatory agencies)

  9. Theoretical Challenges • Design theory (Aakhus & Jackson): • Can we do without a priori normative ideals? • Design = the technical level of reconstruction? • Practice theory (Vygotsky, Wittgenstein, Garfinkel, Bourdieu, Lave & Wenger, Latour) • Is GPT over-intellectualized? (tacit knowledge, habitus) • Is the logic of practice necessarily opaque to its possessors? Is normative discourse misrecognition? • Poststructuralism (esp. Foucault) • How is GPT related to big-D discourses? (problems ↔ problematization; techniques ↔ governmentality; situated ideals ↔ regimes of truth) • Does GPT imply a theory of agency?

  10. Further Information: http://spot.colorado.edu/~craigr/research.htm

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