Henri Lefebvre’s : The Production of space
He was a French Marxist thinker born on 16th June 1901 Hagetmau, a small village near Paris in France in into a middle class Catholic family.
He did his
education basically in Paris and gained the degree in 1920 in Philosophy.
In between he moved away from academic life and served in military and worked in various factories and drove cabs in Paris. So he had a rich life experience, about common man their wishes and issues. Born at the beginning of the century, he witnessed both the world wars and the inter war period. Those incidents had a profound impact on his life. It was after a car accident he concentrated on academic life again.
He was much
influenced by a lot of thinkers like Friedrich Nietzsche, Hegal, Karl Marx and
many more he went on to develop his own Marxian philosophical version. He is also called “Humanist Marx”
In his later
years he became the professor in various universities of France.
He authored over 70 books and 200 articles ranging from literary theory to politics, from sociology to philosophy from rural to Urban and even history.
He died in June
1991 in Paris.
Few of his
famous books are:
· The critique of everyday life – 1930
· The right to the city
-1968
·
The urban revolution - 1970
·
The production of space -1974
·
Time and everyday life in 1992
His writings were the byproduct
of a long process of engagement with people of all strata.
The 'Production of space' the book was written in 1974 in French and which was later translated to English in 1991 by Donald Nicholson-Smith.
In the book he analysed Urban Development or the development
of cities as a product of capitalist economic system in order to establish his
views, he mentions about to circuits of
capital.
First primary circuit
of capital and the secondary circuit of capital.
Primary circuit of
capital commonly studied economic
activity,
Where the capitalist invest his
money in material, man and machines, to manufacture a
product to sell it at a profit and again invest the profit.
But to understand the unevenness
of Urban Development he identifies another profit oriented economy real estate investment this he termed
as second circuit of capital investment in land most often leads to profit and
serves as an important factor of acquiring more wealth,
The circuit becomes complete when the investment takes the
profit and invest it in more land based projects.
He says that it is the
land base profit seeking projects determine the stability, the decline and rejuvenation nation of various areas.
What is Space?
How people produce space is highly contingent on when they are producing it.
Therefore Lefebvre says that every society and hence every mode of production produces a space, ‘space of its own’.
In the modern
capitalist economic society, capital
acts as a hegemony of a class.
Hence one class produce and other class consumes.
Therefore
space is not nearly a means of
production but and means of control and domination.
Space is not a passive locus of social
relation in space there is embedded the
physical mental and social relation and they cannot be separated.
His analysis
of society starts from humans as social beings, who are said to produce their
own consciousness and their world.
In this production, humans would mobilize spatial elements including material and tools in a rational manner with certain objectives, in doing so they also produce social space.
Hence as human
being we are able to produce our own world in this world can we construct our surroundings environment and
it in turn moulds us or create us.
In simple terms we construct our surroundings to meet particular needs and objects that in turn affects our subsequent behaviour.
So we create
environment and it creates us or moulds us.
In analysing space it talks about the role of
government which is pivotal
Why the role
of government is pivotal the government provides
fun approves new plans and design and also owns a great deal of land in
terms of government office, Park, Police Station, fire station, bus stand, creational facilities, School, parking slots, market etc.
His analysis of
society starts from humans as a social being who are said to produce their own
consciousness and the world. In this production humans with mobilise special
elements including materials and tools in a rational manner with certain
objectives in doing so they also produce social space.
What is social space?
Leferbve says “social space is at once the result
and cause, product and producer”
So “social
action is always and simultaneously, both a field of action and basis of an
action”.
Henri Lefebvre speaks about “Spatial Triad” or the three levels of social space.
1. Spatial practices -- perceived
2.
Representation of space
--conceived
3. Representational space – lived space.
Perceived space is the assumptions about the world, all this is a mental process, this perception about a space when carried with more knowledge then its at a conceived level.
·
Lived spaces is the
experience of all social which include both perceived and conceived.
Perceiving and
conceiving are mental informational activities, they are social and material
practices that are part of living and producing a society.
Perceiving in
simple terms means thinking of how it should be, conceiving is thinking plus
collecting all information about the social world and lived space is the actual
world.
Lived spaces means Perceving, conceving thus producing and experiencing society.
He argues that
there is a relationship that exists between the perceived, conceived and the
lived spaces. That is a relation of
dialectics.
In a
capitalist society the abstract space that is the perceived and conceived space
are controlled by the Capitalists and Brourgeouses. They create the lived space
according to their needs which often
crushed the lived spaces of the common man. Hence there is a dialectical
tension between the abstract space and lived space.
Watch this to understand better:
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