Henri Lefebvre

Beyond Reification? Towards the Contemporary Relevance of Western Marxism: Henri Lefebvre's Critique of Lukacs. Paper Presented at the Centre for Social and Political Thought, University of Sussex

by Chris O'Kane

Revisiting ‘complexification’, technology and urban form in Lefebvre

by Stephen Read

in press: Space and Culture

Henri Lefebvre gave suggestive hints at a theory of urban form that have inspired those involved in the design and... more Henri Lefebvre gave suggestive hints at a theory of urban form that have inspired those involved in the design and planning disciplines. His search was for an urban praxis that opened potentials for new forms of social relations and to this end he proposed a ‘metaphilosophy’ designed to engage with the open-ended material relations of cities and societies. This contradicted however his Marxist commitment to a ‘finality’ of man and society and his association of technology with alienation. We try here to rethink technology as intrinsic to human and social life: not as means to realise thought in the materialisation of spaces and societies, but as medium and source, in processes of historical realisation, of orders that comes before thought in human practice. We relate this to ‘worlds’ of practice which are the technically and historically constructed ‘metaphilosophical’ ‘totalities’ within which we are enabled and act. This pluralises and technologises ‘world’, and Lefebvre’s ‘urban form’ becomes a construction of multiple material-technological ‘worlds’, each perceived, conceived and lived as wholes. These articulate with one another and evolve historically. It is the articulations and interfaces between spaces rather than the spaces themselves which locate the places of productivity and vitality in the city. The question of an open urban shifts subtly from one of resistance to the abstract rationalities of ‘planning’ or an ‘authoritarian state’ to one of the maintenance of open relations between different spaces each with their necessary technical or abstract rationalities.

Out There: Queering the Margins of Rural America

by Eitan Freedenberg

Undergraduate thesis

Brevísima Introducción a la Antropología Urbana

by Daniel Malet Calvo

First theoretical chapter of doctoral thesis: "A ver quem passa". O Rossio. Proceso social y dinámicas interactivas en una plaza del centro de Lisboa.

RAUM NEU DENKEN. Vorstudien zu einer Topologie der Zähigkeit

by Jan Roters

2005

Banality for Cultural Studies

by Greg Seigworth

Heaven is a Place on Earth: Church and Sacred Space in 13th century Iceland

by Sverrir Jakobsson

A draft version of an article published in Scandinavian Studies, 82 (2010), 1-20.

La cittadinanza secondo Henri Lefebvre: urbana, attiva, a matrice spaziale

by Francesco Chiodelli

published in "Territorio", 51: 103-109 (2009)

Il paper propone una lettura di alcune riflessioni di Henri Lefebvre sulla città a partire dal concetto di... more Il paper propone una lettura di alcune riflessioni di Henri Lefebvre sulla città a partire dal concetto di cittadinanza, argomentando come, negli scritti del filosofo francese, sia possibile rintracciarne una caratterizzazione specifica e particolarmente interessante: urbana, attiva e a base spaziale. In questo senso, dopo una prima parte nella quale vengono ordinati i temi della trattazione lefebvriana che costituiscono gli ingredienti principali della sua proposta di cittadinanza (opera e stile, centralità e simultaneità, diritto alla città e festa), la seconda sezione del paper esplicita i contorni di tale proposta, anche tramite un’operazione di confronto con la riflessioni di T.H. Marshall, alle quali il filosofo francese sembra in qualche modo alludere criticamente.

Citizenship according to Henri Lefebvre: urban, active, with a spatial matrix
The paper gives an interpretation of Henri Lefebvre’s thinking on cities based on the concept of citizenship, arguing that a specific and particularly interesting characterisation can be traced in the writings of this French philosopher: urban, active and spatially based. While the first part of the paper reviews the various elements of Lefebvre’s thinking, which constitute the main ingredients of his idea of citizenship (work and style, centrality and simultaneity, right to the city and festival), the second part examines the actual details of this idea, partly through a comparison with T.H. Marshall’s work, which the French philosopher seems in some ways to allude critically.

L'urbanistica come tecnica: una riflessione a partire da Henri Lefebvre

by Francesco Chiodelli

published in "Territorio", 56: 164-171 (2011)

Il paper propone alcuni spunti di riflessione sugli ambiti di competenza dell’urbanistica e sulla natura del suo... more Il paper propone alcuni spunti di riflessione sugli ambiti di competenza dell’urbanistica e sulla natura del suo sapere, a partire da alcune suggestioni contenute nell’opera di Henri Lefebvre. Nella prima parte del testo si analizzano in particolare le riflessioni del filosofo francese in merito allo spazio e all’urbanistica, sottolineando come un’indicazione che da queste si può cogliere è quella della necessità di depoliticizzare il sapere dell’urbanistica (per ripoliticizzare lo spazio). Nella seconda parte del testo si sottolinea la distanza che esiste tra questa proposta e gli assunti tipici invece delle diverse letture che hanno sostenuto e sostengono la necessità di una qualche politicizzazione del planner (advocacy, pluralist, radical, comunicative, collaborative planning). A partire da tale confronto si tracciano i contorni di una proposta che riconosca con chiarezza gli ambiti di competenza specifici della disciplina, argomentando come questi possano essere ricondotti ad un sistema di regole tecniche relative alla relazione fra regolazione spaziale e regolazione sociale.

Urban planning as technique: thinking based on Henri Lefebvre
This paper presents a discussion on the scope of urban planning and on the nature of its knowledge starting from suggestions contained in the work of Henri Lefebvre. The fi rst part examines this French philosopher’s thinking on space and urban planning and underlines that one indication that can be grasped from it is the need to depoliticise knowledge of urban planning (to be able to re-politicise space). The second part underlines the distance that exists between this proposal and the typical assumptions on the other hand of various interpretations which have supported and currently support the need for some sort of politicisation on the part of planners (advocacy, pluralist, radical, communicative, collaborative planning). This comparison is used as a basis to trace the outline of a proposal which clearly recognises the specifi c limits of the discipline, arguing that it can be brought within a system of technical rules that govern the relationship between the regulation of space and social regulation.

Public Space as emancipation: meditations on anarchism, radical democracy, neoliberalism and violence

by Simon Springer

Springer, S. 2011. Public Space as emancipation: meditations on anarchism, radical democracy, neoliberalism and violence. Antipode: A Radical Journal of Geography. 43 (2), 525-562.

In establishing an anarchic framework for understanding public space as a vision for radical democracy, this article... more In establishing an anarchic framework for understanding public space as a vision for radical democracy, this article proceeds as a theoretical inquiry into how an agonistic public space might become the basis of emancipation. Public space is presented as an opportunity to move beyond the technocratic elitism that often characterizes both civil societies and the neoliberal approach to development, and is further recognized as the battlefield on which the conflicting interests of the world's rich and poor are set. Contributing to the growing recognition that geographies of resistance are relational, where the “global” and the “local” are understood as co-constitutive, a radical democratic ideal grounded in material public space is presented as paramount to repealing archic power in general, and neoliberalism’s exclusionary logic in particular.

Space, Territory, Rhythm

by Andrew Kingston

Originally written as a seminar paper for a class entitled "Right to be Political in Motion", taught by Mark Franke, at the Theory Centre at UWO (2011). I'm considering revising it for publication if I can find a journal that wants it.

Russell,. W. (2011) Pyramid Playwork, or: Towards not taking playwork seriously (it’s far too important for that), IPA World Conference, July 2011, Cardiff

by Wendy Russell

The (Re)construction of Space and Place in Gordon Matta Clark's Photographic Practices

by Helen Wainwright

Presented at the Space Matters interdisciplinary symposium at The University of Manchester, supported by SAGE, on the 27th May 2011.

This paper aims to deliver an interdisciplinary assessment of how the ways in which we determine and value our... more This paper aims to deliver an interdisciplinary assessment of how the ways in which we determine and value our conceptions of place can be altered or enhanced by photography. Using Gordon Matta Clark’s photographic practices as a basis for this study, I will examine how his use of the photograph continually changes the way we access his most famous ‘building cuts’.

Due to the fact that all such artworks were demolished after their creation, all that remains is documentary evidence of his activities. As a result, I am interested in how it may be possible to gain a sense of place from a photograph; what this means to location/site both historically and physically, and whether such a juncture in the valuation of photography is a useful analysis in the assessment of Matta Clark’s practices more broadly.

Hierarchy Domination Nature Critical Theory Social Ecology and Historical Inquiry

by Damian White

Historical social theory, nature and the domination of nature debate - Bookchin, the production of space/nature (Smith/Lefebvre) and beyond...bits on stones and bones and the early environmental histories of early humans....issues I am still very interested in......The paper posits a natural affinity between Neil Smith's production of nature thesis and much of empirical work emerged in archeology and anthropology on early humans and their environment....It would seem to me that we have been involved in the production of nature much longer than is commonly recognized (it didn't just start with capitalism/modernity) and this has real implications for how we think critical theory & critical ecological theory.

La producción semiótica ante la significatización de la economía (O ¿cómo lograr una publicidad efectiva en la era del capitalismo virtual?) / Semiotic Production in the Context of the Economy Significatization (Or: How to Achieve an Effective Advertising in the Era of Virtual Capitalism?)

by Felip Vidal Auladell

An approach to advertising as a symptom of the structural changes taking place in the social and cultural mode of... more An approach to advertising as a symptom of the structural changes taking place in the social and cultural mode of production allows us to frame the advertising activity in the context of the significatization process of the economy which has led to financial or virtual capitalism, as well as to place the crisis that it has been suffering since the early nineties of the last century due to its own semiotic function. One can see how new developments in marketing and advertising are a set of techniques and tools that could be called rhizomatic advertising based on a renewed semiotic production of virtual capitalism in itself where underlies, in order to sustain the communication closure on which the maintenance of the referential illusion is based -which is the key ingredient for a successful adhesion to the imaginary world of consumer brand- a fundamental strategy that consists of trying to achieve a kind of experiential adhesion, the corporation and the consumer becoming partners. At the same time, in such a rhizomatic advertising, the sign/merchandise have left the screen to be represented by the creation of spaces, environments, events and innovative forms of advertising to be expanded into new forms of advertising activity in a process proposed to be called tridimensionalización
of the sign/merchandise in virtual capitalism.

'Territorial Stigma and the Politics of Resistance in a Parisian Banlieue: La Courneuve and Beyond' (published in Urban Studies)

by David GARBIN

(2011) In Urban Studies. Co-authored with Gareth Millington

full paper on request (d.garbin@surrey.ac.uk)

Drawing on research carried out in the Parisian banlieue of La Courneuve, this article contributes to the sociological... more Drawing on research carried out in the Parisian banlieue of La Courneuve, this article contributes to the sociological analysis of urban marginalisation in post-riot France. Beginning with a discussion of the broad relationship between society and space, drawing on Pierre Bourdieu’s relational understanding of social space and how these complexities are inscribed in the urban, it moves on to consider how this relates to Lefebvre’s production of space thesis. The main body of the article outlines some of the ways in which territorial stigmatisation is imposed and reproduced. Empirical material is treated here as ‘diagnostic’ of the symbolic domination that blights La Courneuve.
Yet this material is also illuminative of the irregular and scattered forms that resistance to territorial stigma takes. It is suggested that the complex relationship between social and physical space is expressed through the construction of symbolic geographies of domination/resistance and negotiated through intricate ‘entanglements of power’.


full paper on request (d.garbin@surrey.ac.uk)

Eros & Urban Society (conference paper)

by Keith Harris

Consumption and the (Soft) Urban Process

by Keith Harris

Written for independent study, presented at two conferences in march 2010

A Liberatory Space? Rumors of Rapes at the 5 th World Social Forum, Porto Alegre, 2005

by Sara Koopman

Rumors were that 90 women were raped in the youth camp at the Fifth World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, in January of... more Rumors were that 90 women were raped in the youth camp at the Fifth World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, in January of 2005. Later reports were that there had been two. Yet the rumors speak to how the space of the forum is socially produced and what sort of space it is. How does space then shape the forum and what we can do from there? Lefebvre argues that revolutionary festivals are an important challenge to the abstract space of capitalism. Revolutionary festivals can liberate us, but our bodies must be free if we are to create a revolutionary space, another world. We need freer revolutionary spaces from which to nurture our struggles for freedom. Another forum is possible. Honoring our bodies, and making room for pleasure, is a way to create a freer forum. It is also an effective strategy for building that other world that we know is possible.

Longing for Elsewhere: Guarani Reterritorializations

by Gaston Gordillo

Comparative Studies in Society and History 53(4): 855-881, 2011