Against the background of a boom in praxeological research approaches in the social and textual sciences, the article attempts (a) to clarify relevant concepts such as ›social practice‹, ›social institution‹, ›rule‹ or ›convention‹,
(b) to characterize a particular type of social practice, literary practices, in more detail, and (c) explain their basic mode of operation. According to the picture sketched out, literary practices are asymmetrical practices that
consist of mutually interrelated production practices and reading practices and are characterized by a complex interplay of literary standards, hypothetical imperatives, conventions in the sense of David Lewis, as well as
non-coordinating conventions.