Abstract

Although social practices are widely considered to be essential building blocks in the construction of our social world, there is not much of an agreement regarding what kind of entities they are and what constitutes their nature. As an attempt to make progress in this direction, I provide here a general account of their ontology. By implementing specific resources from contemporary social ontology and collective intentionality, I argue that social practices are composite, material entities socially constructed by organised social groups through their individual members acting according to collective reasons. With this, I intend to contribute towards the understanding of both the reality of social practices and their role in the construction of other social entities; particularly, artifacts and institutions.