Introduction to Practical Knowledge and Normativity Studies

This book presents studies in practical knowledge as research of the professional world. Lifeworld is a core and common key word for the contributions, referring not only to the more general world of the natural attitude, but also to the common and practical everyday level of life. For practitioners, practical knowledge is seldom thematised and problematised, although it is always presupposed. To put this kind of action knowledge into words is not an easy task. Researchers from different traditions have distinguished between explicit and tacit aspects of knowledge, with the tacit ones being particularly difficult or even impossible to articulate. Professional practice requires discretion or judgment in addition to everything else that is needed. Moreover, the areas of knowledge are not expressed one at a time but must also be integrated into complex and multifaceted work situations.