Theodore Schatzki is a professor of philosophy and geography at the University of Kentucky, professor of sociology at Lancaster University. He has written extensively on practice theory. His work has developed an alternative theory of practice, influenced by Martin Heidegger and Ludwig Wittgenstein, that people do what makes sense for them to do.

Early life and education

In 1977, Schatzki received his undergraduate degree in applied mathematics at Harvard University. He received degrees in philosophy from Oxford University in 1979 and UC Berkeley in 1982 and again in 1986.

Career

He has held various academic positions, including senior associate dean in the College of Arts & Sciences, chair of the Department of Philosophy, and co-founder and former co-director of the University of Kentucky's Committee on Social Theory. Schatzki's research focuses on theorizing social life, particularly within the field of practice theory. He has written several books, co-edited multiple volumes, and authored numerous articles on topics such as flat ontology, social space, institutional theory, and materiality. His current research interests include practice-theory-of-institutions and blockchain, digital mediation of social relations, and the role of space in digitalized society. He has been a research fellow of the Fulbright Commission and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, and has been a visiting professor at various universities around the world. In 2018, he received an honorary doctorate from Aalborg University in Denmark.^[1][2]

Influence

He was listed as the 43rd most cited philosopher in the world in 2020 based on Scopus citations,^[3] and the 13th in 2021.^[2]