Tacit Practice Research Articles

The LINK 2022 Journal: a collection on practice-led research

In recent years there has been a growing interest in the relationship between research and Design practice. Since the validation of practice-oriented research in universities in the 90s, an increasing number of Design students can submit a creative work along with a written exegesis for assessment purposes. The creative practice encompasses making an artefact with a technique or process according to the academic protocols of rigour that is common to areas of Communication Design and familiar to other fields of knowledge such as nursing, business and science. For the practitioner, it involve­s the conception of ideas and the search for new methods conceived through art and design outcomes, performances, or any other form of an artefact combined with exegesis writing. The consolidation of academic programmes that incorporate practice in research is growing, and they operate in the dimensions where tacit practice and critical thinking are developed simultaneously. The emergency of this form of research focuses on the subtle relationships between creative methods that arise from reflection and action on both the design studio practices and the practitioner's written accounts. The Dossier LINK Journal: Practice-led research in Design aims to extend the understanding of this form of knowing in action and assesses the production of epistemologies that impact the discipline and the broader area of artistic research. It builds upon the editors' selection of the best presentations from the conference LINK 2021 Practice-led research in Art, Communication and Design, where authors were invited to expand their submissions in the form of an academic article. These manuscripts advance historical, contextual and philosophical approaches to demonstrate the generation of new knowledge that can only be obtained through practice. They provide a snapshot of the state-of-the-art practice-led research in the academic domain of the PhD's degree. This collection is a result of an international partnership between the LINK Practice-led Research Group from the Auckland University of Technology - AUT, in Aotearoa, New Zealand, the Journal GEMInIS from the Federal University of São Carlos – UFSCar and Anhembi Morumbi University. For this volume, LINK Journal selected ten articles that offer an updated panorama on how practice-led research has been incorporated into Academia to challenge the assumptions about new ways to investigate and communicate new knowledge through artistic practice. The bilingual edition reinforces LINK's commitment to producing and distributing knowledge about practice-led research worldwide via open-access databases, entirely free of coasts for authors. This dossier has as thematic co-editors Dr Marcos Mortensen Steagall (AUT) and Professor João Massarolo (UFSCar), Professor Sergio Nesteriuk Gallo (Anhembi Morumbi University) and Fiona Grieve (AUT). We hope you enjoy the reading.

Self-Contradiction in Faculty's Talk about Writing: Making and Unmaking Autonomous Models of Literacy

In Writing Across the Curriculum/Writing in the Disciplines and Academic Literacies, researchers have produced compelling evidence of the disjunction between faculty members’ assertions that good writing is universal—i.e., the autonomous model of literacy—and faculty’s own tacit practice of discipline-specific conventions. In studies of race and language in education, scholars have identified disconnections between what teachers profess to value—e.g., students’ right to their own language—and how they actually grade. Contradictions are a natural part of any ideology, and these are commonly understood to demonstrate the resilience of the autonomous model. In this article, however, I introduce a set of theoretical tools from the sociology of scientific knowledge—namely, the concept of interpretative repertoires and of variability in participants’ interpretations as an analytic resource—that can reveal cracks in the autonomous model. Although these tools are over thirty years old, they have not circulated widely in literacy and composition studies. I apply the tools to text-based interviews with two faculty writers who had espoused universal “rules” for writing. After identifying apparent disconnections between the rules and their own practices or those of other writers with whom they worked, I present this evidence to them and analyze their explanations: They maintain that the rules still apply, but their accounts are complex, shifting, and self-contradictory. These case studies reveal, rather than its strength, the inherent instability of the autonomous model. Ultimately, I hope that these research tools can, in conjunction with systemic efforts, aid in dismantling the construct of “good writing” and its inherent privileging of white language practices.

Explicit and Tacit Practice Transfer Methods: Evidence from Two Field Experiments

Despite the recent advances in communication technologies and the extant literature on intra-organization knowledge transfer, organizations still invest in unsuccessful initiatives to disseminate practices. This suggests that the mechanisms leading to a successful transfer remain elusive. A key obstacle to understand the determinants of successful practice transfer initiative is that these are often endogenous processes. In this paper, I address some of these theoretical and empirical challenges by conducting two field experiments where 804 managers from a national branch of a large multinational firm were exogenously assigned to distinct practice-transfer method pairs. More specifically, I analyze practice transfer implications of employing explicit (non-personalized and non-interactive) transfer methods with heterogeneous credibility (Experiment 1) and further compare explicit to tacit (personalized and interactive) transfer processes (Experiment 2). The main results of the experiments are: 1) credibility is a double-edged sword which facilitates knowledge transfer for practices associated with such credibility while hindering the transfer of other practices; and 2) tacit methods allow for the transfer of knowledge content outside an initially codified scope. These findings complement the knowledge transfer literature by showing that outcomes from a practice transfer initiative depend on the fit between the characteristics of a transfer method and of the practices being transferred.

A Study on the Public’s Perception on Police Officer’s Corruption

과거 공직부패는 생계형비리가 대부분이었고 하위직공직자들이 부패혐의에 많이 연루됐었다. 특히 경찰부패는 공직부패중에서 가장 많이 발생되고 있고 지금도 국민들의 불신과 냉소로 이어지고 있다. 경찰부패의 이론 중에 ‘썩은 사과 가설’이론이 있는데 이 이론은 경찰관 개개인의 윤리와 인성에 초점을 맞추고 있는데 부패 가능성이 있는 경찰관을 채용단계에서 도덕성을 걸러내지 못하고 조직에 흡수되어 마치 사과상자의 흠있는 사과가 썩어 전체사과를 썩게 만들듯이 경찰전체가 부패할 가능성이 심 하다는 것이다. 즉 부패발생 원인을 개인적 결함에 두고 있다고 본다. 그런데 경찰부패중 부패의 원인을 개인적 결함보다는 조직의 체제적인 측면을 비리원인으로 보는 것이 ‘구조원인 가설’이다 이것은 경찰관들 사이에서 끼리끼리 알아서 도와주고 눈감아주는 침묵의 규범으로 받아들여지고 있고 조직 내부에서 묵시적 관행으로 내려온 것이 사실이다. 이와 같이 개인적인 측면,구조적인 측면, 전체적인 측면에서 경찰부패가 발생하고 있다고 본다. 본 연구는 시민들의 경찰부패인식을 분석하였는데 과거의 경찰부패 당사자인 경찰관 의 부정부패 연구에서 벗어나 시민관점에서 연구하고자 노력하였다. 본 연구는 다음과 같은 방법으로 고찰하였다. 첫째, 시민들의 경찰부패 인식원인이 무엇인지 고찰하였다. 둘째, 경찰부패의 개인적 제도적 조직 문화적 관점에서 고찰하였다. 셋째, 원인에 대한 개선방안은 무엇인지 살펴보았다.In the past, corruption in public offices was mostly a livelihood-related corruption scandal, with many lower-level officials implicated in corruption charges. In particular, police corruption is the most frequent occurrence of official corruption and continues to lead to public distrust and cynicism. Among the theories of police corruption is the theory of rotten apples theory . The rotten apples theory is that the entire police force is highly likely to become corrupt, as the apple box s flawed apple rotters away from the recruitment process of police officers who are potentially corrupt in focusing on individual personality of police officers. In other words, the cause of corruption lies in a personal defect especially personality character, moral, ethical factors. And Other theory is systematic approach. It is a theory that the cause of corruption among police officers is not a personal defect but rather a systematic cause of organization. This is considered a standard of self-help and blind silence among police officers, and has been downgraded to a tacit practice within the organization. This study analyzed the public s perception of police corruption and tried to study it from a citizen s perspective, instead of from the corruption study of police officers who were involved in police corruption. This study was considered in the following ways: First, we discussed what causes citizens to recognize police corruption. Second, it was considered from a personal, institutional, organizational and cultural standpoint of police corruption. Third, we looked at what was the way to improve the cause.

Judging the Singular: Towards a Contingent Practice of Improvisation in Law

At present improvisation appears to be a tacit practice within law; regularly used but largely unacknowledged amongst legal practitioners. This article advances the benefits of improvisation and calls for a more conscious and critical practice of improvisation in law. However, in this process of moving from the tacit to the critical it is imperative to avoid an abstract practice of improvisation, as has often been advanced in recent musical improvisation literature. The way in which we propose this can be avoided is by foregrounding contingency. This discussion urging towards a contingent practice of improvisation in law will focus on the role of the judge and judicial improvisation.

"Life Within the Person Comes to The Fore": Pastoral Workers' Practice Wisdom on Using Arts in Palliative Care.

Pastoral care (also chaplaincy, spiritual care) assists people to find meaning, personal resources, and connection with self, others, and/or a higher power. Although essential in palliative care, there remains limited examination of what pastoral workers do. This study examined how pastoral workers use and consider the usefulness of art-based modalities. Qualitative research was used to examine the practice wisdom (tacit practice knowledge) of pastoral workers experienced in using visual arts and music in palliative care. Two focus groups were conducted. Thematic analysis was informed by grounded theory. Six pastoral workers shared information. Three themes emerged. First, pastoral workers use arts as "another tool" to extend scope of practice by assisting patients and families to symbolically and more deeply contemplate what they find "sacred." Second, pastoral workers' art affinities inform their aims, assessments, and interactions. Third, pastoral workers perceive that art-based modalities can validate, enlighten, and transform patients and families through enabling them to "multisensorially" (through many senses) feel recognized, accepted, empowered, and/or close to God. Key elements involved in the work's transformative effects include enabling beauty, ritual, and the sense of "home" being heard, and legacy creation. Pastoral workers interpret that offering art-based modalities in palliative care can help patients and families to symbolically deal with painful memories and experiences, creatively engage with that deemed significant, and/or encounter a sense of transcendence. Training in generalist art-based care needs to be offered in pastoral education.

Decision-making in organisations as translaborational practice

Abstract Decision-making is said by researchers from many disciplines to be the outstanding characteristic of modern societies (Schimank 2005, 51–53). Yet, a decision’s consequences often seem inconceivable or even absurd to an uninvolved bystander. Sociologists call this phenomenon “decision-making under conditions of limited rationality” (Schimank 2005, 127ff.). Examples include parliamentarians passing a law ‘just’ to get it over and done with before an upcoming election; or a buyer under pressure to purchase ‘any machine tool as long as it costs under € 500,000’. This article takes a closer look at such phenomena, utilizing an empirical, linguistic approach to decision-making and communication. It argues that the most desired options are often the hardest to convey, and the ideas that are realised are often those that are easily expressed and already well-established. This is underlined by previous findings that many institutional outcomes are shaped by momentary (instantaneous) necessities and opportunities (cf. Schimank, 2005, 27; Zehrer, 2014). The article first gives an overview of previous studies on decision-making from different disciplines. It then sets out to explain in how far decision-making can be considered as ‘translaboration’, a new term introduced in 2015 by researchers from Westminster University in London (cf. Alfer, Cranfield, Kathrani, 2015). For the purposes of this article, the concept of ‘translaboration’ shall include first a tacit (from the addressees’ point of view) and non-deliberate (from the acting parties’ point of view) translation-like practice and, secondly, put special emphasis on the multimodal negotiation practice forming the basis of many organisational decisions. Examples from the economic world and politics will be used to demonstrate what the ‘translaboration’ concept means, and how a method rooted in it can reveal practices of organisational decision-making.

Tacit practice in care homes

Tacit practice in care homes

A genealogy of metatheory in IR: how ‘ontology’ emerged from the inter-paradigm debate

Drawn from the philosophy of science, metatheory is generally defined in International Relations (IR) as ‘theorizing about theory’ by examining a theory’s ontology or epistemology. Yet, despite being available to IR since at least the 1940s, metatheory ‘exploded’ into IR only in the late-1980s. What explains this sudden proliferation of metatheory in IR’s literature? This article answers this question by conducting a genealogy of metatheory in IR. It begins by offering a four-step heuristic guide for conducting a genealogical analysis. Then, bracketing IR’s traditional historical narratives, it problematizes a tacit practice undergirding IR’s present use of metatheory: theorizing about the ‘world’ using the philosophy of science. Tracing and interpreting the transformations of this practice through scholarship from the 1940s to the present reveals how metatheory emerged unexpectedly from what is now considered to be an outmoded and forgotten event: the inter-paradigm debate (IPD) of the mid-1980s. The IPD transformed what had always been conceptualized as a single, dynamic world for IR theory, into plural, static, theoretical worlds best (meta)theorized through a concept of ontology drawn from scientific realism. In sum, this genealogy demonstrates the implicit power that explicit theoretical practices wield over IR scholars, tacitly conditioning the discipline’s conceptual possibilities and limits.

Instituting interaction: normative transformations in human communicative practices.

Recent experiments in semiotics and linguistics demonstrate that groups tend to converge on a common set of signs or terms in response to presented problems, experiments which potentially bear on the emergence and establishment of institutional interactions. Taken together, these studies indicate a spectrum, ranging from the spontaneous convergence of communicative practices to their eventual conventionalization, a process which might be described as an implicit institutionalization of those practices. However, the emergence of such convergence and conventionalization does not in itself constitute an institution, in the strict sense of a social organization partly created and governed by explicit rules. A further step toward institutions proper may occur when others are instructed about a task. That is, given task situations which select for successful practices, instructions about such situations make explicit what was tacit practice, instructions which can then be followed correctly or incorrectly. This transition gives rise to the normative distinction between conditions of success versus conditions of correctness, a distinction which will be explored and complicated in the course of this paper. Using these experiments as a basis, then, the emergence of institutions will be characterized in evolutionary and normative terms, beginning with our adaptive responses to the selective pressures of certain situational environments, and continuing with our capacity to then shape, constrain, and institute those environments to further refine and streamline our problem-solving activity.

Physicians’ practices when frustrating patients’ needs: a comparative study of restrictiveness in offering abortion and sedation therapy

In this paper it is argued that physicians’ restrictive attitudes in offering abortions during 1946–1965 in Sweden were due to their private values. The values, however, were rarely presented openly....

Video observation in HIT development: lessons learned on benefits and challenges.

BackgroundExperience shows that the precondition for the development of successful health information technologies is a thorough insight into clinical work practice. In contemporary clinical work practice, clinical work and health information technology are integrated, and part of the practice is tacit. When work practice becomes routine, it slips to the background of the conscious awareness and becomes difficult to recognize without the context to support recall. This means that it is difficult to capture with traditional ethnographic research methods or in usability laboratories or clinical set ups. Observation by the use of the video technique within healthcare settings has proven to be capable of providing a thorough insight into the complex clinical work practice and its context - including parts of the tacit practice. The objective of this paper is 1) to argue for the video observation technique to inform and improve health-information-technology development and 2) to share insights and lessons learned on benefits and challenges when using the video observation technique within healthcare settings.MethodsA multiple case study including nine case studies conducted by DaCHI researchers 2004–2011 using audio-visual, non-participant video observation for data collection within different healthcare settings.ResultsIn HIT development, video observation is beneficial for 1) informing and improving system design 2) studying changes in work practice 3) identifying new potentials and 4) documenting current work practices.ConclusionsThe video observation technique used within healthcare settings is superior to other ethnographic research methods when it comes to disclosing the complexity in clinical work practice. The insights gained are far more realistic compared to traditional ethnographic studies or usability studies and studies in clinical set ups. Besides, the data generated through video recordings provide a solid basis for dialog between the health care professionals involved. The most important lessons learned are that a well considered methodology and clear formulated objectives are imperative, in order to stay focused during the data rich analysis phase. Additionally, the video observation technique is primarily recommended for studies of specific clinical work practices within delimited clinical settings. Overall, the video observation technique has proven to be capable of improving our understanding of the interwoven relation between clinical work practice and HIT and to inform us about user requirements and needs for HIT, which is a precondition for the development of more successful HIT systems in the future.

Agrarian Ideals, Sustainability Ethics, and US Policy: A Critique for Practitioners

If tacit ethical ideals shape policy and practice, even when practitioners are not fully aware of underlying philosophical assumptions, then philosophical frameworks that support diagnostic, evaluative, and adaptive capacity in the sphere of action are critical to sustainability. Thompson’s agrarian-influenced sustainability framework substantially advances beyond the prevailing triple bottom line approach, as experimental evaluation of biofuels sustainability illustrates. By suggesting that governance of complex social-natural systems lies at the core of contemporary sustainability challenges, Thompson illuminates the critical importance of social capacity for deliberation and choice—a powerful and somewhat unexpected theme requiring more development by philosophers and practitioners alike going forward.

We kind of try to merge our own experience with the objectivity of the criteria: The role of connoisseurship and tacit practice in undergraduate fine art assessment

This article explores connoisseurship in the context of fine art undergraduate assessment practice. I interviewed twelve fine art lecturers in order to explore and unpack the concept of connoisseurship in relation to subjectivity, objectivity and tacit practice. Building on the work of Bourdieu (1973, 1977, 1986) and Shay (2003, 2005), both of whom problematize the view that subjectivity and objectivity are binary opposites, my research illustrates the ways that connoisseurship is underpinned by informed professional judgements located in communities of practice. Within this particular conception of connoisseurship, the lecturers' expertise is co-constituted in communities of assessors through participation and engagement. Standards reside in communities of practice.

Intersubjectivity and Bourdieusian Approaches to ‘Identity’

Bourdieu’s emphasis on the socialized subjectivity of habitus is increasingly used in discussions of ‘identity’ to indicate the limits to reflexivity, situating ‘identity’ in tacit practice. In emphasizing the dispositional nature of ‘identity’, analysts also acknowledge more explicitly reflexive and self-consciously mobilized aspects; however, Bourdieu’s restrictive treatment of reflexivity makes it difficult to theorize the relations between these different aspects. The ‘problem of reflexivity’ is more properly a question of the intersubjective nature of practice, and the different aspects of ‘identity’ are better theorized as features of situated intersubjectivity. With practice the negotiated outcome of intersubjective coordination, then ‘calls to order from the group’, the routine monitoring of conduct, agents’ reflexive accounts of their activity, and the mobilization of agents into collectivities can be explored as features of the collective accomplishment of practices, by networks of variously disposed agents, whose actions, whilst dispositional, must nonetheless be accounted for and aligned.

Health professionals' enactment of their accountability obligations: Doing the best they can

In the current context of health care, health professionals' accountability obligations may be more extensive than the degree of autonomy that they are permitted to exercise. To date, how professionals fulfil their obligations with regard to this potential for dissonance has not been investigated. The purpose of this Grounded Theory study was to examine how one professional group, occupational therapists, enacted their accountability obligations within their current practice context. Interviews with 21 therapists across three practice sectors in one Canadian province elicited a detailed portrait of the contextual elements within which accountability enactment took place, and a view of the dynamic interplay of these elements with the decision-making involved in fulfilling professional accountabilities. Practitioners moved back and forth between conscious juggling of accountability expectations and more automatically applying tacit practice knowledge. Beyond non-negotiable bottom line commitments to their formal ethical obligations and to retaining autonomy for their clinical recommendations, practitioners' decisions reflected the goal of doing their best. However, participants' efforts to find a balance between satisfactorily fulfilling their obligations and acknowledging the frequently unavoidable reality of contextual constraints elicited inconsistent patterns. The study findings raise concerns about ensuring quality of services and the impact on professionals. Although practitioners have an important role to play in addressing these challenges, other stakeholders, for example, the professional regulatory bodies, also must play a role in creating a coherent accountability framework. Further research is needed to obtain greater understanding of professional accountability enactment across health professions, practice sectors and health jurisdictions, and to explore managerial and professional regulatory bodies' perspectives, roles and responsibilities.

A decade on, and it’s still Groundhog Day: questioning research on technology in higher education

AbstractIt has been suggested that there is an ongoing failure to learn from previous research and policy about technology use in Higher Education. This paper explores this claim, critiquing policy and practice around curriculum design and delivery, using ideas about tacit practice and the lived (or performed) curriculum. This reveals a consistent focus on tangible elements such as materials, at the expense of ephemeral but vital aspects of curriculum practice, supporting claims about a lack of progress. However, a more optimistic interpretation may be possible, viewing this instead as a consistent way of understanding new technologies as they arise.

Rethinking nurses’ observations: Psychiatric nursing skills and invisibility in an acute inpatient setting

In sociological, managerial and clinical investigations of psychiatric nursing, the skills of observing patients are compared unfavourably with nurses’ ability to listen, to interview and to engage with patients. This paper examines how nurses in an acute psychiatry unit used observation as a significant part of their everyday assessments of patients, through a working shift. We argue that the knowledge generated in observations is essential to the nurses’ gaze in this setting. Based on an ethnographic study of the assessment practices of 11 psychiatric nurses and the first author in an Australian hospital setting, we found that nurses’ observations of patients were rich in situated assessment detail and a powerful strategy for producing civil conduct among patients. In particular, we noted how nurses deliberately obscured their practice of observation, in order not to provoke patients. While such discreet practice is productive for everyday clinical work, the invisibility of nursing observations undermines the status of acute inpatient psychiatric nurses. Devaluing of tacit practice may encourage experienced nurses to leave inpatient units, at a time when hospitals struggle to address nursing shortages worldwide. We recommend instead that the productive value of diverse and situated practices be investigated and articulated.

Business Should Be Its Own Therapist: Observing the "Governance Ethics" of Taiwanese Enterprises

Taiwanese enterprises generally display a tacit acceptance and practice of globally-recognized business ethics such as the respect of human rights. Yet some Taiwanese business supervisors subscribe instead to a philosophy of leadership, dubbed "pseudo-harmony", which actively seeks to evade responsibility and any conflict of interest with profitability. Meanwhile other Taiwanese entrepreneurs are even less enlightened, dictatorially upholding self-serving regimes which operate on a philosophy which is euphemistically referred to as "householder management".

Storied Lives, Dialog –> Retro-reflections: Melding Critical Multicultural Education and Critical Race Theory for Pedagogical Transformation

We are critical retro-reflective teacher educators and cultural workers. As such, we have a civic responsibility to embrace courage, compassion, equity, social justice, and social activism. We also have the responsibility to deconstruct dominant subordinating narrative and stories. The purpose of this article is to create a counter story via our retro-reflective dialog, centered within our deep-seated existence as culturally ethnic, racialized, and gendered beings. We illustrate how the process of retro-reflection is a hopeful contingency for transformative praxis using the theoretical tools of Critical Race Theory and Critical Multicultural Education. Our retro-reflections expose and de-center the tacit practice of white supremacy–a hegemonic construct often embedded within teacher education programs. Through our retro-reflections, we hope to create personal and pedagogical transformations for both ourselves and others involved in the struggle for social justice and equity.