Practice and practicality are often perceived as polar opposites of theory and theoreticism. It is a widely accepted fact that a good theory is more practical than anything – but is it? The juxtaposition of theory and practice is a common, even subconscious phenomenon. Concepts of practice and theory are problematic and diverse. Both deserve to be examined and researched independently.

Instead of trying to grasp these concepts, our project aims to present practice and practicality as a context for research and action. This means that the concepts of practice and practicality will be implicit in our work. However, we wish to clarify these terms in reference to practice based inquiry.

Practice based inquiry in its different forms is gaining recognition within scientific circles as well as in general discussion. The discourse is highly significant in the research and development of polytechnics and vocational schools. Academic communities are equally interested in new, practical forms of producing information. The topic is particularly of interest to units which act as intermediaries between research and practice. Yet it is still unclear what practice based inquiry is and what it should be like. Where is it performed and how is it identified? Resolving these problems is a theoretical and practical challenge. How crucial is structuring a theory in practical based inquiry? Should it be the center of inquiry, or as Hintikka suggests, make room for a more practical aspect: methodological preparedness?

We will examine these questions from several interlinked perspectives. These perspectives could be described as philosophical-conceptual, theoretical-practical and ethical-pedagogical.

The philosophical-conceptual part will focus on the analysis of central terms and concepts. The goal is to produce a general conceptual analysis, which is not tied to a particular context or field of study. To achieve this, it is important not to miss the contextuality of the concepts. One of the most essentials terms is the concept of explanation. Scientific philosophers have studied this phenomenon with great interest for several decades. To put it simply: explaining means providing the answer to the question ”why”. The pragmatic nature of the concept has been noted clearly in the philosophy of science. We wish to explore the notion further by getting to grips with the various forms of explanation in practical situations. This analysis will be accompanied by relevant research on other key concepts such as causality and reason. Causality forms a vital part of the discourse on natural sciences: the laws of nature are causal. What kind of position does causality play in practice based inquiry or practical human endeavours? The concept of reason is not only significant in natural sciences, but in human sciences as well: the various meanings and descriptions of the term shed light on the concept of explanation.

The theoretical-practical sector of our project will concentrate on examining and presenting methods of research which place emphasis on practice. These include practice based inquiry, practical study or practice-inspired research. These orientations thrive on a fresh culture of producing information, where recipients and appliers of information participate in the process (such as experts on various fields as well as users of services). Methodological diversity and meeting the needs interest groups are typical traits for these research methods. Social scientists have acted as pioneers in practice based inquiry. The project aims to introduce these research orientations and indicate the relationship between inquiry and practice. This requires examining practices linked with the research orientation.

The ethical-pedacogical analysis will focus on the responsibilities of practice based inquiry. The basis of expertise on this field of study is predominantly epistemic. However, practice based inquiry challenges this notion, as the methods of producing information differ greatly between the orientations. Maintaining an epistemic authority status becomes problematic. If the criteria of expertise is no longer epistemic superiority, what could it be? In practice based inquiry, research results are not reduced to theoretical information; yet they concretely affect the lives and environment of humans. This fact accentuates the scholar's responsibility. What does this actually mean? How can we define the social responsibilities of practice based inquiry? Finding answers for these questions requires an extensive analysis on the problems of ethics and ethicalness.

The conference aims to bring together experts of various sciences to discuss and structure a common vision on aforementioned topics. Speakers will include several acclaimed philosophers and empirical scientists. The theme will be examined from several interlinked perspectives.

We wish to get practice based inquiry -oriented scholars acquainted with each other. The scholars will represent both the university sector and the polytechnic sector. International and local experts of practice based inquiry have also been invited to the congress.

The congress is a part of a methodological seminar series which began in 2001 within the polytechnic community. Since 2003, the seminars have been organized by KeVer.
The introductions, workshop conclusions and discussions will be documented in the KeVer eJournal and in a possible future publication (2010/2011).