The Site of the Social: A Philosophical Account of the Constitution of Social Life and Change

Inspired by Heidegger’s concept of the clearing of being, and by Wittgenstein’s ideas on human practice, Theodore Schatzki offers a new approach to understanding the constitution and transformation of social life. Central to the account he develops is the context in which social life unfolds as a contingent and constantly metamorphosing mesh of practices and material orders. His analysis reveals the advantages of this site ontology over the traditional individualist, wholistic and structuralist accounts that have dominated social theory since the mid-nineteenth century. The text backs its argument with reference to two historical examples; the medicinal herb business of a Shaker village in the 1850s and contemporary day trading on the Nasdaq market. The author also touches on many major issues in social theory, including the nature of social order, the significance of agency, the distinction between society and nature, the forms of social change, and how the social present affects its future.