Ira Katznelson
- Published in print:
- 1993
- Published Online:
- January 2005
- ISBN:
- 9780198279242
- eISBN:
- 9780191601910
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198279248.003.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
This introductory chapter starts by discussing the vast array of definitions and typologies of the city and the many specifications of the objects of urban studies (geography, sociology, politics, ...
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This introductory chapter starts by discussing the vast array of definitions and typologies of the city and the many specifications of the objects of urban studies (geography, sociology, politics, urban economics, etc.) that are symptomatic of uncertainty not only as to whether the social sciences possess the necessary tools to analyse cities, but also as to whether the city, both as an empirical and theoretical concept, constitutes a coherent entity. It is suggested that a critique is needed of the tradition in Western social theory that tries to apprehend the partial elements of the city within an approach that treats modernity in terms of differentiation, and that Marxism's claim that it can illuminate studies of the city is precisely because it uses wide‐spanning and comprehensive concepts and hypotheses about the shape of history. The next section of the chapter looks at the differences between Marxism and the differentiation approaches to cities in the company of Max Weber, whose analysis was grounded in the large‐scale processes that underpin urban development; it also discusses the views of some of his contemporaries. The final section examines the specific content of Marxist social theory/analysis that stresses social processes and relationships, and counterposes the differentiation problematic in the analysis of cities. It also discusses the urban omissions within Marxism, and work done later (in the late 1960s and early 1970s by Henri Lefebvre, Manuel Castells, and David Harvey) that reinvigorated the urban conversation within Marxism.Less
This introductory chapter starts by discussing the vast array of definitions and typologies of the city and the many specifications of the objects of urban studies (geography, sociology, politics, urban economics, etc.) that are symptomatic of uncertainty not only as to whether the social sciences possess the necessary tools to analyse cities, but also as to whether the city, both as an empirical and theoretical concept, constitutes a coherent entity. It is suggested that a critique is needed of the tradition in Western social theory that tries to apprehend the partial elements of the city within an approach that treats modernity in terms of differentiation, and that Marxism's claim that it can illuminate studies of the city is precisely because it uses wide‐spanning and comprehensive concepts and hypotheses about the shape of history. The next section of the chapter looks at the differences between Marxism and the differentiation approaches to cities in the company of Max Weber, whose analysis was grounded in the large‐scale processes that underpin urban development; it also discusses the views of some of his contemporaries. The final section examines the specific content of Marxist social theory/analysis that stresses social processes and relationships, and counterposes the differentiation problematic in the analysis of cities. It also discusses the urban omissions within Marxism, and work done later (in the late 1960s and early 1970s by Henri Lefebvre, Manuel Castells, and David Harvey) that reinvigorated the urban conversation within Marxism.
Ira Katznelson
- Published in print:
- 1993
- Published Online:
- January 2005
- ISBN:
- 9780198279242
- eISBN:
- 9780191601910
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198279248.003.0003
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
The most important urban studies within Marxism since the 1960s are examined by looking at the work of Henri Lefebvre, David Harvey, and Manuel Castells, the three most influential recent students of ...
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The most important urban studies within Marxism since the 1960s are examined by looking at the work of Henri Lefebvre, David Harvey, and Manuel Castells, the three most influential recent students of Marxism and the city, who, through the study of the city, have introduced space into the core of one or more of Marxism's three projects. By examining their work, it is possible to assess the current status of the respatialized Marxism they have tried to fashion, and this post‐1960s Marxism of the city has shown how Marxist social theory can powerfully illuminate things urban, and also how an explicitly urban focus can strengthen Marxism as social and empirical theory. The work accomplished in the past quarter‐century has treated Marx's project of understanding epochal change mainly as background to more current events, although it has successfully elaborated and deepened his project of the analysis of capitalism as an economic system. However, in spite of much effort, it has contributed only unsteadily to Marx's project of a social theory for capitalist societies. The limitations of these Marxist urban studies are identified as being due principally to a certain narrowness of subject matter, a lack of engagement with history, and a restrictive treatment of the issues central to, but difficult for, Marxist social theory: base and superstructure, structure and agency, and causal determination, which neither Harvey nor Castells tackled persuasively in their later work in the 1980s.Less
The most important urban studies within Marxism since the 1960s are examined by looking at the work of Henri Lefebvre, David Harvey, and Manuel Castells, the three most influential recent students of Marxism and the city, who, through the study of the city, have introduced space into the core of one or more of Marxism's three projects. By examining their work, it is possible to assess the current status of the respatialized Marxism they have tried to fashion, and this post‐1960s Marxism of the city has shown how Marxist social theory can powerfully illuminate things urban, and also how an explicitly urban focus can strengthen Marxism as social and empirical theory. The work accomplished in the past quarter‐century has treated Marx's project of understanding epochal change mainly as background to more current events, although it has successfully elaborated and deepened his project of the analysis of capitalism as an economic system. However, in spite of much effort, it has contributed only unsteadily to Marx's project of a social theory for capitalist societies. The limitations of these Marxist urban studies are identified as being due principally to a certain narrowness of subject matter, a lack of engagement with history, and a restrictive treatment of the issues central to, but difficult for, Marxist social theory: base and superstructure, structure and agency, and causal determination, which neither Harvey nor Castells tackled persuasively in their later work in the 1980s.
Richard Baxstrom
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- June 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780804758918
- eISBN:
- 9780804775861
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9780804758918.001.0001
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Asian Cultural Anthropology
This book is about the transformation of urban space and the reordering of the demographic character of Brickfields, one of the oldest neighborhoods in Kuala Lumpur. The book offers an ethnographic ...
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This book is about the transformation of urban space and the reordering of the demographic character of Brickfields, one of the oldest neighborhoods in Kuala Lumpur. The book offers an ethnographic account of the complex attempts on the part of the state and the community to reconcile techno-rational conceptions of law, development, and city planning with local experiences of place, justice, relatedness, and possibilities for belief in an aggressively changing world. The book combines classic methods of anthropological research and an engagement with the work of theorists such as Gilles Deleuze and Henri Lefebvre, and moves beyond previous studies of Southeast Asian cities by linking larger conceptual issues of ethics, belief, and experience to the concrete trajectories of everyday urban life in the region.Less
This book is about the transformation of urban space and the reordering of the demographic character of Brickfields, one of the oldest neighborhoods in Kuala Lumpur. The book offers an ethnographic account of the complex attempts on the part of the state and the community to reconcile techno-rational conceptions of law, development, and city planning with local experiences of place, justice, relatedness, and possibilities for belief in an aggressively changing world. The book combines classic methods of anthropological research and an engagement with the work of theorists such as Gilles Deleuze and Henri Lefebvre, and moves beyond previous studies of Southeast Asian cities by linking larger conceptual issues of ethics, belief, and experience to the concrete trajectories of everyday urban life in the region.
Mark R. Wynn
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- May 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780199560387
- eISBN:
- 9780191721175
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199560387.003.0005
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Religion
This chapter reviews some of the recent literature in philosophy of place. Drawing on authors such as Gaston Bachelard, Henri Lefebvre, Pierre Bourdieu, and David Seamon, the chapter deepens the ...
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This chapter reviews some of the recent literature in philosophy of place. Drawing on authors such as Gaston Bachelard, Henri Lefebvre, Pierre Bourdieu, and David Seamon, the chapter deepens the earlier discussion of the nature of knowledge of place, by considering further the affect-infused character of knowledge of place and its connection to salient perception of a material context, and by examining the rootedness of knowledge of place in habitual bodily responses.Less
This chapter reviews some of the recent literature in philosophy of place. Drawing on authors such as Gaston Bachelard, Henri Lefebvre, Pierre Bourdieu, and David Seamon, the chapter deepens the earlier discussion of the nature of knowledge of place, by considering further the affect-infused character of knowledge of place and its connection to salient perception of a material context, and by examining the rootedness of knowledge of place in habitual bodily responses.
Michael Edema Leary-Owhin
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2016
- ISBN:
- 9781447305743
- eISBN:
- 9781447311454
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781447305743.001.0001
- Subject:
- Social Work, Social Policy
This important book presents new international comparative research that engages critically with Lefebvre’s spatial theories and challenges recent thinking about the nature of urban space. The book ...
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This important book presents new international comparative research that engages critically with Lefebvre’s spatial theories and challenges recent thinking about the nature of urban space. The book elucidates the production of urban public space and in so doing stimulates a rethinking of Lefebvre’s spatial theories and the essence of public space. The two main research objectives are to tease out the implications of the production of space for post-industrial city transformation and to unravel the role of differential space in such transformation. Empirically the research is grounded in three iconic post-industrial cities: Vancouver, Canada; Lowell, Massachusetts, US; and Manchester, England. Although strongly rooted theoretically, the book locates the conceptual ideas in the practice of urban policy making, urban planning and the politicised everyday use of public space. Extensive original archival research and interview research in the three cities forms the basis for an exploration of how urban public spaces, especially what Lefebvre calls differential space, are socially produced. Spatial coalitions, counter-representations and counter-projects are seen as vital elements in such processes. Differential space is shown to erupt through the vulnerabilities of neo-capitalist abstract space. The book demonstrates the importance of inclusive differential space for everyday democratic life in cities. The book contributes critically to the post-industrial city comparative analysis literature and provides an accessible guide for those who care about cities, public space, city planning and urban policy.Less
This important book presents new international comparative research that engages critically with Lefebvre’s spatial theories and challenges recent thinking about the nature of urban space. The book elucidates the production of urban public space and in so doing stimulates a rethinking of Lefebvre’s spatial theories and the essence of public space. The two main research objectives are to tease out the implications of the production of space for post-industrial city transformation and to unravel the role of differential space in such transformation. Empirically the research is grounded in three iconic post-industrial cities: Vancouver, Canada; Lowell, Massachusetts, US; and Manchester, England. Although strongly rooted theoretically, the book locates the conceptual ideas in the practice of urban policy making, urban planning and the politicised everyday use of public space. Extensive original archival research and interview research in the three cities forms the basis for an exploration of how urban public spaces, especially what Lefebvre calls differential space, are socially produced. Spatial coalitions, counter-representations and counter-projects are seen as vital elements in such processes. Differential space is shown to erupt through the vulnerabilities of neo-capitalist abstract space. The book demonstrates the importance of inclusive differential space for everyday democratic life in cities. The book contributes critically to the post-industrial city comparative analysis literature and provides an accessible guide for those who care about cities, public space, city planning and urban policy.
Karen C. Pinto
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780226126968
- eISBN:
- 9780226127019
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226127019.003.0013
- Subject:
- Earth Sciences and Geography, Cartography
Chapter Thirteen, “Conclusion” wraps up the discussion by discussing the meaning of maps and their multitude of places, spaces, and gazes. It sums up the findings of the book and its new ...
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Chapter Thirteen, “Conclusion” wraps up the discussion by discussing the meaning of maps and their multitude of places, spaces, and gazes. It sums up the findings of the book and its new methodological approaches to Islamic maps. It asserts that Islamic cartography can only be decoded through in-depth analysis of map slices.Less
Chapter Thirteen, “Conclusion” wraps up the discussion by discussing the meaning of maps and their multitude of places, spaces, and gazes. It sums up the findings of the book and its new methodological approaches to Islamic maps. It asserts that Islamic cartography can only be decoded through in-depth analysis of map slices.
Jordana Rosenberg
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- May 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199764266
- eISBN:
- 9780199895359
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199764266.003.0004
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Literature, Religion and Society
Chapter Four focuses on the archive of John Lacy, a London lawyer and convert to Camisard Protestantism. In readings of these Lacy’s works, I demonstrate that religious ideologies often ran counter ...
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Chapter Four focuses on the archive of John Lacy, a London lawyer and convert to Camisard Protestantism. In readings of these Lacy’s works, I demonstrate that religious ideologies often ran counter to the emergent logic of capitalism, and can thus help us uncover otherwise cloudy aspects of the spatial dynamics of capital accumulation. In Lacy’s archive, I discover a counter-hegemonic theorization of geographical, political, and psychic space—a theorization derived from Camisardist enthusiastic ecstasies and prophetic declarations. Building on the work of Raymond Williams and Henri Lefebvre, I extend the argument of Chapter Three to show that Lacy’s enthusiastic geographies capture the simultaneously productive and devastating unevennesses of capitalist development. I further these claims via David Harvey’s conception of “accumulation by dispossession”—or, the extension of primitive accumulation around the globe—to show the interlocking of the de-development of the British countryside, the plunder of Camisard enclaves in rural France, and the expansion of urban productive capacities in the English core. Furthermore, I argue that this “interlocking” relation becomes uniquely visible under the lens of a nonsecular understanding of space.Less
Chapter Four focuses on the archive of John Lacy, a London lawyer and convert to Camisard Protestantism. In readings of these Lacy’s works, I demonstrate that religious ideologies often ran counter to the emergent logic of capitalism, and can thus help us uncover otherwise cloudy aspects of the spatial dynamics of capital accumulation. In Lacy’s archive, I discover a counter-hegemonic theorization of geographical, political, and psychic space—a theorization derived from Camisardist enthusiastic ecstasies and prophetic declarations. Building on the work of Raymond Williams and Henri Lefebvre, I extend the argument of Chapter Three to show that Lacy’s enthusiastic geographies capture the simultaneously productive and devastating unevennesses of capitalist development. I further these claims via David Harvey’s conception of “accumulation by dispossession”—or, the extension of primitive accumulation around the globe—to show the interlocking of the de-development of the British countryside, the plunder of Camisard enclaves in rural France, and the expansion of urban productive capacities in the English core. Furthermore, I argue that this “interlocking” relation becomes uniquely visible under the lens of a nonsecular understanding of space.
Peter Hopkins and Richard Gale
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748625871
- eISBN:
- 9780748671335
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748625871.003.0007
- Subject:
- Religion, Islam
This chapter reviews the spatial negotiations that have often had to be entered into by British Muslims as means to establishing mosques and centres of religious education (madrasas). It uses Henri ...
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This chapter reviews the spatial negotiations that have often had to be entered into by British Muslims as means to establishing mosques and centres of religious education (madrasas). It uses Henri Lefebvre's concepts of ‘representation of space’. There are various points of comparison that can be made between the Birmingham Central Mosque and the Jame Masjid in Handsworth. The mosque is considered as a meaningful or ‘representational space’ for the respective Muslim group. Both the Central Mosque and the Jame Masjid were developed some time ago, while the Dar ul-Uloom Islamia in Small Heath was planned and completed in the late 1990s. In the statements of the President of the Birmingham Central Mosque and the representative of the Dar ul-Uloom Islamia, it is noted that the local discourse of multiculturalism is not only promoted by the City Council, but is also shared by the members of Muslim organisations.Less
This chapter reviews the spatial negotiations that have often had to be entered into by British Muslims as means to establishing mosques and centres of religious education (madrasas). It uses Henri Lefebvre's concepts of ‘representation of space’. There are various points of comparison that can be made between the Birmingham Central Mosque and the Jame Masjid in Handsworth. The mosque is considered as a meaningful or ‘representational space’ for the respective Muslim group. Both the Central Mosque and the Jame Masjid were developed some time ago, while the Dar ul-Uloom Islamia in Small Heath was planned and completed in the late 1990s. In the statements of the President of the Birmingham Central Mosque and the representative of the Dar ul-Uloom Islamia, it is noted that the local discourse of multiculturalism is not only promoted by the City Council, but is also shared by the members of Muslim organisations.
Alex Loftus
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- August 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780816665716
- eISBN:
- 9781452946849
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9780816665716.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Environmental Politics
This book develops a conversation between Marxist theories of everyday life and recent work in urban political ecology, arguing for a philosophy of praxis in relation to the politics of urban ...
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This book develops a conversation between Marxist theories of everyday life and recent work in urban political ecology, arguing for a philosophy of praxis in relation to the politics of urban environments. Grounding its theoretical debate in empirical studies of struggles to obtain water in the informal settlements of Durban, South Africa, as well as in the creative acts of insurgent art activists in London, the book builds on the work of key Marxist thinkers to redefine “environmental politics.” A Marxist philosophy of praxis—that world-changing ideas emerge from the acts of everyday people—undergirds the book. Our daily reality, states the book, is woven out of the entanglements of social and natural relations, and as such a kind of environmental politics is automatically incorporated into our lives. Nevertheless, one effect of the public recognition of global environmental change, asserts Loftus, has been a resurgence of dualistic understandings of the world: for example, that nature is inflicting revenge on arrogant human societies. The book reformulates—with the assistance of such philosophers as Georg Lukács, Antonio Gramsci, Henri Lefebvre, and others—a politics of the environment in which everyday subjectivity is at the heart of a revolutionary politics.Less
This book develops a conversation between Marxist theories of everyday life and recent work in urban political ecology, arguing for a philosophy of praxis in relation to the politics of urban environments. Grounding its theoretical debate in empirical studies of struggles to obtain water in the informal settlements of Durban, South Africa, as well as in the creative acts of insurgent art activists in London, the book builds on the work of key Marxist thinkers to redefine “environmental politics.” A Marxist philosophy of praxis—that world-changing ideas emerge from the acts of everyday people—undergirds the book. Our daily reality, states the book, is woven out of the entanglements of social and natural relations, and as such a kind of environmental politics is automatically incorporated into our lives. Nevertheless, one effect of the public recognition of global environmental change, asserts Loftus, has been a resurgence of dualistic understandings of the world: for example, that nature is inflicting revenge on arrogant human societies. The book reformulates—with the assistance of such philosophers as Georg Lukács, Antonio Gramsci, Henri Lefebvre, and others—a politics of the environment in which everyday subjectivity is at the heart of a revolutionary politics.
Liesl Olson
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- May 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195368123
- eISBN:
- 9780199867639
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195368123.003.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century Literature and Modernism
This chapter explores a paradox: how does a writer replicate what is overlooked, if the nature of literary representation is to look closely at its subject? The chapter argues that literary ...
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This chapter explores a paradox: how does a writer replicate what is overlooked, if the nature of literary representation is to look closely at its subject? The chapter argues that literary modernism’s stylistic innovations were driven by this question. An overview is then offered of theories of everyday life (Lefebvre and others) to argue for a more specific definition of ordinariness in relation to literary modernism. The ordinary is defined as 1) an affect of disinterest or boredom; 2) a genre of objects and events; 3) a style. The chapter then examines literary modernism’s emphasis on the everyday in connection to 19th-century modes of realism, especially the novel. It concludes with a discussion of the everyday in the context of the unprecedented violence of 20th-century wars.Less
This chapter explores a paradox: how does a writer replicate what is overlooked, if the nature of literary representation is to look closely at its subject? The chapter argues that literary modernism’s stylistic innovations were driven by this question. An overview is then offered of theories of everyday life (Lefebvre and others) to argue for a more specific definition of ordinariness in relation to literary modernism. The ordinary is defined as 1) an affect of disinterest or boredom; 2) a genre of objects and events; 3) a style. The chapter then examines literary modernism’s emphasis on the everyday in connection to 19th-century modes of realism, especially the novel. It concludes with a discussion of the everyday in the context of the unprecedented violence of 20th-century wars.
Daniel L. Purdy
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- August 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780801476761
- eISBN:
- 9780801460050
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9780801476761.003.0010
- Subject:
- Architecture, Architectural Theory and Criticism
This chapter examines Hegel's account of architectural history as it relates to two spatial thinkers usually placed at a far remove: Henri Lefebvre and Daniel Libeskind. While Lefebvre might well be ...
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This chapter examines Hegel's account of architectural history as it relates to two spatial thinkers usually placed at a far remove: Henri Lefebvre and Daniel Libeskind. While Lefebvre might well be situated in the broad reception of Hegel within French theory, few would posit an affinity between Libeskind's architecture, particularly his Jewish Museum in Berlin, and Hegelian thought. Given Hegel's associations to a state that had given rise to Hitler and the Holocaust, it seems unlikely that a memorial to the Jewish culture in Germany would reiterate Hegel's aesthetics of building. Yet, in architecture and urban planning, the European state is often the sponsor of radical design. And given that Hegel presents several scenarios that demonstrate how grand buildings form national identity, the chapter considers how subversive architecture operates when it is aligned with official policy, especially if that policy is itself highly self-critical.Less
This chapter examines Hegel's account of architectural history as it relates to two spatial thinkers usually placed at a far remove: Henri Lefebvre and Daniel Libeskind. While Lefebvre might well be situated in the broad reception of Hegel within French theory, few would posit an affinity between Libeskind's architecture, particularly his Jewish Museum in Berlin, and Hegelian thought. Given Hegel's associations to a state that had given rise to Hitler and the Holocaust, it seems unlikely that a memorial to the Jewish culture in Germany would reiterate Hegel's aesthetics of building. Yet, in architecture and urban planning, the European state is often the sponsor of radical design. And given that Hegel presents several scenarios that demonstrate how grand buildings form national identity, the chapter considers how subversive architecture operates when it is aligned with official policy, especially if that policy is itself highly self-critical.
Caroline Bassett
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- July 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780719073427
- eISBN:
- 9781781700907
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719073427.003.0005
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Media Studies
The chapter explores a virtual community as a history of a particular kind of space, one that is made of words and to a far lesser extent images, but that is more fundamentally to be understood as ...
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The chapter explores a virtual community as a history of a particular kind of space, one that is made of words and to a far lesser extent images, but that is more fundamentally to be understood as carved out of code. The opening section draws on Lefebvre to explore virtual space as a social production. It then turns to the Internet itself, reading its history, and within that the history of virtual community, as the history of space. It is argued that virtual community is synecdochal for the early Internet and its values, and that these values continue to attach to virtual communities even while discrete productions of community increasingly fail to instantiate them. The third section focuses on the spatial production of GeoCities, which is also understood in narrative terms. It draws out what the sense of virtual community operational in GeoCities takes from earlier models and how the phrase itself might operate as an ideologeme. This may demonstrate the degree to which processes of contradictory integration mean that ‘virtual community’ has been at once valorized and remade. If the new commercial model of GeoCities is operationalized partly through its appeal to ‘virtual community’, read as a guarantor of the persistence of human communion within an increasingly automated world, this also tends to mask the underlying logic of the Cities, which concerns the production of narrative space as a commodity.Less
The chapter explores a virtual community as a history of a particular kind of space, one that is made of words and to a far lesser extent images, but that is more fundamentally to be understood as carved out of code. The opening section draws on Lefebvre to explore virtual space as a social production. It then turns to the Internet itself, reading its history, and within that the history of virtual community, as the history of space. It is argued that virtual community is synecdochal for the early Internet and its values, and that these values continue to attach to virtual communities even while discrete productions of community increasingly fail to instantiate them. The third section focuses on the spatial production of GeoCities, which is also understood in narrative terms. It draws out what the sense of virtual community operational in GeoCities takes from earlier models and how the phrase itself might operate as an ideologeme. This may demonstrate the degree to which processes of contradictory integration mean that ‘virtual community’ has been at once valorized and remade. If the new commercial model of GeoCities is operationalized partly through its appeal to ‘virtual community’, read as a guarantor of the persistence of human communion within an increasingly automated world, this also tends to mask the underlying logic of the Cities, which concerns the production of narrative space as a commodity.
Jan Bryant
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- May 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781474456944
- eISBN:
- 9781474476867
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474456944.003.0007
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Aesthetics
Henri Lefebvre spent many decades developing a theory of the everyday as a locus of revolutionary potential. Maurice Blanchot takes a sideways route from praising to pulling down Lefebvre’s ...
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Henri Lefebvre spent many decades developing a theory of the everyday as a locus of revolutionary potential. Maurice Blanchot takes a sideways route from praising to pulling down Lefebvre’s ‘everyday’, arguing that revolutionary desire cannot dwell in this enigmatic sphere. Rather, the everyday is the unthought, private, absorbing, and self-contained. The failure of Lefebvre to move from abstraction to action, from metaphysics to an effective Marxist critical theory is revealed at a crucial moment in history, as the Left is appearing to fracture in response to the disappointments of 1968. The chapter includes a close analysis of Béla Tarr’s The Turin Horse (2011) in relation to the everyday and tedium. [110]Less
Henri Lefebvre spent many decades developing a theory of the everyday as a locus of revolutionary potential. Maurice Blanchot takes a sideways route from praising to pulling down Lefebvre’s ‘everyday’, arguing that revolutionary desire cannot dwell in this enigmatic sphere. Rather, the everyday is the unthought, private, absorbing, and self-contained. The failure of Lefebvre to move from abstraction to action, from metaphysics to an effective Marxist critical theory is revealed at a crucial moment in history, as the Left is appearing to fracture in response to the disappointments of 1968. The chapter includes a close analysis of Béla Tarr’s The Turin Horse (2011) in relation to the everyday and tedium. [110]
William Fitzgerald and Efrossini Spentzou (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- April 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780198768098
- eISBN:
- 9780191821875
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198768098.001.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This volume addresses, through a range of different authors and genres, Latin literature’s psychogeographical engagement with space. The volume’s title alludes to Henri Lefebvre’s La Production de ...
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This volume addresses, through a range of different authors and genres, Latin literature’s psychogeographical engagement with space. The volume’s title alludes to Henri Lefebvre’s La Production de l’espace of 1974, a seminal work in what is now called ‘the spatial turn’ in the humanities. Lefebvre stresses that space is to be included among the sites of hegemonic power and ideological contestation in a society and should not simply be thought of as a neutral container for human action, the setting in which it takes place. The contributions to this volume focus mainly on movement, or the mobile subject, in the experience, and making, of space rather than on the fixed monumental space within which that subject moves and acts. The contributions cover a broad terrain, both temporally (from Catullus to St Augustine) and generically (lyric, epic, elegy, satire, epistolography, historiography, autobiography, antiquarianism). They discuss the distinctively Roman experiences of space, and their intersections with empire, urbanism, identity, ethics, exile, and history. From a range of different angles they consider the specifically literary modes of the engagement with space in different genres and authors and pay special attention to the ideological stakes of this engagement.Less
This volume addresses, through a range of different authors and genres, Latin literature’s psychogeographical engagement with space. The volume’s title alludes to Henri Lefebvre’s La Production de l’espace of 1974, a seminal work in what is now called ‘the spatial turn’ in the humanities. Lefebvre stresses that space is to be included among the sites of hegemonic power and ideological contestation in a society and should not simply be thought of as a neutral container for human action, the setting in which it takes place. The contributions to this volume focus mainly on movement, or the mobile subject, in the experience, and making, of space rather than on the fixed monumental space within which that subject moves and acts. The contributions cover a broad terrain, both temporally (from Catullus to St Augustine) and generically (lyric, epic, elegy, satire, epistolography, historiography, autobiography, antiquarianism). They discuss the distinctively Roman experiences of space, and their intersections with empire, urbanism, identity, ethics, exile, and history. From a range of different angles they consider the specifically literary modes of the engagement with space in different genres and authors and pay special attention to the ideological stakes of this engagement.
Jing Nie
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9789622090866
- eISBN:
- 9789882206724
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Hong Kong University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5790/hongkong/9789622090866.003.0011
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This chapter relates Henri Lefebvre's space theory to contemporary Chinese economy and urban landscape, and then examines the manifestations of space as represented in four Chinese films: Shower ...
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This chapter relates Henri Lefebvre's space theory to contemporary Chinese economy and urban landscape, and then examines the manifestations of space as represented in four Chinese films: Shower (1999), Beijing Bicycle (2001), The World (2004), and Cell Phone (2004). These films represent the cityscape as fraught with trauma and displacement, and haunted by ghosts of both the past and the future.Less
This chapter relates Henri Lefebvre's space theory to contemporary Chinese economy and urban landscape, and then examines the manifestations of space as represented in four Chinese films: Shower (1999), Beijing Bicycle (2001), The World (2004), and Cell Phone (2004). These films represent the cityscape as fraught with trauma and displacement, and haunted by ghosts of both the past and the future.
Hallie M. Franks
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- October 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780190863166
- eISBN:
- 9780190863197
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190863166.003.0007
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, History of Art: pre-history, BCE to 500CE, ancient and classical, Byzantine
Drawing in particular from Henri Lefebvre’s theory of space and its production—according to which space is conceived as a network of relations between perceived, conceived, and lived experiences—the ...
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Drawing in particular from Henri Lefebvre’s theory of space and its production—according to which space is conceived as a network of relations between perceived, conceived, and lived experiences—the conclusion situates the arguments of the previous chapters in relationship to the function of the symposium as a social practice. The mosaics, by actively participating in the construction of spatial metaphors, played a crucial role in facilitating the intellectual transformation central to the symposium experience and in creating and solidifying social bonds among the participants. These conclusions suggest that the andron served as a social space in more complex ways than previously understood.Less
Drawing in particular from Henri Lefebvre’s theory of space and its production—according to which space is conceived as a network of relations between perceived, conceived, and lived experiences—the conclusion situates the arguments of the previous chapters in relationship to the function of the symposium as a social practice. The mosaics, by actively participating in the construction of spatial metaphors, played a crucial role in facilitating the intellectual transformation central to the symposium experience and in creating and solidifying social bonds among the participants. These conclusions suggest that the andron served as a social space in more complex ways than previously understood.
Cabell King
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- March 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780823230693
- eISBN:
- 9780823237227
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fso/9780823230693.003.0005
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
This chapter, echoing philosopher Henri Lefebvre, argues that all human contact with ecological nature occasions crisis when we imagine it as untouched, pure, or raw. ...
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This chapter, echoing philosopher Henri Lefebvre, argues that all human contact with ecological nature occasions crisis when we imagine it as untouched, pure, or raw. Human presence is then seen as poison—and growing populations and increased consumption make the poison exponentially more potent. This ideal type—which Lefebvre and others sometimes call “first nature,”—should not be abandoned, but we ought also to acknowledge that even in its recognition, first nature is domesticated “second nature.” Too often the language of second nature buries first nature, trivializing human dependence on very real ecological systems and boasting of human industry. For these reasons, the language of “natural space” is preferable to the nominal form, “nature,” as the former designates complex, interdependent, socially produced spaces characterized by creative fecundity.Less
This chapter, echoing philosopher Henri Lefebvre, argues that all human contact with ecological nature occasions crisis when we imagine it as untouched, pure, or raw. Human presence is then seen as poison—and growing populations and increased consumption make the poison exponentially more potent. This ideal type—which Lefebvre and others sometimes call “first nature,”—should not be abandoned, but we ought also to acknowledge that even in its recognition, first nature is domesticated “second nature.” Too often the language of second nature buries first nature, trivializing human dependence on very real ecological systems and boasting of human industry. For these reasons, the language of “natural space” is preferable to the nominal form, “nature,” as the former designates complex, interdependent, socially produced spaces characterized by creative fecundity.
James Tweedie
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199858286
- eISBN:
- 9780199367665
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199858286.003.0003
- Subject:
- Literature, Film, Media, and Cultural Studies
This chapter is organized around a specific scene and action performed repeatedly in French new wave cinema: characters walking through the city. These emblematic rambles through urban space often ...
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This chapter is organized around a specific scene and action performed repeatedly in French new wave cinema: characters walking through the city. These emblematic rambles through urban space often unfold without apparent aim or direction, as getting somewhere becomes a secondary consideration and the film concentrates instead on the urban context and the act of walking itself. The films focus on the youthful body in a city undergoing its own process of demolition and renewal, and these scenes stage that interaction between people and the urban environment. Individual cases studies include Louis Malle’s Elevator to the Gallows, Jean-Luc Godard’s Breathless, the documentary and fiction filmmaking of Alain Resnais, and Agnès Varda’s Cléo from 5 to 7 Less
This chapter is organized around a specific scene and action performed repeatedly in French new wave cinema: characters walking through the city. These emblematic rambles through urban space often unfold without apparent aim or direction, as getting somewhere becomes a secondary consideration and the film concentrates instead on the urban context and the act of walking itself. The films focus on the youthful body in a city undergoing its own process of demolition and renewal, and these scenes stage that interaction between people and the urban environment. Individual cases studies include Louis Malle’s Elevator to the Gallows, Jean-Luc Godard’s Breathless, the documentary and fiction filmmaking of Alain Resnais, and Agnès Varda’s Cléo from 5 to 7
Ian Richard Netton
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748623914
- eISBN:
- 9780748653119
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748623914.003.0003
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Middle Eastern Studies
Theologically, tradition may embrace in Christianity both the practice of the faith as well as the faith itself, including scripture; or, more narrowly, ‘tradition may be distinguished from ...
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Theologically, tradition may embrace in Christianity both the practice of the faith as well as the faith itself, including scripture; or, more narrowly, ‘tradition may be distinguished from scripture, and taken to mean the teaching and practice of the Church, not explicitly recorded in the words of the Bible, but handed down from the beginning within the Christian community’. Tradition may embrace a sense of age-old ‘orthodoxy’ versus state autocracy. It may also be associated with fundamentalism. This chapter first looks at various definitions and distinctions of tradition in Islam and Christianity before proceeding with a discussion of the Second Vatican Council, Pope Pius X's Encyclical Pascendi Gregis and Pope Pius XII's Divino Afflante Spiritu, John XXIII and Dei Verbum, the spirit and practice of Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, definitions and distinctions of sunna, neo-ijtihād and a return to the salaf, tradition and purification, and kénōsis.Less
Theologically, tradition may embrace in Christianity both the practice of the faith as well as the faith itself, including scripture; or, more narrowly, ‘tradition may be distinguished from scripture, and taken to mean the teaching and practice of the Church, not explicitly recorded in the words of the Bible, but handed down from the beginning within the Christian community’. Tradition may embrace a sense of age-old ‘orthodoxy’ versus state autocracy. It may also be associated with fundamentalism. This chapter first looks at various definitions and distinctions of tradition in Islam and Christianity before proceeding with a discussion of the Second Vatican Council, Pope Pius X's Encyclical Pascendi Gregis and Pope Pius XII's Divino Afflante Spiritu, John XXIII and Dei Verbum, the spirit and practice of Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, definitions and distinctions of sunna, neo-ijtihād and a return to the salaf, tradition and purification, and kénōsis.
Helena Chance
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9781784993009
- eISBN:
- 9781526124043
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9781784993009.003.0008
- Subject:
- Architecture, Architectural History
Corporate landscapes were designed for their potential to improve the quality of working life and they became powerful symbols of ideal conditions in industry. However, the suggestion that gardens ...
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Corporate landscapes were designed for their potential to improve the quality of working life and they became powerful symbols of ideal conditions in industry. However, the suggestion that gardens are ‘an ideal’ in social and welfare reform presents a paradox because the corporate garden is a space both liberating and controlling. Power relations and structures between labour and capital and between men and women in the use and management of the gardens and recreation grounds were complex. The privately owned grounds were subject to regulations and management expectations, but power operates in society from the ‘bottom up’ as well as ‘top down’ and as Henri Lefebvre and others have argued, power can be found in the spaces between dominant power structures. Therefore some employees therefore benefited from the opportunities afforded by the gardens and recreation grounds, while others resented them for replacing fair wages and did not use them. The potential benefits to employees depended on many factors and so are difficult to evaluate. The value of factory gardens to industry is therefore more clearly seen in its contribution to profitability through public relations, rather than in an increase in the job satisfaction of the workforce.Less
Corporate landscapes were designed for their potential to improve the quality of working life and they became powerful symbols of ideal conditions in industry. However, the suggestion that gardens are ‘an ideal’ in social and welfare reform presents a paradox because the corporate garden is a space both liberating and controlling. Power relations and structures between labour and capital and between men and women in the use and management of the gardens and recreation grounds were complex. The privately owned grounds were subject to regulations and management expectations, but power operates in society from the ‘bottom up’ as well as ‘top down’ and as Henri Lefebvre and others have argued, power can be found in the spaces between dominant power structures. Therefore some employees therefore benefited from the opportunities afforded by the gardens and recreation grounds, while others resented them for replacing fair wages and did not use them. The potential benefits to employees depended on many factors and so are difficult to evaluate. The value of factory gardens to industry is therefore more clearly seen in its contribution to profitability through public relations, rather than in an increase in the job satisfaction of the workforce.
