Practical consciousness

From Geography

Practical consciousness

Practical consciousness is one of the three stages of the model of consciousness in human agency that Anthony Giddens distinguishes (Lippuner & Werlen, 2009, p. 41) The model is based on and still different from elements of classical action theory as well as psychoanalytic elements (ibid.). The more stages in the model are unconsciousness and discursive consciousness. Most of our knowledge about the world can be seen as knowledge we are practically consciouss about. This means that actors "are able to do things that require this kind of knowledge, even though they are unable to report outright on it. That is to say, actors possess this knowledge without being able to give account on it" (Lippuner et al, 2009, p. 42). Lippuner and Werlen call it “tacit” knowledge and state that it is used for the “majority” of social action in everyday life (ibid., p. 39). Actors take actions and knowledge “for granted” since they are hardly asked to verbally express routinized rational actions (ibid., pp. 39-40). It is thus often unquestioned knowledge which is a basis to actions, as well as routines and traditions (ibid., pp. 40-41). An example illustrating practical consciousness was given by Huib Ernste (personal communication, October 4th, 2011): when you are riding a bike, you are not busy with how you should move the pedals, because this works 'automatically', in a practical consciouss way. This works the same in other daily actions, like walking stairs and opening a door”.

References

Lippuner, R. & Werlen, B. (2009). Structuration Theory. In International Encyclopedia for Human Geography. Elsevier.

Contributors

Page created and edited by --JikkeVanTHof 18:35, 7 October 2011 (UTC)

Enhanced by Janna Voelpel s 3015041JannaVolpel 15:03, 7 May 2012 (CEST)