Hauptseminar: Rethinking Space Magdalena Nowicka Joost van Loon

New Orleans (Hurricane Katrina) The conceptions, perceptions, management and distributions of risks The political economy of security The socio-economic ordering of the city he geography of racism The sociology of the ‘apocalypse’ (individualization, globalization, existential insecurity)

The Production of Space (L’Espace) ‘Social space works (along with its concept) as a tool for the analysis of society’ (Lefebvre, 1990: 34). Lefebvre develops a theory of Social Spatialization (Shields).

The denial of space Dominance of Euclidian geometry 16 th -17 th century mathematics undermines this Philosophy ‘takes over’ (Descartes, Kant) and institutes ‘abstract mental space’ Lefebvre insists on –(a) the central role of real, physical space –(b) re-thinking space as part of a critical, intellectual praxis, situated in a critique of capitalist society.

Marxist roots Lefebvre insists on an integrated ‘science of space’ focusing on the following aspects –‘political use’ of space (in capitalism), –‘ideology’ of space (as the concealment of its actual workings) and –space as a technological utopia (which is central to for example planning and architecture). He states that the science of space should constitute a truth of space that is not simply epistemological, but ‘real’ and ‘politically adequate’. He develops the latter point with reference to the concept of knowledge which in French can be either savoir (dominant ideology) or connaissance (good sense).

3 fields of analysis physical mental social

Philosophical anchoring Lefebvre asserts that we should not give up on the unity between the real and our ability to conceptualize it and focuses on ‘the production of space’ as what Hegel calls a ‘concrete universal’; this enables us to keep a dialectical understanding of the relationship between language and space. Example: surrealism as poiesis (poetry, creation) – the limits of signification.

Foundational thinkers: Hegel (dialectics, subject, time), Nietzsche (force, reproduction) Marx (production, struggle).

Reification ‘space has taken on a life of its own’ like money it is at once abstract and real. Lefebvre argues against both: –(1) the illusion of transparency in which design is a mediator in which social space is reduced to mental space; –(2) the realistic illusion (naïve empiricism) which fetishizes matter as that which is by its very self obvious, natural and self- explanatory.

hypotheses (a) as social space takes hold, nature retreats (b) each mode of production produces its own space (e.g. space is always particular, singular historical) – this sets up his overall framework (c) knowledge (connaissance) of space must reproduce and expound the process of production, which becomes a problematic contrast between ‘time’ and ‘presence’ (d) a perspective on history is not the same as grounding analysis on the historicity of events

A summary of his thesis Thus space may be said to embrace a multitude of intersections, each with its assigned location. As for representations of the relations of production, which subsume power relations, these too occur in space: space contains them in the form of buildings, monuments and works of art. Such frontal (and hence brutal) expressions of these relations do not completely crowd out their more clandestine or underground aspects: all power must have its accomplices – and its police. (Lefebvre, 1990: 33)

The analytical framework -1- spatial practice - produced in action and perceived (reflexivity) -2- representations of space – represented in discourse and conceived in abstraction -3- representational spaces – lived and experienced (dominated space).

A critique By conceptualizing space as presence, yet functional beyond what can be perceived (but conceived and experienced), he falls into the trap of what Derrida calls a ‘metaphysics of presence’ – the assumed equivalence between real and (scientifically adequate) representation.

A phenomenological approach Spatialization as performed (emerging from and constituted in action) The centrality of hyper-reality (all space is already mediated) as starting point What is revealed are indexes (shadows, resonance) which ‘point’ towards (= spatialization) Empirical research as essential but does not ‘represent’ the truth of space

An Outline of the Programme 1. Introduction (New Orleans) BLOCK I: Theoretical Groundwork 2. Political Economy, Globalization, Power (Cyberjaya) 3. Power, Control, Embodiment, Identity (BBC East Midlands) 4. Virtuality and Territoriality (Second Life) BLOCK II: Case Studies 5. The City (Formulating a Research Question) 6. The Airport (Creating and Analytical Framework) 7. The Home and the Office (Developing a Methodology) 8. The Shopping Mall (Gathering Data) 9. Cyberspace (Analyzing Data and Writing a Report)