Practical Action

This book intends to delineate a pluralist and dynamic model of practical action which would fully take into account the modern conception of agency that is by and large prevailing in current social sciences research. Such a model is needed in order to challenge the one the cognitive sciences are trying to impose on our understanding of the relationship between knowledge and action. It will do so by way of exposing the family resemblances connecting Wittgenstein's theses on knowing, the pragmatist outlook on inquiry and the interactionist analysis of action in common. Its main aim is hinting at the way such a rapprochement might help opening up new avenues of investigation allowing for a plainly contextual conception of human collective behaviour.