Within and beyond organization studies, an epistemology of practice allows us to view the ongoing interaction between doing and knowing, the knowing subject and the known object, social and material, humans, nonhumans, more-than-humans. This book is a collection of reflections by scholars across the social sciences around epistemological practices and the epistemology of posthumanist practice theory. Practice theories and practice-based studies have developed a rich methodology for studying working practices. This book is an epistemological reflection that challenges the distinction between theory and method, questions the knowing practices that give form to the object of knowledge, how they draw boundaries between what comes to matter and what is excluded from mattering. It will be of great interest to scholars and students of organization studies and beyond, allowing social science researchers to rethink their positioning within their own research practices and leaving them open to a broader, looser and more generous understanding of qualitative methodologies.

This book addresses issues confronting universities' attempts to integrate practice-based learning in higher education curriculum, yet which reveals the jostling of cultures which exist within and amongst the academy, industry, government and professional bodies and other educational providers. The book engages theory in practices, and draws upon research highlighting the issues and transactions that emerge with implementation of work integrated learning arrangements as uses these resources to discuss and develop further both theoretical premises and procedural contributions. The illustrative cases derive utilise metaphors of culture in their exploration of the epistemologies, structures, politics, histories and rituals which constrain program opportunity and success in making these advances. The volume comprises two main sections, the first laying out focal issues in the integration of learning and work in higher education. This section presents the issues at multiple levels of analysis and in theoretical terms. This section provides a foundation for the second section of the book which introduces a number of research studies illustrative of the issues theorised in the first. The cases highlight the practice of workplace and higher education pedagogy. They provide thick descriptions of experiences of integration and are explicitly focused on the implementation of work integrated programs in higher education. The volume commences with an introductory chapter which sets out the range of issues addressed both theoretically and through illustration in the book and a final chapter critically reviews the contributions and acts to provide a cohesive picture of the learning practices of work and higher education and the possibilities of their integration.

Entrepreneurship can be read as a cultural and economic phenomenon. In recent times, gender has become an increasing influence on entrepreneurship. This groundbreaking new study considers both gender and entrepreneurship as symbolic forms, looking at their diverse patterns and social representation. Presenting an ethnographic study of the gender structuring of entrepreneurship, this work employs three strategies:
A critical survey of gender studies which argues that entrepreneurship is a cultural model of masculinity that obstructs the expression of other models;
'Reflexive' ethnographic observation conducted in five small firms which describes how business cultures are 'gendered' and how gender is the product of a social practice;
An analysis of how discursive and narrative practices in business cultures constitute gender and entrepreneurship.

Entrepreneurship can be read as a cultural and economic phenomenon. In recent times, gender has become an increasing influence on entrepreneurship. This groundbreaking new study considers both gender and entrepreneurship as symbolic forms, looking at their diverse patterns and social representation. Presenting an ethnographic study of the gender structuring of entrepreneurship, the work a employs three strategies: A critical survey of gender studies which argues that entrepreneurship is a cultural model of masculinity that obstructs the expression of other models; 'Reflexive' ethnographic observation conducted in five small firms which describes how business cultures are 'gendered' and how gender is the product of a social practice; An analysis of how discursive and narrative practices in business cultures constitute gender and entrepreneurship. Gender and Entrepreneurship is essential reading for postgraduate students, researchers and academics with an interest in entrepreneurship, business and management, innovation economics and gender studies.

The symbolic order of gender in organizations - how gender relations are culturally and discursively produced and reproduced, and how they might be `done' differently, are explored in this book. Silvia Gherardi focuses on the relationship between gender, power and culture in organizations and on the need to come to grips with the pervasive, elusive and ambiguous nature of gender in work settings. She introduces two key metaphors. The first is of the sexual contract, which centres on the sexuality of organizations and `static' gender difference. The second, of the alchemic wedding, highlights a plurality of cultural models of femaleness and of women/work relationships, and processes of dynamic difference, transformation and transcendence. Gherardi continues her examination of the construction of gender relations in the workplace through a series of rich and illuminating stories which also draw on various symbolic archetypes as powerful forms of cultural expression. The final section of the book looks at possibilities for change, developing in particular a concept of different forms of gender citizenship of organizations.

This book addresses issues confronting universities’ attempts to integrate practice-based learning in higher education curriculum, yet which reveals the jostling of cultures which exist within and amongst the academy, industry, government and professional bodies and other educational providers. The book engages theory in practices, and draws upon research highlighting the issues and transactions that emerge with implementation of work integrated learning arrangements as uses these resources to discuss and develop further both theoretical premises and procedural contributions. The illustrative cases derive utilise metaphors of culture in their exploration of the epistemologies, structures, politics, histories and rituals which constrain program opportunity and success in making these advances. The volume comprises two main sections, the first laying out focal issues in the integration of learning and work in higher education. This section presents the issues at multiple levels of analysis and in theoretical terms. This section provides a foundation for the second section of the book which introduces a number of research studies illustrative of the issues theorised in the first. The cases highlight the practice of workplace and higher education pedagogy. They provide thick descriptions of experiences of integration and are explicitly focused on the implementation of work integrated programs in higher education. The volume commences with an introductory chapter which sets out the range of issues addressed both theoretically and through illustration in the book and a final chapter critically reviews the contributions and acts to provide a cohesive picture of the learning practices of work and higher education and the possibilities of their integration.

Drawing on affect theory and research on academic capitalism, this book examines the contemporary crisis of universities. Moving through 11 international and comparative case studies, it explores diverse features of contemporary academic life, from the coloniality of academic capitalism to performance management and the experience of being performance-managed. Affect has emerged as a major analytical lens of social research. However, it is rarely applied to universities and their marketisation. Offering a unique exploration of the contemporary role of affect in academic labour and the organisation of scholarship, this book considers modes of subjectivation, professional and personal relationships and organisational structures and their affective charges. Chapter 9 is available Open Access via OAPEN under CC-BY-NC-ND licence.

The practice-based approach to the study of work and organizing has been widely adopted in recent years, yet its theoretical and methodological systematization has only just begun. Silvia Gherardi expertly provides an overview on the topics and issues addressed by practice-based studies. By means of a series of examples drawn from the best-known analyses using this approach, the book provides methodological guidance on how to conduct empirical research on practices, and how to interpret them from three perspectives: practices 'from outside' practices 'from inside', and the social effects produced by practices. The distinctive trait of this book is the presentation of the classic studies that gave rise to the practice-based approach, and through their analysis the illustration of their problems and methods is presented. Masters students, doctoral students and scholars will find plenty of invaluable information in this methodological book. In relation to a lively and wide-ranging debate conducted at the international level, but not yet systematized in its methodological assumptions, the book will also be of interest to those practitioners curious about a view of work as a practical activity which develops within an ecology of social, economic and material relationships.

The symbolic order of gender in organizations - how gender relations are culturally and discursively produced and reproduced, and how they might be `done' differently, are explored in this book. Silvia Gherardi focuses on the relationship between gender, power and culture in organizations and on the need to come to grips with the pervasive, elusive and ambiguous nature of gender in work settings. She introduces two key metaphors. The first is of the sexual contract, which centres on the sexuality of organizations and `static' gender difference. The second, of the alchemic wedding, highlights a plurality of cultural models of femaleness and of women/work relationships, and processes of dynamic difference, transformation and transcendence. Gherardi continues her examination of the construction of gender relations in the workplace through a series of rich and illuminating stories which also draw on various symbolic archetypes as powerful forms of cultural expression. The final section of the book looks at possibilities for change, developing in particular a concept of different forms of gender citizenship of organizations.