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The turn to “practice” in Science and Technology Studies has led to several major progressive shifts in the way problems are posed, and added significantly to institutional thinking in other areas, for example that of financial markets. I will point to ways that observing practice can inform, advance, but also challenge, the certainties that come with social and cultural concepts. One particular area of concern is the relation of practice and process, and the way technological advances raise issues of temporal alignment, stability and imagination. Also at issue are the human/non-human interfaces in what I call “synthetic situations,” which challenge received concepts, including the concept of practice itself.
Karin Knorr Cetina is O. Borchert Distinguished Professor in Sociology and Anthropology at the University of Chicago. Cetina is interested in knowledge and information, and in globalization theory and culture. She is currently finishing a book on global financial markets.