ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines certain general traits of "practice theory" that could be identified in the majority of theories that run under this label. It explores the changes that John Dewey recommends to philosophy and the social sciences and examines whether these changes make a useful contribution to practice theory. The chapter argues that classical pragmatism and Dewey's empirical philosophy in particular could be seen as being part of practice theory, and that pragmatism can contribute to practice theory a more radical understanding of knowledge as practical and transformative. Practice theory has become an important theoretical approach within the social sciences and the humanities, and it also plays an important part in urban planning and other related engineering disciplines. In the case of theory, the acquisition of knowledge, as in praxis, the ethical and political activity of being a citizen and human being, defines the activity.
