‘Practiceable’ (or ‘practice-able’ to disambiguate it from the word ‘practicable’) is a term coined by Maja Horst in the conversations between Jo, Rhian and Maja after the first Te Pūnaha Matatini Engagement Incubator in 2020 and was used in our paper (Bailey, Salmon & Horst, 2022)

If practicable means ‘able to be put into practice’, but also brings to mind words like feasible, actionable or viable, we decided that we meant something more than this.

In our journal article, we described how one of the objectives of the Engagement Incubator project was to: ‘engage with scientific researchers about PES theory and practice in order to investigate how PES insights can best be made actionable and practice-able.’ We were using design methods to ‘translate abstract concepts and theories into actionable ideas and tools’, in a way that did something more than provide science communication skills training (where participants would gain practicable skills). We wanted to aid participants in absorbing and incorporating theoretical ideas from PES into their own practice. A key part of the theoretical ideas from our perspective was a reflexive disposition, so this incorporation of theory would enable them to reflexively shape their practice, whatever that may be. 

Of course, Google always asks, ‘did you mean: practicable?’ and says practiceable isn't an English word, but it has actually been used before (unbeknownst to us when it entered our vocabulary). In Guterman (2002), an article from the field of social work, the author is also interested in the research and practice division. Guterman says ‘“practicable” denotes the capability of implementing an intervention or set of interventions that have the potential to effectively address a social problem’, rather than the more normal asking how problems raised by practitioners can be made ‘researchable’.