Heidegger and Practice

d Practice
We live in time – it holds us and moulds us – but I never felt I understand it very well… I mean ordinary everyday time, which clocks and watches assure us passes regularly: tick-tock, click clock… time is supposed to measure history isn’t it? But, if we can’t understand time, can’t grasp its mysteries of pace and progress, what chance do we have with history – even our own small, personal, largely undocumented piece of it?
Julian Barnes (2011: 3, 60)

Time must be brought to light as the horizon of all understanding and interpretation of being
Paul Gorner (2007:12)

“What does using a Heideggerian analysis as an analytic tool give you that other analytic approaches do not?”

Abstract
There are many ways to analyse information/data gathered in research. One technique I have been using is to think about behaviour in terms of the philosophies of Martin Heidegger, a German philosopher. In my talk, I will outline how using a Heideggerian analysis differs from other forms of analysis and what benefits this technique gives you relative to other methods.
Specifically, I will focus on Heidegger’s understanding of ‘practice’ and the argument will critically re-examine what Heidegger has to say about the privileging of what is done in making sense of our world at the workplace. In my talk, I will deconstruct the work of one senior manager against indications drawn from Heidegger’s Being and Time, and explore a number of terms to make sense of what is happening in ways that perhaps challenge extant norms. In so doing, and in moving to consider Heidegger’s post-war contributions concerned with the essence of technology, the paper opens questions about what it means to value the knowledge that emerges from such a deconstruction.

Correspondence:
Dr Kevin Flint
Reader in Education
Nottingham Trent University
[e-mail]
M: 07531754709
T: 01158483971

Introduction
What does a Heideggerian analysis of practice give you that other

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