Henri Lefebvre's Critical Theory of Space

Henri Lefebvre's Critical Theory of Space

Author: Francesco Biagi

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2020-08-08

Total Pages: 235

ISBN-13: 3030523675

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Henri Lefebvre's Critical Theory of Space offers a rigorous analysis and revival of Lefebvre’s works and the context in which he produced them. Biagi traces the historical-critical time-frame of Lefebvre's intellectual investigations, bringing to light a theoretical constellation in which historical methods intersect with philosophical and sociological issues: from Marxist political philosophy to the birth of urban sociology; from rural studies to urban and everyday life studies in the context of capitalism. Examining Lefebvre’s extended investigations into the urban sphere as well as highlighting his goal of developing a “general political theory of space” and of innovating Marxist thought, and clarifying the various (more or less accurate) meanings attributed to Lefebvre's concept of the “right to the city” (analysed in the context of the French and international sociological and philosophical-political debate), Henri Lefebvre's Critical Theory of Space ultimately brings the contours of Lefebvre’s innovative perspective—itself developed at the end of the “short twentieth century”—back into view in all its richness and complexity.


Critical Theory of Communication

Critical Theory of Communication

Author: Christian Fuchs

Publisher:

Published: 2016-10-10

Total Pages: 236

ISBN-13: 9781911534044

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This book contributes to the foundations of a critical theory of communication as shaped by the forces of digital capitalism. One of the world's leading theorists of digital media Professor Christian Fuchs explores how the thought of some of the Frankfurt School's key thinkers can be deployed for critically understanding media in the age of the Internet. Five essays that form the heart of this book review aspects of the works of Georg LukAcs, Theodor W. Adorno, Herbert Marcuse, Axel Honneth and Ju rgen Habermas and apply them as elements of a critical theory of communication's foundations. The approach taken starts from Georg LukAcs Ontology of Social Being, draws on the work of the Frankfurt School thinkers, and sets them into dialogue with the Cultural Materialism of Raymond Williams. Critical Theory of Communication offers a vital set of new insights on how communication operates in the age of information, digital media and social media, arguing that we need to transcend the communication theory of Habermas by establishing a dialectical and cultural-materialist critical theory of communication. "


Henri Lefebvre and Education

Henri Lefebvre and Education

Author: Sue Middleton

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2013-11-07

Total Pages: 220

ISBN-13: 1135092281

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During his lifetime Henri Lefebvre (1901-1991) was renowned in France as a philosopher, sociologist and activist. Although he published more than 70 books, few were available in English until The Production of Space was translated in 1991. While this work - often associated with geography - has influenced educational theory’s ‘spatial turn,’ educationalists have yet to consider Lefebvre’s work more broadly. This book engages in an educational reading of the selection of Lefebvre’s work that is available in English translation. After introducing Lefebvre’s life and works, the book experiments with his concepts and methods in a series of five ‘spatial histories’ of educational theories. In addition to The Production of Space, these studies develop themes from Lefebvre’s other translated works: Rhythmanalysis, The Explosion, the three volumes of Critique of Everyday Life and a range of his writings on cities, Marxism, technology and the bureaucratic state. In the course of these inquiries, Lefebvre’s own passionate interest in education is uncovered: his critiques of bureaucratised schooling and universities, the analytic concepts he devised to study educational phenomena, and his educational methods. Throughout the book Middleton demonstrates how Lefebvre’s conceptual and methodological tools can enhance the understanding of the spatiotemporal location of educational philosophy and theory. Bridging disciplinary divides, it will be key reading for researchers and academics studying the philosophy, sociology and history of education, as well as those working in fields beyond education including geography, history, cultural studies and sociology.


Henri Lefebvre

Henri Lefebvre

Author: Chris Butler

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2012-10-12

Total Pages: 202

ISBN-13: 1134045883

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While certain aspects of Henri Lefebvre’s writings have been examined extensively within the disciplines of geography, social theory, urban planning and cultural studies, there has been no comprehensive consideration of his work within legal studies. Henri Lefebvre: Spatial Politics, Everyday Life and the Right to the City provides the first serious analysis of the relevance and importance of this significant thinker for the study of law and state power. Introducing Lefebvre to a legal audience, this book identifies the central themes that run through his work, including his unorthodox, humanist approach to Marxist theory, his sociological and methodological contributions to the study of everyday life and his theory of the production of space. These elements of Lefebvre’s thought are explored through detailed investigations of the relationships between law, legal form and processes of abstraction; the spatial dimensions of neoliberal configurations of state power; the political and aesthetic aspects of the administrative ordering of everyday life; and the ‘right to the city’ as the basis for asserting new forms of spatial citizenship. Chris Butler argues that Lefebvre’s theoretical categories suggest a way for critical legal scholars to conceptualise law and state power as continually shaped by political struggles over the inhabitance of space. This book is a vital resource for students and researchers in law, sociology, geography and politics, and all readers interested in the application of Lefebvre’s social theory to specific legal and political contexts.


The Production of Space

The Production of Space

Author: Henri Lefebvre

Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

Published: 1992-04-08

Total Pages: 464

ISBN-13: 9780631181774

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Henri Lefebvre has considerable claims to be the greatest living philosopher. His work spans some sixty years and includes original work on a diverse range of subjects, from dialectical materialism to architecture, urbanism and the experience of everyday life. The Production of Space is his major philosophical work and its translation has been long awaited by scholars in many different fields. The book is a search for a reconciliation between mental space (the space of the philosophers) and real space (the physical and social spheres in which we all live). In the course of his exploration, Henri Lefebvre moves from metaphysical and ideological considerations of the meaning of space to its experience in the everyday life of home and city. He seeks, in other words, to bridge the gap between the realms of theory and practice, between the mental and the social, and between philosophy and reality. In doing so, he ranges through art, literature, architecture and economics, and further provides a powerful antidote to the sterile and obfuscatory methods and theories characteristic of much recent continental philosophy. This is a work of great vision and incisiveness. It is also characterized by its author's wit and by anecdote, as well as by a deftness of style which Donald Nicholson-Smith's sensitive translation precisely captures.


State, Space, World

State, Space, World

Author: Henri Lefebvre

Publisher: U of Minnesota Press

Published: 2009

Total Pages: 343

ISBN-13: 081665316X

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Making the political aspect of Lefebvre's work available in English for the first time, this book contains essays on philosophy, political theory, state formation, spatial planning, and globalization, as well as provocative reflections on the possibilities and limits of grassroots democracy under advanced capitalism.


Toward an Architecture of Enjoyment

Toward an Architecture of Enjoyment

Author: Henri Lefebvre

Publisher: U of Minnesota Press

Published: 2014-05-01

Total Pages: 301

ISBN-13: 145294198X

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Toward an Architecture of Enjoyment is the first publication in any language of the only book devoted to architecture by Henri Lefebvre. Written in 1973 but only recently discovered in a private archive, this work extends Lefebvre’s influential theory of urban space to the question of architecture. Taking the practices and perspective of habitation as his starting place, Lefebvre redefines architecture as a mode of imagination rather than a specialized process or a collection of monuments. He calls for an architecture of jouissance—of pleasure or enjoyment—centered on the body and its rhythms and based on the possibilities of the senses. Examining architectural examples from the Renaissance to the postwar period, Lefebvre investigates the bodily pleasures of moving in and around buildings and monuments, urban spaces, and gardens and landscapes. He argues that areas dedicated to enjoyment, sensuality, and desire are important sites for a society passing beyond industrial modernization. Lefebvre’s theories on space and urbanization fundamentally reshaped the way we understand cities. Toward an Architecture of Enjoyment promises a similar impact on how we think about, and live within, architecture.


Henri Lefebvre

Henri Lefebvre

Author: Andrew Merrifield

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2013-10-18

Total Pages: 239

ISBN-13: 1135434964

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Philosopher, sociologist and urban theorist, Henri Lefebvre is one of the great social theorists of the twentieth century. This accessible and innovative introduction to the work of Lefebvre combines biography and theory in a critical assessment of the dynamics of Lefebvre's character, thought, and times. Exploring key Lefebvrian concepts, Andy Merrifield demonstrates the evolution of Lefebvre's philosophy, while stressing the way his long and adventurous life of ideas and political engagement live on as an enduring and inspiring interrelated whole.


Spatial Ecologies

Spatial Ecologies

Author: Verena Andermatt Conley

Publisher: Liverpool University Press

Published: 2012-01-01

Total Pages: 185

ISBN-13: 1846317541

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Spatial Ecologies asks why French cultural and critical theory since 1968 has turned from investigating questions of time to examining space. Verena Conley ranges over the work of Henri Lefebvre, Michel de Certeau, Jean Baudrillard, Marc Auge, Paul Virilio, Bruno Latour, and Etienne Balibar to analyze how they reconsidered the experience of space in the midst of political and economic turmoil and to find out what writing about space can tell us about life in late capitalism. Conley links this question to Heidegger's concept of habitality and shows how this concept of space informs much of French theory.


Perspectives on Henri Lefebvre

Perspectives on Henri Lefebvre

Author: Jenny Bauer

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG

Published: 2018-12-03

Total Pages: 250

ISBN-13: 3110494981

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The articles take a decidedly interdisciplinary look at the opus of the French philosopher, sociologist and pioneer of spatial analysis Henri Lefebvre (1901-1991). His works are reflected upon from theoretical and practical perspectives by authors from various fields (literature, history, philosophy, sociology, ethnology) closely examining text references from Lefebvre.