Working Life Knowledge, Theory, and Practice

Abstract

The article sets out to investigate if and how scholarly theoretical knowledge about working life differs from practical knowledge, and what should be understood by theory and practice. Theory and practice are often contrasted. This article, however, criticize this contrastation and aims to explore the relationship between theoretical and practical knowledge about working life in ways that do not presuppose dichotomies. The article conceptually examines different forms of knowledge production in working life research in relation to researchers’ objectives, and ontological, epistemological and methodological presumptions. It explains how theory and practice have been conceived differently, and exemplify different types of theorizing in contemporary working life research. It demonstrates that working life researchers have different normative priorities, and points out the importance of realizing this in order better to understand the relationship between theoretical working life knowledge and working life practice.