Spaces of Digitalising Societies - A Public Lecture from Leverhulme Visiting Professor Theodore Schatzki
Leverhulme Visiting Professor Theodore Schatzki (University of Kentucky)
Online & Wills Memorial Building, Room 3.30
Please note: This lecture will be available online and in person. A link to join the lecture online will be circulated in early March.
Spaces of Digitalising Societies
Space is a key feature of social life. How does the digitalisation of society affect its spatial dimensions? This talk begins by suggesting that the spaces of pre-digitalising societies are of three types - physical spaces, local regions and places. The question is whether new types of space, such as digital space or cyberspace, need to be brought in to understand societies that are undergoing digitalisation. The talk will approach this question by emphasising that new material spaces accompany digitalisation and analysing what appears on or through computer screens, including websites, online games, and virtual reality.
Leverhulme Visiting Professor Theodore Schatzki is Professor of Philosophy and Geography at the University of Kentucky. He earned a BA in applied mathematics from Harvard University (1977) and graduate degrees in philosophy from Oxford University (1979) and UC Berkeley (1986). His research interests lie in theorising social life, and he is widely recognised for his contributions to the stream of thought called practice theory. Schatzki is the author of five single-authored monographs, the co-editor of six collected volumes, and responsible for ninety articles on a wide range of topics in philosophy and social theory. Recent work concerns the digitalisation of societies and examines spaces, associations, agency, and crypto-blockchains. Schatzki was the 2023-24 Distinguished Professor in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Kentucky and the 13th most cited philosopher in the world in 2020.
Professor Theodore Schatzki's visit to the University of Bristol is made possible thanks to the Leverhulme Trust. Whilst at Bristol, he will be collaborating with colleagues from the ESRC Centre for Sociodigital Futures (CenSoF).
The support of the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) is gratefully acknowledged.
