British Journal of Management (BJM) Special Issue Call for Papers: Augmenting the Impact of the Practice Turn in Business and Management Research

Special Issue Call for Papers

Augmenting the Impact of the Practice Turn in Business and Management Research

Paper submission window: 1 to 28 February 2026

Guest Editors:

• Katy Mason, Salford Business School, UK ([email protected])
• Joe Raelin, Lappeenranta University of Technology (LUT), Finland and Northeastern University, USA ([email protected])
• Fiona Spotswood, University of Bristol, UK, ([email protected])
• Sahar Bakr, Nottingham Business School, UK, ([email protected])
• Katherine Parsons, Cardiff Business School, UK, ([email protected])
• Qian Li, Warwick Business School, UK, ([email protected])

BJM Consulting Editor:

• Emmanuela Plakoyiannaki, University of Vienna, Austria ([email protected])

Description

This special issue presents a timely opportunity to augment the varying strands of conceptual advancement of the practice turn and its impact on business and management research. Business and management studies constitute a rich, diverse and complex field of research. Since the inception of this field, theory and theorising have been central to its development. More recently, a trend has emerged towards borrowing and blending theories from related disciplines such as psychology, sociology, and political science to business and management studies (e.g., Nicolini, 2012; Oswick, Fleming, and Hanlon, 2011). A good example is the growing body of work using Practice Theory - also known as theories of practice and commonly referred to as ‘the practice turn’ (Schatzki, 2002; Nicolini, 2009). Although theories of practice vary, with a range of theoretical roots, they share a commitment to understanding social phenomena as a web of connected practices that transpire through time and space. Practices are a configuration of different elements, and all are equally important for holding practices together. Furthermore, practices are performed, meaning they recursively give shape to social activities and are the site of social change. A key strength of the practice view is its capacity to transcend various dualisms often evoked in social research, such as the structure vs. agency dualism, stability vs. change, or objectivist vs. subjectivist (Schmidt, 2018; Wenzel et al., 2020, pg. 4). 

Practice Theory represents a promising theoretical orientation by which to enhance business and management research (see, for example, Nicolini, 2012; Spotswood, 2019). Specifically, they enable researchers to develop a deeper understanding of entangled practice ecosystems that shape business and management activities, challenges and phenomena (Tatli, 2011), as well as provide insight into the mundane, everyday practices and the minutiae of ‘doings and sayings’ (Schatzki, 2002) that characterise work and management (see for example Warde, 2014; La Grouw, 2024). For example, a practice lens offers the theoretical capacity to unravel tacit processes (Hjorth et al., 2015) and shared cultural understandings (Spotswood et al., 2021), to draw attention to temporal rhythms (Blue, 2019), and the intersection of practice doings with space and place, (Knight et al., 2024). They allow for a focus on culture (Hussain et al, 2024), bodies (Maller, 2015) and the environment (Nguyen et al, 2023) in which practices are situated. Furthermore, adopting a practice approach presents an opportunity to embrace a socio-material view of the world around us (Gherardi, 2025). As such, contributes to our understanding of how tools, cultural artefacts, other structures and nonhuman objects (re)orient, (re)shape and (re)develop organisational, management, and societal practices (Mason and Spring, 2011; Mason et al. 2015).

Noticeable applications of the practice turn in business and management studies include those orientated around ‘strategy as practice’ (Whittington, 1996; Jarzabkowski, 2005; Jarzabkowski et al., 2007; Kaplan, 2008; Li and Jarzabkowski, 2025); ‘leadership-as-practice’ (Raelin, 2023), ‘entrepreneurship as practice’ (Thompson et al., 2020; Thompson and Byrne, 2022; Feldman and Worline, 2016); consumption (in) practices (Echeverri and Skålén, 2011; Spotswood et al., 2024), ‘epistemology of practice’ (Raelin, 2007; Gherardi, 2022). Studies also include explorations of the way privilege, prejudice and inequalities are played out through normalised management practices (Pecis and Touboulic, 2024), and how everyday (mundane) practices may act as pre-figuration to political activism (Forno and Wahlen, 2022).

Building on the 2017 special issue, Exploring Relationships between Temporality, Dialogue, Reflexivity and Praxis, the aims of the Special Issue are two-fold. First, to reflect on and augment the varying strands of conceptual advancement within the practice turn, to further develop its theoretical orientation in business and management research - providing a clearer picture of where we are now, where we have come from, and where we are going. Second, to encourage and enthuse newcomers to Practice Theory to engage with its applications in order to address some of the grand challenges of our time (Danner-Schroder et al., 2025). By zooming in or out (Nicolini, 2009) via observed analyses, we seek contributions that enrich current practice theoretic business and management research and uncover societal, organisational and personal barriers to, and enablers of, social transformation from a practice perspective.

We invite conceptual papers and empirical studies from a range of methods/ methodologies. Themes of interest may include but are not limited to: the philosophical and conceptual domain; the methodological domain; the empirical domain; and the pedagogical domain - considering what Practice Theory means for business and management teaching and learning. We particularly encourage the BJM readership to think beyond the human (i.e. user, employee, manager) and consider the nonhuman objects (i.e. working models, white papers, nature) and their influences on social practices, especially when viewing complex, multi-layered phenomena such as transformational strategy, leadership, innovation, consumption and digitalisation.

We believe the special issue will be of interest to scholars interested in theory-building within business and management research as well as those new to or interested in understanding more about how Practice Theory can help explain business and management phenomena.

Suggested Themes/ Topics

We have identified and organised a number of potential but not exhaustive themes that we are interested in attracting for this special issue:

• Advancing understanding of business and management phenomena through Practice Theory.
  These may include critically evaluating the ontological and epistemological challenges and opportunities of Practice Theory for business and management.
  • This may include advancing knowledge on the rhythms and dynamics of complex societal phenomena such as the changing nature of work, emerging trends in consumer behaviour, understanding the role of ‘other-than-human’ agents in the formation of practices, and/or the rise of artificial intelligence in business and society.
  • Unravelling problems through Practice Theory: This may include reflecting on how we can conceptualise various entangled practices to address challenging problems and contribute to their potential remediation (e.g., the climate crisis, grand challenges, geopolitical instability, sustainability, social justice) and identifying phenomena in business and management research that could benefit from a Practice Theory perspective.
• Methodological pieces
  Methodological papers may advance the ways through which we can observe and analyse phenomena from a Practice Theory perspective by:
  • Illustrating the ‘what,’ ‘how,’ and ‘why’ of the typical analytic approaches for Practice Theory and their relative contributions to understanding (e.g., collection of data, analysis of data, and inferential doctrines).
  • Introducing new, unconventional and innovative methodological approaches for Practice Theory (Christofi et al, 2024) (e.g., applying narrative, ethnographic, aesthetic, discursive, and digital approaches that can capture practices concurrently in the process of becoming).
  • Reflecting on the role of the researcher in Practice Theory research - offering insights into the experience of undertaking Practice Theory research (e.g., the challenges, opportunities and novel interpretative insights that this approach might bring and the skills and knowledge required of the researcher in practising the approach).
  • Advancing the ways in which Practice Theory research is analysed for deeper insights, and analytical advancement (e.g., reflecting on the role of new technologies, cross-disciplinary analysis methods, and data-informed analysis approaches).
• Addressing challenges and driving social change
  Empirical and practitioner papers may advance the ways in which we engage with and adopt Practice Theory in business and management research and/or extend extant theoretical adaptations of Practice Theory through studies which:
  • Seeking to understand and challenge business and management practices and their impact on stakeholders, and how Practice Theory might help in implementing positive outcomes in business and management and related sub-disciplines. Or, conversely, how might Practice Theory assist in unravelling the dark side of business, entrepreneurship and societal institutions?
  • Exploring how Practice Theory might be useful in increasing our understanding of the ways in which non-human agents (e.g. artefacts, tools and technologies, nature) interact with humans and shape business and management practices, processes, strategies and outcomes (e.g., the environment/global warming, emerging technologies such as generative artificial intelligence) and how non-human agents might be taken into account in a human-centred field through the lens of Practice Theory.
  • Offering novel insight into how we might better understand carriers of practice - how they receive, adapt, negotiate and collaborate in/via practices. Particularly, in complex, multilayered contexts considering the prospective role of the practitioner/carrier of the practice changes when coordinating and shaping the dynamics, trajectories and/or impacts of practices.
  • Offering pedagogical insights into business and management education either helping develop pedagogy through practice transformation or reconceptualising learning as carriers of practice or in explicating curriculum development to equip learners with new understandings of how they might act to transform practice, for example, to perform a regenerative, green economy. Further, how might a practice-orientated business and management education curriculum influence employability?

Submission instructions, events and deadlines.

Submission window: 1^st to 28^th February 2026. Expected publication: July 2027.

Authors should ensure that they adhere to the journal’s Author Guidelines which are available at: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/(ISSN)1467-8551/homepage/ForAuthors.html.

Authors should select ‘special issue paper’ as the paper type, ensure they answer ‘yes’ to the question ‘Is this submission for a special issue?’ and enter the title of the special issue in the box provided: “Augmenting the Impact of the Practice Turn in Business and Management Research”.

To help authors prepare their manuscripts for submission, the guest editors have planned three events. First, we will hold an online special issue launch webinar in the summer of 2025 via Zoom. This event will be ‘open to everyone’ and provide the opportunity to meet the editorial team who will discuss the broad aims and themes of the Special Issue and answer any questions authors interested in submitting to the special issue might have.

Second, as part of the new cluster PT@BAM, we will hold an extended abstract reviewing and feedback session in early Autumn 2025 to assist those interested in submitting to the special issue to develop their work to the quality and style expected of BJM. Please note that participation in this workshop is not a required condition for submission to the Special Issue nor does it affect the standard peer review process which is a requirement for all submissions. Additionally, we intend to run a dedicated early-career academic-focused paper development workshop in late December 2025 as part of the ECR network at BAM.

Further, there will also be an online Q&A session exclusively for authors who receive an invitation to revise and resubmit their manuscripts for the special issue in Spring 2026.

For further enquiries about the scope of the special issue, please contact Dr Sahar Bakr ([email protected]) or Dr Katherine Parsons ([email protected]).

References

Blue, S. (2019). ‘Institutional rhythms: Combining practice theory and rhythm analysis to conceptualise processes of institutionalisation’, Time & Society, 28(3), pp. 922-950.

Christofi, M., Ηadjielias, E., Hughes, M., Plakoyiannaki, E. (2024) ‘Advancing research methodologies in management: revisiting debates, setting new grounds for pluralism,’ British Journal of Management, 35(1), pp. 24–35. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8551.12791

Danner-Schröder, A., Mahringer, C., Sele, K., Jarzabkowski, P., Rouleau, L., Feldman, M., Pentland, B., Huysman, M., Sergeeva, A., Gherardi, S., Sutcliffe, K. & Gehman, J. (2025). ‘Tackling Grand Challenges: Insights and Contributions From Practice Theories’, Journal of Management Inquiry, 34(2), pp. 143-166. https://doi.org/10.1177/10564926241292262

Echeverri, P. and Skalen, P. (2011). ‘Co-creation and co-destruction A practice theory based study of interactive value formation’, Marketing Theory, 11(3), pp. 351–373. https://doi.org/10.1177/1470593111408181

Feldman, M. and Worline, M. (2016). ‘The practicality of practice theory’, Academy of Management Learning & Education, 15(2), pp. 304-324.

Forno, F. and Wahlen, S. (2022). ‘Prefiguration in everyday practices: When the mundane becomes political’. In: L. Monticelli (ed.), The Future is Now, pp. 119-129. Bristol University Press, Bristol.

Gherardi, S. (2022). ‘A posthumanist epistemology of practice’. In: C. Neesham, M. Reihlen, D. Shoeneborn (eds.), Handbook of Philosophy of Management, pp. 99-120. Cham: Springer International Publishing.

Gherardi, S. (2025). ‘What is the Place of the Human Being in Practice Theories? An Answer from a Posthumanist Position’, The Journal of Practice Theory, 1. https://doi.org/10.71936/wkm2-9s32

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Hussain, B., Shaw, I. and Timmons, S. (2024). ‘Food and exercise practices among British Pakistanis; how can Bourdieu’s theory of practice help to understand them?’, Perspectives in Public Health, 20 (11). doi: 10.1177/17579139241270754.

Jarzabkowski, P. (2005). Strategy as practice: An activity based approach. Sage Publications, London.

Jarzabkowski, P., Balogun, J. and Seidl, D. (2007). ‘Strategizing: The challenges of a practice perspective’, Human Relations, 60(1), pp. 5-27.

Kaplan, S. (2008). ‘Framing contests: Strategy making under uncertainty’, Organization Science, 19(5), pp.729-752.

Kemmis, S. (2010). ‘Research for praxis: Knowing doing’, Pedagogy, Culture & Society, 18(1), pp. 9–27.

Knight, E., Lok, J., Jarzabkowski, P. and Wenzel, M (2024). ‘Sensing the room: the role of atmosphere in collective sensemaking’, Academy of Management Journal, 68(2), pp. 326-356. doi: 10.5465/amj.2021.1389

La Grouw, Y., van der Woerd, O., Visser, L. and and Blijleven, W. (2024). ‘Mundane dynamics: Understanding collaborative governance approaches to ‘big’ problems through studying ‘small’ practices’, Public Policy and Administration, 39(3), pp. 412-435.

Li, Q. and Jarzabkowski, P. (2025). ‘Reinstating the radical: Trajectory, debates, and proposals for strategy as practice’, Journal of Business Research, 187, pp. 115055.

Maller, C. J. (2015). ‘Understanding health through social practices: Performance and materiality in everyday life’, Sociology of Health and Illness, 37(1), pp. 52–66. doi:10.1111/1467-9566.12178

Mason, K., & Spring, M. (2011). The sites and practices of business models. Industrial Marketing Management, 40(6), pp. 1032-1041.

Mason, K., Kjellberg, H., & Hagberg, J. (2015). Exploring the performativity of marketing: theories, practices and devices. Journal of Marketing Management, 31(1-2), pp. 1-15.

Nguyen, A., Nguyen, N., Phung, P., and Yến-Khanh, N. (2023). ‘Residents’ waste management practices in a developing country: A social practice theory analysis’,  Environmental Challenges, 13, pp. 1-10.

Nicolini, D. (2009). ‘Zooming in and out: Studying practices by switching theoretical lenses and trailing connections’, Organization Studies, 30(12), pp. 1391-1418.

Nicolini, D. (2012). Practice theory, work, and organization: An introduction. Open University Press, Oxford.

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Pecis, L. and Touboulic, A. (2024). ‘Academic mothers and the practice of embodied care: navigating and resisting uncaring structures in the neoliberal academy’, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: An International Journal, 43(5), pp. 784-803. https://doi.org/10.1108/edi-07-2022-0194

Raelin, J.A. (2007). ‘Toward an epistemology of practice’, Academy of Management Learning & Education, 6(4), pp. 495-519. https://doi.org/10.5465/amle.2007.27694950

Raelin, J.A. (2023). ‘Leadership-as-Practice: Its past history, present emergence, and future potential’, Academy of Management Collections, 2(2), pp. 19-30. https://doi.org/10.5465/amc.2021.0005

Schatzki, T. (2002). Site of the Social: A Philosophical Account of the Constitution of Social Life and Change. Pennsylvania State University Press, Pennsylvania.

Spotswood, F., Nobles, J., and Armstrong, M. (2021). ‘”We’re just stuck in a daily routine”: Implications of the temporal dimensions, demands and dispositions of mothering for leisure time physical activity’, Sociology of Health & Illness, 43(5), pp. 1254-1269.

Spotswood, F., Steele, J., Androulakis-Korakakis, P., and Lucas, A. (2024). ‘The dynamics of teleoaffective configuration in practice adaptation’, Marketing Theory, 24(3), pp. 499-524.

Spotswood, F., Wiltshire, G., Spear, S. and Morey, Y. (2019). ‘A practice theory approach to primary school physical activity: Opportunities and challenges for intervention’, Critical Public Health, 00(00), pp. 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1080/09581596.2019.1695746

Tatli, A. (2011). ‘A multi-layered exploration of the diversity management field: Diversity discourses, practices and practitioners in the UK’, British Journal of Management, 22, pp. 238–253. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8551.2010.00730.x

Thompson, N.A. and Byrne, O. (2022). ‘Imagining futures: Theorizing the practical knowledge of future-making’, Organization Studies, 43(2), pp. 247-268.

Thompson, N.A., Verduijn, K. and Gartner, W.B. (2020). ‘Entrepreneurship-as-practice: Grounding contemporary theories of practice into entrepreneurship studies’, Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, 32(3-4), pp. 247-256.

Warde, A. (2014). ‘After taste: Culture, consumption and theories of practice’, Journal of Consumer Culture, 14 (3), pp. 279-303.

Wenzel, M., Krämer, H., Koch, J. and Reckwitz, A. (2020). ‘Future and organization studies: On the rediscovery of a problematic temporal category in organizations’, Organization Studies, 41(10), pp. 1441-1455.