Affect and Emotions in the Theory of Practice Architectures: The Role of Interactions

This chapter responds to Jane Wilkinson’s recent work on affect and emotions in practices, practice theory, education, and educational leadership. She raises interesting questions about where affect and emotions lie in the conceptual framework of the theory of practice architectures. In this chapter, I have elaborated the theory in the light of her insights and questions. I argue that exploring interactions can throw further light on the emotions, feelings, moods, and desires that people experience when they participate in practices, and on the affective attunement of practices via (e.g.) norms and conventions about what conduct is appropriate in the enactment of practices. Studying interactions through the lens of the theory of practice architectures can help practice researchers to identify the experiential, historical, and situational sources and proximal causes that shape how practices unfold.