Description
Book SynopsisInspired by Heidegger's concept of the clearing of being, and by Wittgenstein's ideas on human practice, Theodore Schatzki offers a novel approach to understanding the constitution and transformation of social life.
Trade Review“Professor Schatzki’s The Site of the Social picks up where his groundbreaking Social Practices leaves off. Where the latter provided a compelling picture of how we are constituted by our social practices, his new book offers an ontology of the social itself. By including extended discussions of diverse social groupings such as Shaker herb practice and day trading on Nasdaq, Schatzki sketches a clear and compelling picture of what the nature of the social consists in. Essentially, The Site of the Social constructs an ontology that captures many of the features of the work of Foucault and Deleuze in such a way as to put them in dialogue with contemporary sociologists, biologists, and political theorists in the English-speaking world.”
—Todd May,Clemson University
“This is a book that any fan of Foucault, Deleuze, or Bourdieu, or for that matter Giddens, and anyone interested in the problem of the relevance of Heidegger to social theory, will find challenging—and essential. Schatzki makes an impressive case for a social ontology centered on practices, and in the course of it rethinks and convincingly critiques the thought of many of the contributors to ‘practice theory’ while showing its centrality to twentieth-century thought. But this book is not merely a book about books: Schatzki deals with real human material in a novel way.”
—Stephen Turner,University of South Florida
“This book is top-notch philosophical scholarship.”
—R. F. White CHOICE
“This is a book that any fan of Foucault, Deleuze, or Bourdieu, or for that matter Giddens, and anyone interested in the problem of the relevance of Heidegger to social theory, will find challenging—and essential. Schatzki makes an impressive case for a social ontology centered on practices, and in the course of it rethinks and convincingly critiques the thought of many of the contributors to ‘practice theory’ while showing its centrality to twentieth-century thought. But this book is not merely a book about books: Schatzki deals with real human material in a novel way.”
—Stephen Turner,University of South Florida
“Schatzki’s ideas continue to affect my thinking on the layers of complexity that practices represent; for others committed to engaging in broader explorations of education as a social practice and challenging reductionist viewpoints, his theoretical tools provide the ontological foundations from which to begin.”
—Geoffrey Lewis Educational Review
