The first part of this paper examines practice and practices as the practice turn in social sciences. The cartography of practice in the late 20 century has way makers or milestones that are significant in the trajectory of practice. Bourdieu has a project of 'praxelogy' in Outline for a Theory of Practice (1977) and The Logic of Practice (1990) with habitus, field and practice influenced by structuralism. Giddens' 'theory of structuration' (Giddens, 1979, 1984) is influenced by the late Wittgenstein and in Giddens's world, 'the basic domain of study of the social sciences, according to the theory of structuration, is neither the experience of the individual actor, not the existence of any form of social totality, but social practices ordered across space and time' (Giddens, 1984: 2). Giddens (1984) discusses how theories of practice might transcend the dualisms of structure and agency, determination and voluntarism. The range of practice theorists forms the nexus, constellation and force field of practice-based doctorates that have applied and real-world value. The second part of the paper discusses possible translations of theory into applied research to examine practice in real-world research.