Introduction
Action as Social Practice
Pragmatism
Parsons’ Voluntaristic Theory of Action
Schütz’s Social Phenomenology
Respecifying the Relationship Between ‘Actor’ and Situation
The Organization of Social Practice
Sequential Organization of Action: Interaction
Local Order and Social Practice
Through his ethnography that reminds us of Bittner’s (2013[1965]) “Larimer Tours” Duck has shown that social order is not a theoretical concept but an observable and recognizable feature of the social world. It is produced moment-by-moment in an intelligible way through social practices. Whilst in Goffman’s work we find a large number of concepts glossing features of social order ethnomethodological research points to the need for detailed analyses of concrete social practices through which local order is produced.“I tried to walk around the neighborhood in such a way that I could make observations without being noticed by the dealers. I was especially careful not to do anything that would draw the attention of the more powerful dealers and suppliers. … On some streets I slowed my pace; on others I hurried. In accord with the code of the street, I never made direct eye contact with dealers, even when they were being helpful, and on the few occasions when we did cross paths I spoke only if spoken to”.(Duck 2015: 43)