PhD Thesis Defence of Eik Hermann

On 1 October, 2025 Eik Hermann, external doctoral student of architecture and urban planning will defend his doctoral thesis „Toward Matter-Environmental Pragmapoetics: Studies of Theory-Practice Separation“.
The public defense will take place at 13.00 at EKA (Põhja pst 7), room A101.

Thesis is available in EKA digital repository.

Supervisor: Margus Ott, PhD (Estonian University of Life Sciences)
External reviewers: Prof. Rein Raud (Tallinn University), Prof. Randall Teal (University of Idaho)
Opponents: Prof. Rein Raud and Jacob C.T. Voorthuis, PhD (Eindhoven University of Technology)

Summary:
A key distinction in Western culture is between theory and practice. Ideally, these two domains support and nourish each other. Practice benefits from reflection and a broader perspective, while theory gains from experiences and skillsets stemming from engagements with the world. Still, while humanity is facing major, almost insurmountable challenges (such as climate warming, loss of biodiversity, and rising social inequality), which call for tight cooperation between theorists and practitioners, these domains have grown increasingly apart. Moreover, there are deep divisions within both theory and practice themselves. The current thesis examines how the conceptual schemes and broader conceptware in the West have contributed to this situation, and how alternative conceptual schemes and conceptwares might help to mitigate it.

The thesis begins with a conceptual-historical study, with particular attention to the social aspects of this history. The separation of theory and practice began already in Ancient Greece, where, under the influence of aristocratic values, the highest regard was given to knowledge that was not directly useful and could be pursued primarily by those who could afford leisure time. In addition to its detachment from practical usefulness, such knowledge was characterized by independence from spatio-temporal surroundings: ideal knowledge was supposed to hold true in every context. As revealed by a comparison with the conceptware of premodern China, this choice was by no means the only possible one. The early foundational choices in the West subsequently shaped the development of its later conceptual frameworks, resulting in a dominant scheme that views practice as the application (and so-called re-environmentalization) of theory. Among its other effects, this scheme has also influenced the formation of divisions and hierarchies between different domains of practice.

After conducting the initial conceptual-historical analysis, the thesis takes a more experimental turn. The aim is to explore and experiment with new concepts and conceptual schemes in the hope of untangling the web of current conceptual knots and behavioral patterns, and fruitfully reconfiguring the relationship between theory and practice. One important strategy guiding these experiments is a rethinking of the relationship between knowledge and surroundings. Another key strategy is to focus on the initial phases of both knowledge making and action – the underlying assumption is that different domains share more commonalities at the beginning of a work process than at its end. I outline a vision of human practice that is based on the “practice” of the world itself, sometimes engaging with it by riding its tendencies like a wave, and sometimes offering them resistance and shifting them. At the end of the thesis, I also propose the seeds or an outline for beginning-heavy research.