Open Access

Gibrán Rivera González, Andrew M. Cox

• The paper evaluates the turn to practice in information science, through a summary of the theory and exploration of empirical data about the use of collaborative software. Themes of practice theory, namely: change, sociomateriality, relational thinking and knowing are summarised and previous use of practice based approaches to studying the adoption of information technologies are discussed. The empirical data is thirty interviews with Human Resource professionals involved in a project in a large Mexican University. The strength of the analysis using the practice based approach is to deepen our understanding of context emerge from an analysis of the data. The sociology of translation can be used to further deepen understanding of the political process around the project. Remaining issues point to a major issue with practice based approaches, namely the adequacy of its treatment of structural power.