The perspective of practices: a contribution to the theory of development

Abstract

The problems of development faced by Chile since about a decade are qualitatively different from those faced in earlier stages. The article proposes a conceptual perspective that is appropriate to the specific type of challenges that the country currently has. For that, it justifies and defines the relevance of the perspective of practices in regards the analysis of development. In the past, the main challenge of politics and public policy consisted in designing the institutional and infrastructure changes necessary to causally trigger social changes desired by the elites. Today, the development challenges that Chile faces have as one of its main roots the persistence or appearance of phenomena at the level of coordination of action of individuals and groups that can not be adequately or effectively operated or observed from a perspective that relegates social practices to the background. To substantiate this thesis, the article outlines the foundations of the perspective of practices  starting from the conceptual contributions of various theories developed in social sciences. This theoretical approach was on the basis of the empirical research in the 2009 Human Development Report.