Social Practice: Philosophy and Method

The starting premise of this work is that every type of practice profession (e.g. psychotherapy, social work, medicine) requires a method for carrying out its charge effectively. The search for a method, therefore, needs to be taken seriously by those engaged in social practice--with their charge being to improve the functioning of communal or collective life. This book offers a four stage problem solving model: (1) "precontextualization," characterized by affective commitments to particularistic views of reality and the good society; (2) "contextualization," which aims to arrive at an adequate cognitive understanding of existing social arrangements, thus subjecting to critical scrutiny truth claims made by various stakeholders; (3) "decontextualization," in which the participants step back and assess existing social arrangements according to agreed upon ethical criteria; and (4) "recontextualization," which involves interventions in the existing social order so as to bring it more in line with the moral ideals agreed upon. The four stage model is applied to concrete cases and compared to existing social problem solving approaches.