Reflecting on Grounded Practical Theory

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Reflecting on Grounded Practical Theory

• Robert T. Craig
• University of Colorado at Boulder
• International Communication Association
• Montreal, Quebec
• May 24, 2008

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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

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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)

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Aristotles Organization of the Sciences
Adapted from Levine, 1995, p. 111.
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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)

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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

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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)

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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)

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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?

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Further Information

• http//spot.colorado.edu/craigr/research.htm