Extending project management research: Insights from social theories

• We developed a toolkit that enables a fresh look at project organizations.
• We sought inspiration in the practice turn in project research.
• We also identified fundamental sociological theories that can provide new insights.
• The toolkit combines five dimensions of practice with three social theories.

Our article answers the call for renewing the theoretical bases of project management in order to overcome the problems that stem from the application of methods based on decision-rationality norms, which bracket the complexity of action and interactions in projects. By grounding our reflection in the practice perspective and by adopting Nicolini's (2013) toolkit approach, we suggest ways that could help practitioners and theorists make better sense of aspects that are highly relevant for project management but are usually overlooked. The paper discusses Nicolini's five dimensions of practice and three social theories (activity theory, actor–network theory and structuration theory) to highlight the combinations that are most appropriate and fruitful for addressing various theoretical and practical issues requiring the attention of project management researchers.