The rules that govern human societies can form systems which are more than mere sums of the rules of which they consist. If the rules interlock in a certain suitable way, they may form a framework opening up a new “normative space”, in which we can carry out brand new actions, actions that cannot be carried out outside of the space. Such frameworks, I am convinced, constitute our specifically human world; and acting within the corresponding spaces then amounts to what many philosophers have called human practices. This contribution aims at investigating the conceptual foundations on which we could build accounts of how practices emerge, how they can function and what are the consequences of their recognition for the understanding of our human nature.