Articulating Practice through the Interview to the Double

Abstract

The article aims to realize the critical potential of the practice lens by contributing to the development of a coherent set of methodologies for investigating work and organizational activity. It does so by introducing and critically assessing the `interview to the double' as a method to articulate and represent practice. After briefly illustrating its history and usage, the article analyses in depth the setting generated by this unusual interview method. It argues that the nature of the encounter produces narratives that are often morally connoted and idealized in character. As a consequence the method is especially useful to capture the going concerns which orient the conduct of the members and the normative and moral dimension of practice. The article also shows that because it mimics familiar instruction-giving discursive practices, the method constitutes an effective textual device to convey this moral and normative dimension in a way that remains faithful to its situated and contingent nature of practice.