This document provides an overview and summary of Michael Leary-Owhin's book "Exploring the Production of Urban Space". It includes:
- An introduction to Lefebvre's spatial triad of abstract space, representations of space, and spaces of representation.
- A summary of Lefebvre's concepts of differential space and counter-projects led by civil society groups.
- Examples and case studies of how differential space has emerged in three post-industrial cities: Vancouver, Lowell, MA, and Manchester, England through events like festivals and political rallies.
- Conclusions that differential space can co-exist with abstract space and is produced where urban space is abandoned, confirming humanity
This document provides an overview of topics to be covered in a class on cities, everyday life, and space as relationships. The topics include:
- Why cities are important in today's world with most people living in cities
- Studying cities and everyday life through various academic lenses
- How space is a social and political construction that reproduces power dynamics
- Different practices of mapping space, from traditional to more creative/experiential approaches
- Analyzing cities through film and how film has both represented and shaped perspectives of urban areas
- An assignment involving collaborative group work to cognitively map an area through non-traditional means.
Lewis Mumford was an American historian, sociologist, philosopher of technology, and literary critic known for his studies of cities and urban architecture. In his influential book The City in History, Mumford explores the development of urban civilizations from their origins. He argues that the structure of modern cities is partially responsible for social problems in western society. Mumford advocates for urban planning that emphasizes an organic relationship between people and their living spaces.
The document discusses the Situationist International (SI), a group formed in 1950s Paris that was critical of how capitalism was transforming urban spaces. The SI believed cities were becoming standardized and dull, alienating residents. One of their tactics was dérive walking, which involved drifting through a city in an unplanned way to observe one's reactions and the environment. The document argues that walking can still be a useful tool for critique, allowing one to experience a city from a new perspective and advocate for more inclusive public spaces.
The document discusses Lefebvre's views on the socio-spatial dialectic. It notes that Lefebvre disagreed with those who saw spatial forces as less important or those who saw them as merely resulting from economic processes. Instead, Lefebvre saw social and spatial relations as dialectically interdependent and co-produced by the mode of production. The document also discusses how Lefebvre's ideas influenced other thinkers like Gramsci, Harvey, and Castells in seeing the importance of spatial analysis for understanding capitalism and class struggle.
This document summarizes and discusses the current issue of the journal (dis)Location. It begins by providing context on the uncertainties and changes occurring in 2016 that the issue aims to examine. The introduction describes how the issue seeks to present experiences in cities' awkward spaces and examine concepts like power, materiality, and positionality in planning. It then provides a table of contents summarizing several essays and articles in the issue. These include pieces on parking, grids, gentrification, and reflections on practicing planning across different community contexts. In underlining the ever-changing nature of cities and calling for greater reflection, the introduction sets out the overarching themes of examining urban changes and realities that the issue addresses.
Sala Borsa: Plural Presences and Innovative Public SpacesLuca Daconto
Draft - Slides prepared for the 11th conference of the European Sociological Association "Crisis, Critique and Change" - Turin, 28-31 August 2013.
Research Stream: Urban Sociology
Session: Urban Sociology and Public Spaces in Times of Crisis and Change
This document discusses the relationship between architecture, urban space, and subjectivity in ancient Greece and modernity. It summarizes key thinkers who analyzed this relationship such as Baudelaire, Benjamin, Heidegger, Arendt, Bachelard, Foucault, Debord, and Lefebvre. It discusses how classical Greek cities like Athens used spaces like the agora, oikos, and ekklesia to define citizenship and political participation. It also analyzes how philosophy became institutionalized after Socrates' execution, removing it from public spaces of debate.
This document provides an overview of topics to be covered in a class on cities, everyday life, and space as relationships. The topics include:
- Why cities are important in today's world with most people living in cities
- Studying cities and everyday life through various academic lenses
- How space is a social and political construction that reproduces power dynamics
- Different practices of mapping space, from traditional to more creative/experiential approaches
- Analyzing cities through film and how film has both represented and shaped perspectives of urban areas
- An assignment involving collaborative group work to cognitively map an area through non-traditional means.
Lewis Mumford was an American historian, sociologist, philosopher of technology, and literary critic known for his studies of cities and urban architecture. In his influential book The City in History, Mumford explores the development of urban civilizations from their origins. He argues that the structure of modern cities is partially responsible for social problems in western society. Mumford advocates for urban planning that emphasizes an organic relationship between people and their living spaces.
The document discusses the Situationist International (SI), a group formed in 1950s Paris that was critical of how capitalism was transforming urban spaces. The SI believed cities were becoming standardized and dull, alienating residents. One of their tactics was dérive walking, which involved drifting through a city in an unplanned way to observe one's reactions and the environment. The document argues that walking can still be a useful tool for critique, allowing one to experience a city from a new perspective and advocate for more inclusive public spaces.
The document discusses Lefebvre's views on the socio-spatial dialectic. It notes that Lefebvre disagreed with those who saw spatial forces as less important or those who saw them as merely resulting from economic processes. Instead, Lefebvre saw social and spatial relations as dialectically interdependent and co-produced by the mode of production. The document also discusses how Lefebvre's ideas influenced other thinkers like Gramsci, Harvey, and Castells in seeing the importance of spatial analysis for understanding capitalism and class struggle.
This document summarizes and discusses the current issue of the journal (dis)Location. It begins by providing context on the uncertainties and changes occurring in 2016 that the issue aims to examine. The introduction describes how the issue seeks to present experiences in cities' awkward spaces and examine concepts like power, materiality, and positionality in planning. It then provides a table of contents summarizing several essays and articles in the issue. These include pieces on parking, grids, gentrification, and reflections on practicing planning across different community contexts. In underlining the ever-changing nature of cities and calling for greater reflection, the introduction sets out the overarching themes of examining urban changes and realities that the issue addresses.
Sala Borsa: Plural Presences and Innovative Public SpacesLuca Daconto
Draft - Slides prepared for the 11th conference of the European Sociological Association "Crisis, Critique and Change" - Turin, 28-31 August 2013.
Research Stream: Urban Sociology
Session: Urban Sociology and Public Spaces in Times of Crisis and Change
This document discusses the relationship between architecture, urban space, and subjectivity in ancient Greece and modernity. It summarizes key thinkers who analyzed this relationship such as Baudelaire, Benjamin, Heidegger, Arendt, Bachelard, Foucault, Debord, and Lefebvre. It discusses how classical Greek cities like Athens used spaces like the agora, oikos, and ekklesia to define citizenship and political participation. It also analyzes how philosophy became institutionalized after Socrates' execution, removing it from public spaces of debate.
The Role of Public Urban Spaces in Creating a Vivacious Society A Case Study ...shaham asadi
This document discusses the role of public spaces in creating a lively society, using Tabriz, Iran as a case study. It notes that social interactions take place in public spaces, but that Tabriz lacks sufficient recreational public spaces. The rise of the virtual world has disrupted social relations and decreased time spent in public. An analysis of Tabriz's existing spaces found they are inadequate for its size compared to other large cities. The conclusion is that more public spaces focused on recreation, welfare, art and community are needed to increase liveliness in Tabriz.
Postmodern Urbanism and the New PsychogeographyTina Richardson
This lecture provides an overview of some of the theoretical approaches to the postmodern city highlighting the issues that pertain to the appearance of urban space under neoliberalism. You will be introduced to some of the leading contemporary thinkers from the field of urban theory/planning and urban cultural studies. Many of the motifs that arise in the theories of contemporary urban life have been incorporated into the critical practices of a number of today’s urban walkers. These practitioners have developed their own form of psychogeography which responds to the complexity of postmodern space in different ways. Tina’s lecture will tease out some of these motifs and will demonstrate how they have been incorporated into the various methodologies of the New Psychogeography.
This document provides an introduction to an issue of the magazine URBAN focused on the theme of "trans." It summarizes the contents, which include essays on topics like transforming lives through sport in Harlem, art and its provenance in the San Fernando Valley, and critiques of housing construction in France and cultural exhibits in New York. The introduction discusses how the prefix "trans" has returned to common language and academic writing, endowed with new meaning around issues of materiality, technology, and the blurred boundaries between organic and inorganic. It suggests the city is populated with "trans-entities" and things have agency in how they enable human action.
Mobility, accessibility and vulnerabilityLuca Daconto
A brief presentation of my Phd research that I used during the course "Analysis of temporary inhabitants in public spaces" in order to show concretely how a sociological research works
Durant Christine on Lefebvre Education and the Production of SpaceChristine Durant
This document discusses Henri Lefebvre's work as an educational theorist and how his theory of space relates to adult education. It summarizes Lefebvre's view that spaces produce social relationships and learning occurs through appropriating and claiming spaces. Lefebvre calls for radical social transformation through creating non-capitalist spaces that foster critical knowledge, democratic participation, and social movements. The document uses examples from Berlin to illustrate how spaces are produced and how inhabitants strategize to claim spaces and develop critical consciousness against gentrification and neoliberal impacts.
Deniz_E Plan of the present work by LefebvreYavuz Paksoy
This document provides an overview of Henri Lefebvre's theoretical background and concepts regarding the production of space. It discusses [1] Lefebvre's proposition that social space is a social product, [2] his spatial triad of spatial practice, representations of space, and representational spaces, and [3] his aim to develop a unitary theory of space that combines the physical, mental, and social.
This document provides an introduction and literature review for a thesis exploring Covent Garden as a privatized public space. It discusses debates around public and private space, noting critiques of idealized notions of public space that neglect issues of exclusion and power relations. It reviews literature highlighting how traditional conceptions of public space overlooked marginalized groups. The document examines feminist critiques of dichotomous public/private distinctions and the creation of "subaltern counterpublics" by marginalized groups. Overall, it contextualizes the study in debates around rethinking public space to consider plural experiences and the role of conflict in maintaining democratic spaces.
Maps of the living neighborhoods - a study of Genoa through social mediaMarna Parodi
The document discusses a proposed study to map neighborhoods in Genoa, Italy using social media check-in data from Foursquare. Specifically, it aims to export the Livehoods urban computing project from Carnegie Mellon University to analyze how Foursquare data generates thematic maps of neighborhoods that sometimes differ from official boundaries. The author believes Livehoods could help understand Genoa's neighborhoods as defined by residents' daily routines and activities, rather than static municipal designations. As a case study, the document suggests mapping the redeveloped Fiumara area to see if Livehoods reveals insights into how people experience this neighborhood compared to its planned design.
This document provides a summary of the author's undergraduate thesis analyzing the concept of "cities for people" through a case study of Hanoi, Vietnam. The author conducted observations over four weeks in three streets representing old, redeveloped, and new areas of Hanoi to understand how urban development has impacted public space usage. While initially thinking Hanoi exemplified a people-centered city, the author now believes it problematizes the concept by illustrating complexity not fully accounted for. The thesis draws on urban planning and design scholars like Gehl and Jacobs to critically analyze the implications of building cities for people and its relevance in 21st century urbanization globally and specifically in Hanoi.
This document summarizes and compares several articles about urbanization and the growth of cities outward from their cores to their peripheries. It discusses Edward Soja's analysis of increasing regional urbanization and the contrast between urban and suburban areas. It also examines Steve Pile's discussion of Lewis Mumford's view that both physical and social connections are important in defining cities. Examples are provided of Chicago growing due to its natural resources but then depleting them, and of cities like Tehran and Lahore experiencing uncontrolled urban sprawl, migration to the edges, and exploitation of rural areas.
1. Lefebvre argues that there are different levels of space, from natural to social space, and that social space is a social product.
2. Every society produces its own social space, and the production of urban space is fundamental to reproducing society and social control.
3. Lefebvre develops a "spatial triad" of perceived, conceived, and lived spaces to analyze the production of social space.
This document discusses Henri Lefebvre's theories on everyday life from his book The Critique of Everyday Life. It covers several key points:
1) Lefebvre viewed modernization and consumer culture as colonizing everyday life and transforming it.
2) He believed everyday life under capitalism is exploitative and oppressive, but its energies could be used to transform it.
3) Lefebvre saw the potential for alienation to end and for a "total person" to emerge through the transformation of everyday life, signaling the "end of history." Festivals were seen as glimpses of this alternative to capitalism.
This document discusses various concepts and theories of urbanism. It begins by defining urbanism and the study of urban societies and city planning. It then discusses perspectives on how people live in densely populated areas from sociological and other lenses. It outlines different frameworks for urban planning practices around the world. It also discusses concepts like network urbanism, which applies network thinking to urban planning in response to issues with zone-based conceptions. The document also discusses mainstream vs alternative urbanism and outlines various spheres of urban design practice. It proposes new concepts are needed to embrace networks in urban planning and adapt to changing technological and social contexts. Pragmatism is discussed as a philosophical approach to urbanism emphasizing inclusion, experimentation and democracy
In Donald Barthelme's 1974 short story "I Bought a Little City", the narrator decides one day to purchase Galveston, Texas, where he then tears down some houses, shoots 6,000 dogs, and rearranges what remains into the shape of a giant Mona Lisa jigsaw puzzle visible only from the air. As with much of Barthelme's work, the premise seems so absurd that one cannot help but shake it until a metaphor falls out, and here one might well assume that, in the words of the novelist Donald Antrim, "I Bought a Little City" is "a take on the role that a writer has in writing a story – playing god,
Henri Lefebvre analyzed everyday life and its transformation under modernity and capitalism. [1] He saw everyday life as being colonized by consumer culture and commodification. [2] Lefebvre believed that everyday life could be transformed through dealing with alienation and creating a "total person," which would mark the "end of history." [3] He saw festivals and moments of "effervescence" as glimpses of an alternative to the oppressive structures of everyday life under capitalism.
This document discusses dystopian fiction and its development over time. Some key points:
1. Dystopian fiction emerged in the early 20th century in response to totalitarian regimes and world wars. Authors like Orwell and Burgess used dystopias to critique present tendencies and warn of potential dark futures if unchecked.
2. Dystopias depict gloomy, oppressive futures where individuals have little freedom or choice. Societies are often controlled through psychological manipulation and lack of individualism.
3. The genre absorbed modernist techniques and responded to rapid social and technological changes of the time. It questioned political structures and assumptions from the post-Enlightenment era.
4. Dystopian fiction provides
This document provides an overview of Henri Lefebvre's work on the dialectics of everyday life. It discusses key concepts in Lefebvre's work such as the colonization of everyday life by capitalism, the possibility of transforming everyday life through de-alienation, and his use of concepts like "festival" and "carnival" to envision an alternative to the capitalist everyday. The document also touches on criticisms of Lefebvre's work, such as how he treats the roles and experiences of women in his theorization of everyday life.
This document discusses the concepts of urbanism and urbanization. Urbanism is defined as the sociological study of life and human interaction in metropolitan areas, as well as the role of cities in societal development. It originated from the work of sociologists like Marx, Tonnies, Durkheim, Weber and Simmel. The Chicago School further developed sociological theories of urbanism. Urbanization refers to the phenomenon of rural to urban migration and the factors driving this migration. The document examines elements that define an area as "urban" and discusses early urban sociologists' framing of symbolic interaction in urban settings. It provides an overview of sociologist George Simmel's work on the impacts of city life on mental life and
This document summarizes and analyzes an essay about minimal techno culture in New York City. It discusses how the techno scene uses abandoned industrial spaces to resist neoliberal ideals and challenge social norms. While providing moments of communal belonging, the scene also struggles with how its countercultural ideals intersect with the difficulties of living under neoliberalism, such as economic precarity. The summary examines how techno events can disrupt normative experiences but also potentially reinforce unsatisfying aspects of everyday life.
2011 a renewed right to urban life - pugalis and giddingsLee Pugalis
Abstract
This paper is concerned with how space is socially produced and the vigorous struggles that this process entails. Critically engaging with some different readings of Henri Lefebvre’s spatial notion of the “right to the city” we contemplate its radical potency to reconstitute a renewed right to urban life. We argue that the right to the city – trialectically interpreted as a theoretical concept, call for action and cry – has substantial contemporary relevance and import, extending to spatial practitioners such as architects. This conclusion is reached by exploring the neoliberal imperative to conquer space, grappling with the issue of social justice as a means to decipher who (re)produces the city and in what particular ways. Highly visible strategies are contrasted with some less visible counter-practices, by developing a conceptual framework that emphasises ACCESSING, BEING and PARTICIPATING in the city. We contend that “little victories”, offer locationally-specific insights into alternative methods of production, and pose some unsettling questions for architects.
Pugalis, L. & Giddings, B. (2011) 'A Renewed Right to Urban Life: A Twenty-First Century Engagement with Lefebvre’s Initial "Cry"', Architectural Theory Review, 16 (3), pp. 278-295.
Cities and Memory - Construction of Social Spaces and the Mnemonics of the Bu...Hunter Reinhardt
This document provides a summary of a research paper titled "Cities and Memory: Construction of Social Space and the Mnemonics of the Built Environment" by Hunter Reinhardt. The paper examines how cities imbue physical spaces with cultural and social meaning through architecture and monuments. It analyzes three books that look at this topic through different lenses: social geography, architectural history, and archaeology. The summary focuses on Dolores Hayden's book "The Power of Place" which argues urban landscapes can convey public history when they incorporate marginalized groups. It describes Hayden's case study of memorializing "Grandma" Biddy Mason, an influential African American leader in late 19th century LA. The summary concisely
The Role of Public Urban Spaces in Creating a Vivacious Society A Case Study ...shaham asadi
This document discusses the role of public spaces in creating a lively society, using Tabriz, Iran as a case study. It notes that social interactions take place in public spaces, but that Tabriz lacks sufficient recreational public spaces. The rise of the virtual world has disrupted social relations and decreased time spent in public. An analysis of Tabriz's existing spaces found they are inadequate for its size compared to other large cities. The conclusion is that more public spaces focused on recreation, welfare, art and community are needed to increase liveliness in Tabriz.
Postmodern Urbanism and the New PsychogeographyTina Richardson
This lecture provides an overview of some of the theoretical approaches to the postmodern city highlighting the issues that pertain to the appearance of urban space under neoliberalism. You will be introduced to some of the leading contemporary thinkers from the field of urban theory/planning and urban cultural studies. Many of the motifs that arise in the theories of contemporary urban life have been incorporated into the critical practices of a number of today’s urban walkers. These practitioners have developed their own form of psychogeography which responds to the complexity of postmodern space in different ways. Tina’s lecture will tease out some of these motifs and will demonstrate how they have been incorporated into the various methodologies of the New Psychogeography.
This document provides an introduction to an issue of the magazine URBAN focused on the theme of "trans." It summarizes the contents, which include essays on topics like transforming lives through sport in Harlem, art and its provenance in the San Fernando Valley, and critiques of housing construction in France and cultural exhibits in New York. The introduction discusses how the prefix "trans" has returned to common language and academic writing, endowed with new meaning around issues of materiality, technology, and the blurred boundaries between organic and inorganic. It suggests the city is populated with "trans-entities" and things have agency in how they enable human action.
Mobility, accessibility and vulnerabilityLuca Daconto
A brief presentation of my Phd research that I used during the course "Analysis of temporary inhabitants in public spaces" in order to show concretely how a sociological research works
Durant Christine on Lefebvre Education and the Production of SpaceChristine Durant
This document discusses Henri Lefebvre's work as an educational theorist and how his theory of space relates to adult education. It summarizes Lefebvre's view that spaces produce social relationships and learning occurs through appropriating and claiming spaces. Lefebvre calls for radical social transformation through creating non-capitalist spaces that foster critical knowledge, democratic participation, and social movements. The document uses examples from Berlin to illustrate how spaces are produced and how inhabitants strategize to claim spaces and develop critical consciousness against gentrification and neoliberal impacts.
Deniz_E Plan of the present work by LefebvreYavuz Paksoy
This document provides an overview of Henri Lefebvre's theoretical background and concepts regarding the production of space. It discusses [1] Lefebvre's proposition that social space is a social product, [2] his spatial triad of spatial practice, representations of space, and representational spaces, and [3] his aim to develop a unitary theory of space that combines the physical, mental, and social.
This document provides an introduction and literature review for a thesis exploring Covent Garden as a privatized public space. It discusses debates around public and private space, noting critiques of idealized notions of public space that neglect issues of exclusion and power relations. It reviews literature highlighting how traditional conceptions of public space overlooked marginalized groups. The document examines feminist critiques of dichotomous public/private distinctions and the creation of "subaltern counterpublics" by marginalized groups. Overall, it contextualizes the study in debates around rethinking public space to consider plural experiences and the role of conflict in maintaining democratic spaces.
Maps of the living neighborhoods - a study of Genoa through social mediaMarna Parodi
The document discusses a proposed study to map neighborhoods in Genoa, Italy using social media check-in data from Foursquare. Specifically, it aims to export the Livehoods urban computing project from Carnegie Mellon University to analyze how Foursquare data generates thematic maps of neighborhoods that sometimes differ from official boundaries. The author believes Livehoods could help understand Genoa's neighborhoods as defined by residents' daily routines and activities, rather than static municipal designations. As a case study, the document suggests mapping the redeveloped Fiumara area to see if Livehoods reveals insights into how people experience this neighborhood compared to its planned design.
This document provides a summary of the author's undergraduate thesis analyzing the concept of "cities for people" through a case study of Hanoi, Vietnam. The author conducted observations over four weeks in three streets representing old, redeveloped, and new areas of Hanoi to understand how urban development has impacted public space usage. While initially thinking Hanoi exemplified a people-centered city, the author now believes it problematizes the concept by illustrating complexity not fully accounted for. The thesis draws on urban planning and design scholars like Gehl and Jacobs to critically analyze the implications of building cities for people and its relevance in 21st century urbanization globally and specifically in Hanoi.
This document summarizes and compares several articles about urbanization and the growth of cities outward from their cores to their peripheries. It discusses Edward Soja's analysis of increasing regional urbanization and the contrast between urban and suburban areas. It also examines Steve Pile's discussion of Lewis Mumford's view that both physical and social connections are important in defining cities. Examples are provided of Chicago growing due to its natural resources but then depleting them, and of cities like Tehran and Lahore experiencing uncontrolled urban sprawl, migration to the edges, and exploitation of rural areas.
1. Lefebvre argues that there are different levels of space, from natural to social space, and that social space is a social product.
2. Every society produces its own social space, and the production of urban space is fundamental to reproducing society and social control.
3. Lefebvre develops a "spatial triad" of perceived, conceived, and lived spaces to analyze the production of social space.
This document discusses Henri Lefebvre's theories on everyday life from his book The Critique of Everyday Life. It covers several key points:
1) Lefebvre viewed modernization and consumer culture as colonizing everyday life and transforming it.
2) He believed everyday life under capitalism is exploitative and oppressive, but its energies could be used to transform it.
3) Lefebvre saw the potential for alienation to end and for a "total person" to emerge through the transformation of everyday life, signaling the "end of history." Festivals were seen as glimpses of this alternative to capitalism.
This document discusses various concepts and theories of urbanism. It begins by defining urbanism and the study of urban societies and city planning. It then discusses perspectives on how people live in densely populated areas from sociological and other lenses. It outlines different frameworks for urban planning practices around the world. It also discusses concepts like network urbanism, which applies network thinking to urban planning in response to issues with zone-based conceptions. The document also discusses mainstream vs alternative urbanism and outlines various spheres of urban design practice. It proposes new concepts are needed to embrace networks in urban planning and adapt to changing technological and social contexts. Pragmatism is discussed as a philosophical approach to urbanism emphasizing inclusion, experimentation and democracy
In Donald Barthelme's 1974 short story "I Bought a Little City", the narrator decides one day to purchase Galveston, Texas, where he then tears down some houses, shoots 6,000 dogs, and rearranges what remains into the shape of a giant Mona Lisa jigsaw puzzle visible only from the air. As with much of Barthelme's work, the premise seems so absurd that one cannot help but shake it until a metaphor falls out, and here one might well assume that, in the words of the novelist Donald Antrim, "I Bought a Little City" is "a take on the role that a writer has in writing a story – playing god,
Henri Lefebvre analyzed everyday life and its transformation under modernity and capitalism. [1] He saw everyday life as being colonized by consumer culture and commodification. [2] Lefebvre believed that everyday life could be transformed through dealing with alienation and creating a "total person," which would mark the "end of history." [3] He saw festivals and moments of "effervescence" as glimpses of an alternative to the oppressive structures of everyday life under capitalism.
This document discusses dystopian fiction and its development over time. Some key points:
1. Dystopian fiction emerged in the early 20th century in response to totalitarian regimes and world wars. Authors like Orwell and Burgess used dystopias to critique present tendencies and warn of potential dark futures if unchecked.
2. Dystopias depict gloomy, oppressive futures where individuals have little freedom or choice. Societies are often controlled through psychological manipulation and lack of individualism.
3. The genre absorbed modernist techniques and responded to rapid social and technological changes of the time. It questioned political structures and assumptions from the post-Enlightenment era.
4. Dystopian fiction provides
This document provides an overview of Henri Lefebvre's work on the dialectics of everyday life. It discusses key concepts in Lefebvre's work such as the colonization of everyday life by capitalism, the possibility of transforming everyday life through de-alienation, and his use of concepts like "festival" and "carnival" to envision an alternative to the capitalist everyday. The document also touches on criticisms of Lefebvre's work, such as how he treats the roles and experiences of women in his theorization of everyday life.
This document discusses the concepts of urbanism and urbanization. Urbanism is defined as the sociological study of life and human interaction in metropolitan areas, as well as the role of cities in societal development. It originated from the work of sociologists like Marx, Tonnies, Durkheim, Weber and Simmel. The Chicago School further developed sociological theories of urbanism. Urbanization refers to the phenomenon of rural to urban migration and the factors driving this migration. The document examines elements that define an area as "urban" and discusses early urban sociologists' framing of symbolic interaction in urban settings. It provides an overview of sociologist George Simmel's work on the impacts of city life on mental life and
This document summarizes and analyzes an essay about minimal techno culture in New York City. It discusses how the techno scene uses abandoned industrial spaces to resist neoliberal ideals and challenge social norms. While providing moments of communal belonging, the scene also struggles with how its countercultural ideals intersect with the difficulties of living under neoliberalism, such as economic precarity. The summary examines how techno events can disrupt normative experiences but also potentially reinforce unsatisfying aspects of everyday life.
2011 a renewed right to urban life - pugalis and giddingsLee Pugalis
Abstract
This paper is concerned with how space is socially produced and the vigorous struggles that this process entails. Critically engaging with some different readings of Henri Lefebvre’s spatial notion of the “right to the city” we contemplate its radical potency to reconstitute a renewed right to urban life. We argue that the right to the city – trialectically interpreted as a theoretical concept, call for action and cry – has substantial contemporary relevance and import, extending to spatial practitioners such as architects. This conclusion is reached by exploring the neoliberal imperative to conquer space, grappling with the issue of social justice as a means to decipher who (re)produces the city and in what particular ways. Highly visible strategies are contrasted with some less visible counter-practices, by developing a conceptual framework that emphasises ACCESSING, BEING and PARTICIPATING in the city. We contend that “little victories”, offer locationally-specific insights into alternative methods of production, and pose some unsettling questions for architects.
Pugalis, L. & Giddings, B. (2011) 'A Renewed Right to Urban Life: A Twenty-First Century Engagement with Lefebvre’s Initial "Cry"', Architectural Theory Review, 16 (3), pp. 278-295.
Cities and Memory - Construction of Social Spaces and the Mnemonics of the Bu...Hunter Reinhardt
This document provides a summary of a research paper titled "Cities and Memory: Construction of Social Space and the Mnemonics of the Built Environment" by Hunter Reinhardt. The paper examines how cities imbue physical spaces with cultural and social meaning through architecture and monuments. It analyzes three books that look at this topic through different lenses: social geography, architectural history, and archaeology. The summary focuses on Dolores Hayden's book "The Power of Place" which argues urban landscapes can convey public history when they incorporate marginalized groups. It describes Hayden's case study of memorializing "Grandma" Biddy Mason, an influential African American leader in late 19th century LA. The summary concisely
Lewis Mumford provides a definition of what constitutes a city from a sociological perspective, arguing that a city is a collection of social groups and institutions that come together to support a common life and create opportunities for social interaction and cultural experiences. He asserts that limitations on a city's size, density, and area are necessary to support effective social relationships, and advocates for a model of multiple clustered communities rather than massive consolidated urban areas. Mumford's view of the city prioritizes social needs over purely physical planning considerations.
The document summarizes research on public spaces in four European cities: Lviv, Manchester, St. Petersburg, and Sofia. The researchers observed how city squares, as traditional public spaces, have changed due to commercialization, privatization, and regulation. While squares have been renovated, they have also limited public access and activities to prioritize consumption. However, the research found that squares still serve some public functions and are sites of protest. The researchers question whether squares should still be considered public spaces and discuss rethinking the concept of public space in modern cities.
Stephen graham lucy hewitt cities and verticality pptStephen Graham
The document discusses the need for critical urban research to adopt a more three-dimensional, "vertical" perspective in line with the radical vertical extensions of modern built environments. It highlights four main themes: 1) the cultural politics of the aerial view in urban planning, 2) the vertical dimensions of building up and down through structures like skyscrapers and underground complexes, 3) the new "military urbanism" dominated by vertical surveillance technologies, and 4) possibilities for vertical forms of counterpolitics and democratic urbanism. The document calls for connecting analyses of the vertical dimensions of cities to broader social, political, and ecological contexts of urban life.
What is a City”Architectural Record (1937)Lewis Mumfor.docxphilipnelson29183
“What is a City?”
Architectural Record (1937)
Lewis Mumford
Editors’ Introduction
Lewis Mumford (1895–1990) has been called the United States’ last great public intellectual – that is, a scholar
not based in academia who writes for an educated popular audience. Beginning with the publication of his first
book The Story of Utopias in 1922 and continuing throughout a career that saw the publication of some twenty-
five influential volumes, Mumford made signal contributions to social philosophy, American literary and cultural
history, the history of technology and, preeminently, the history of cities and urban planning practice.
Born in Brooklyn and coming of age at a time when the modern city was reaching a new peak in the history of
urban civilization, Mumford saw the urban experience as an essential component in the development of human
culture and the human personality. He consistently argued that the physical design of cities and their economic
functions were secondary to their relationship to the natural environment and to the spiritual values of human
community. Mumford applied these principles to his architectural criticism for The New Yorker magazine and his
work with the Regional Planning Association of America in the 1920s and 1930s, his campaign against plans to
build a highway through Washington Square in New York’s Greenwich Village in the 1950s, and his lifelong
championing of the environmental theories of Patrick Geddes and the Garden City ideals of Ebenezer Howard.
In “What is a City?” – the text of a 1937 talk to an audience of urban planners – Mumford lays out his fundamental
propositions about city planning and the human potential, both individual and social, of urban life. The city, he writes,
is “a theater of social action,” and everything else – art, politics, education, commerce – serve only to make the
“social drama . . . more richly significant, as a stage-set, well-designed, intensifies and underlines the gestures of
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revolutionary moments – it was a theme and an image to which Mumford would return over and over again. In The
Culture of Cities of 1938, he rhapsodized about the artist Albrecht Dürer witnessing a religious procession in
Antwerp in 1519 that was a dramatic performance “where the spectators were also communicants.” And in “The
Urban Drama” from The City in History of 1961, he reflected on the ways that the social life of the ancient city
established a kind of dramatic dialogue “in which common life itself takes on the features of a drama, heightened
by every device of costume and scenery, for the setting itself magnifies the voice and increases the apparent
stature of the actors.” Mumford was quick to point out that the earliest urban dialogue was really a one-way
“monologue of power” from the king to his cowering subjects. Such an absence of true dialogue, he wrote, was
“bound to have a fat.
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Similar to Paper for Book Launch 5may 10may16 2pp (20)
1. 1
Differential Space:
A Research Culmination
Michael Leary-Owhin
learym@lsbu.ac.uk
lsbu.academia.edu/Michael.Leary-Owhin
Book Launch Event:
The City, Space and Urbanism
5 May 2016, 5.30 – 8pm
Keyworth Centre SE1 0AA
A Research Journey
• International comparative research
• Henri Lefebvre's spatial triad (The Production Space)
• Archival, interview and observation research
• Counter-projects led by civil society groups
• Public space as crucible of democracy
• Focus on differential (urban public) space
- one of Lefebvre's rights to the city
Completing a long, intellectually demanding book
journey can be lonely but one is rarely alone. Along the
road family, friends and colleagues provide succour,
support and welcome diversions too. Without their
backing the task may still have been completed but at
greater personal cost.
2. 2
Heartfelt Thanks
Laura Greaves, Laura Vickers, Emily Watt, Abi Saffrey, Emmeline Leary, Melanie
Lloyd, Jude, Jade, Lloyd, Paulyn Lloyd, Meg Oritsegbemi Owhin, Rachel
Oluwaseyifunmi Owhin, Lene and Frederikke Christensen Kamm, Glenn
Blaylock, Bolagi Lawrence, Elaine Blaylock, John Blaylock, Sireita Mullings-
Lawrence, Carla Diego-Franceskides, Rachel Dunkley-Jones, Nick Denes, Liz
Williams, Michael Keith, Brian Alleyne, Les Back, Ben Gidley, Sheila Robinson,
Bridget Ward, Sophie Watson, Fran Tonkiss, Neil Adams, John Adriaanse, Adrian
Budd, Neville Kendall, Sonia Leeyou, Manuela Madeddu, Diane Paice, Phil Pinch,
Tracey Reynolds, Shaminder Takhar, Duncan Tyler, Alan Winter, David
Blackburn, Robin Bray, Simon Currey, Katherine Davis, Crispin Edwards, Alison
Gill, Heather Gordon, David Govier, Jan Hargreaves, Susan Hayes, Jack Herlihy,
Jane Hodkinson, Simon Howles, Tony Lees, Rob Lewis, Martha Mayo, Paula
Moorhouse, Paul Robertshaw, Helen Roome, Megan Schlase, Geoff Senior, Ian
Smart, Mark Arsenault, John Atkin, Peter Aucella, Pat Bartoli, Howard Bernstein,
Jim Cook, Ricky Gervais, John Glester, Jonathon Hall, Michael Heseltine, Kate
Hudson, Harold Kalman, Lewis Karabatsos, Kevin Mann, Paul Marion, Warren
Marshall, Robert Maund, Gary McClarnan, Lynda McLeod, Charles Parrott, David
Rhodes, Ray Spaxman, Michael Southworth, Graham Stringer, Mike Webb,
‘Donna and Joe’, Paul Marion, Robert Maund, David Rhodes, Margaret
Lillian Leary, Emmanuel Aghamadedeye Owhin
3. 3
Chapter One
Cities and Public Space
First Words
Cities are the height of human achievement. Cities are
fraught with ambivalence. We adore city life; it
stimulates, entertains and excites.
Conversely, urban experiences are scary, disorientating
and may be physically and mentally deleterious.
Cities are crucibles of democracy, yet remain
cauldrons of inequality and injustice.
Foreword Words
Henri Lefebvre has become increasingly influential in the years since
he passed away in 1991. Picked up in landmark books of Marxist (or
Marxian) geographers such as David Harvey and Ed Soja, the work’s
insights have had a bracing impact on the study of the city and the
discipline of geography in particular, witnessed in contemporary
scholarship of a planetary urbanism or the diagnostic studies of the
neoliberal metropolitan turn of recent decades…
At times prolix, inevitably evolving over many decades, Lefebvre’s own writing
contains both puzzling contradictions and powerful insights. So in a sense it is
perhaps more important to think of scholarship that is inspired by the work of
Lefebvre, rather than work that is straightforwardly faithful to the detail of any
particular paradigm…
It is perhaps in this sense that this work by Michael Leary-Owhin,
Exploring the Production of Urban Space, makes a significant contribution
to scholarship that draws on the inspiration as much as the writings of
Lefebvrian urbanism, to generate scholarship that advances our thinking
about the post-industrial and the comparative analysis of city change.
(Michael Keith)
4. 4
Lefebvre’s ‘Traditional’ Spatial Triad
abstract space
differential space
public space
• spatial practice has three major elements:
1) the physical, material city and its routine maintenance;
2) major urban redevelopment in the context of existing neo-capitalist
and state power structures; and
3) routines of daily life that conform with official representations of
space. It is space directly perceptible through the senses – perceived
space.
• representations of space: rational, intellectualised, official
conceptions of urban areas for analytical, administrative and property
development purposes. They are produced by technocrats: architects,
engineers, urbanists and planners but also artists with a scientific bent.
They are the dominant representations and may be in the form of the
written word, for example in city-wide zoning plans and strategy
documents, or quasi-scientific visual representations of various kinds
such as maps, masterplans and design guides – conceived space.
5. 5
spaces of representation have two major elements:
1) urban everyday space as directly lived by inhabitants and
users in ways informed not so much by representations
of space as by associated cultural memories, images and
symbols imbued with cultural meaning; and
2) emotional, artistic interpretations of city space by poets,
writers and painters and other artists. These kinds of space
overlay physical space and value places in ways that run
counter to the dominant representations of space –
imaginative and lived space.
• abstract space: the urban spaces of state regulated neo-capital
characterised by restricted access, restricted performance,
commodified exchange value and the tendency to homogenisation.
• differential space: privileges inclusiveness and use value
rather than the exchange value of abstract space. It is often transitory
space which can arise from the inherent vulnerabilities of abstract
space.
• counter-projects: initiatives in the urban environment
promoted by civil society interest groups that run counter to official
representations of space and are often resisted by city authorities,
especially at the time of instigation.
7. 7
Differential Space
Thus, despite – or rather because of – its negativity, abstract space carries
within itself the seeds of a new kind of space. I shall call that new space
‘differential space’, because inasmuch as abstract space tends towards
homogeneity … a new space cannot be born (produced) unless it
accentuates difference. (Lefebvre 1991 [1974]: 52)
… space created and dominated by its users from the basis of its given
conditions. It remains largely unspecified as to its functional and economic
rationality, thus allowing for a wide spectrum of use which is capable of
integrating a high degree of diversity, and stays open for change … a
kind of ‘urbanity’ is produced in which the ‘lived’ and the contradictions
that constitute urban life are nurtured, their deliberate juxtaposition
allowing for a more complex vision of development than is evident in their
immediate urban surroundings or in the unidimensional planning proposals
to which these areas are subject. (Groth and Corijn 2005 emphasis added)
Gastown, Vancouver
Three post -industrial cities
Differential space: differing types
9. 9
Public Space at Maple Tree Square,
Gastown, Vancouver
(Thanks to John Whitworth)
Vancouver Free Jazz Festival
Differential Space Created
(Thanks to Steve Blaylock) (Thanks to Jianwei Yang)
(Thanks to Ted McGrath)
Gastown Meets Downtown Eastside
on Water Street:
Marginalised people create
differential space
10. 10
Lowell Free Folk Festival
at Boarding House Park
and all over Downtown
The Parade of Nations
Multicultural production
of inclusive differential space
11. 11
(Thanks to Lesley Campbell)
D.percussion Free Music Festival:
a kind of differential space
(Thanks to Jacqui Burke)
CND Political Rally makes
Differential Space
Castlefield, Manchester
(Thanks to Paul Jones)
The Vanilla Girls’ Photo-shoot:
Lesbian sexuality creates differential space
12. 12
(Thanks to Donna of Manchester No Borders)
Politicised Appropriation of Space:
Production of differential space
A Cycle of Differential Space Triad
13. 13
Chapter Nine
Conclusions
Towards the end of Lefebvre (1991), the implication is that like
Marxist post-capitalism, differential space becomes inevitable and
universal. However, the research findings here demonstrate that
differential space can co-exist in dialectical tension with abstract
space rather than negating it entirely. Politically appropriated
differential space has appeared, disappeared and reappeared in the
2000s in the case study cities and probably in many other cities,
which suggests it is not so much teleological as irrepressible. Where
urban space is abandoned by capitalist interests and state enterprises,
differential space can potentially be produced. Through the lens of the
spatial triad, differential space is constituted by and constituent of
social relations. Differential space confirms the unquenchable thirst
of the human spirit for an urbanism of tolerant, diverse public space –
the ultimate city synecdoche – not quite utopia but cause for
sanguinity.
14. 14
Chapter Nine
Conclusions
public spaces of hope
In this era when it is easy to lapse into neoliberal provoked
fatalistic pessimism, it is important to stress that the production
of space, inspired by a public spirited civic ethos can still create
city spaces of intrinsic use value – public spaces of hope.
Lefebvre posits a utopian post neo-capitalist, urban-centred
world order on the horizon: it may emerge eventually. In so
doing he highlights the importance of urban space and
its production.
Chapter Nine
Conclusions
Last Words
In this book the research intimates that cities remain as they were in
the 19th century, crucibles of societal convulsions and gentler every
day, transformative spatial rhythms. Both transformations produce
democratic differential space through collective politicised action.
It is differential space that erupts through the vulnerabilities of
abstract space. It is differential space that becomes the desired
outcome of the production of urban public space in the 21st century.
So the next opportunity you have to join the throng and participate
in the politicised appropriation of city streets – seize your right to
the city and revel in the production of differential space.