The Elementary Forms of Practical Life: A Durkheimian Genealogy of Social Practice

ABSTRACT This article revisits the classical foundations of the concept of ‘social practice’ to reassess the epistemological and ontological assumptions underpinning the praxeological turn. Engaging critically with Marx, Weber and especially Durkheim, it shows how current practice theories often rely on partial readings of the classics, overlooking crucial resources for understanding coercion, differentiation and order. The paper argues that Durkheim's theory of ritual offers a more robust foundation for a sociology of practice and develops a bifocal framework that distinguishes between constitutive and institutional orders of practice. Drawing on contemporary interpretations of Durkheim by Rawls and Karsenti, the article demonstrates how practices simultaneously generate collective effervescence and classificatory stability, thus accounting for coercive force, nonheroic novelty and differentiated carriers ( Träger ). This Durkheimian reconstruction provides a common conceptual ground for contemporary debates, strengthening practice theory through a sociologically grounded perspective.