Practice theory has emerged in a useful form in the social science
discipline of anthropology, which may fit the study of NGOs quite well.
Anthropology is more attuned to unique and variegated normative
differences among smaller social communities, and less ready to generalize
across large social groups. It can also handle the multiple realities and
intermingled ontologies presented by real NGOs. The research method of
ethnography—immersion and participant observation through field
work—lends itself to discerning the divergent norms and rationalities of
various NGO societal and political partners, and is less prone to homogenizing the actors. Finally, anthropology is more attuned to maintaining
the creative tension between social structure and actor agency, and more
resistant to resolving the tension one way or the other than are sociology,
economics, or comparative politics and IR within political science.