Space and Social Theory (BSA New Horizons in Sociology)

225 Pages·2007·0.96 MB·English

by  Dr Andrzej Zieleniec

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Space and Social Theory
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The British Sociological Association is publishing a series of books to
review the state of the discipline at the beginning of the millennium.
New Horizons in Sociology also seeks to locate the contribution of
British scholarship to the wider development of sociology. Sociology is
taught in all the major institutions of higher education in the United
Kingdom as well as throughout North America and the Europe of the
former western bloc. Sociology is now establishing itself in the former
eastern bloc. But it was only in the second half of the twentieth century
that sociology moved from the fringes of UK academic life into the
mainstream. British sociology has also provided a home for movements
that have renewed and challenged the discipline; the revival of academic
Marxism, the renaissance in feminist theory, the rise of cultural studies,
for example. Some of these developments have become sub-disciplines
whilst yet others have challenged the very basis of the sociological
enterprise. Each has left their mark. Now therefore is a good time both
to take stock and to scan the horizon, looking back and looking forward.
Series Editor: Bridget Fowler, University of Glasgow
Published titles include:
Nationalism and Soical Theory
Gerard Delanty and Patrick O’Mahoney
Interactionism
Paul Atkinson and William Housley
Feminist Sociology
Sara Delamont
The New Sociology of Economic Behaviour
Ralph Fevre
The Sociology of Religion
Grace Davie
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Space and Social Theory
Andrzej Zieleniec
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© Andrzej Zieleniec 2007
First published 2007
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For Kasia,
Rowan and Audrey
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contents
Preface viii
Acknowledgements xviii
Chapter 1 Karl Marx: the implicit spatiality of
historical materialism 1
Chapter 2 Georg Simmel: the space of formal sociology 34
Chapter 3 Henri Lefebvre: the production of space 60
Chapter 4 David Harvey: the political economy of space 98
Chapter 5 Michel Foucault: space, knowledge and power 125
Chapter 6 Legacies and prospects: spatialising
contemporary modernity 150
Bibliography 182
Index 197
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preface
Space is or has been all too often taken for granted and assumed as a
relatively unacknowledged aspect or backdrop to life. It is just there to
be filled up, used, crossed over or negotiated in everyday life. In this it is
much the same with much social theory. There is or has been an apparent
neglect of the detailed consideration of space as an issue or a factor
worthy of systematic analysis at least that is, until the last quarter of the
twentieth century. Since then and with the publication of a number of
influential texts and studies, particularly in the realm of a re-imagined
human or cultural geography, space has become increasingly acknowledged
as a fundamental and crucial area for social enquiry and analysis.
Space and spatial analysis are now increasingly being considered as
an essential element in the development of theoretical knowledge and
understanding as well as empirical investigations in a range of social
scientific disciplines. No longer is the consideration and analysis of space
deemed the preserve of geographical perspectives on the interplay between
the human and ‘natural’ environments. Human-made environments and
the social relations that made them as well as the interactions that occur
in and through them is now the subject of critical and detailed analysis.
Due credit then must be given to human and social geographers for their
role in promoting and furthering the reprioritisation of space as a
fundamental element for a comprehensive understanding of the complexity
of social relations. However, in this new climate of inter-disciplinary activ-
ity there is the potential for an expansion in distinctly spatial analyses that
should provide not only new horizons but also new directions for a vari-
ety of disciplines. Such a fecund future is premised on the recognition of
the development and applicability of theories of space and spatial theories.
The aim of this book is to present some of these theoretical perspectives
and to highlight their importance for the development of a more
inclusive and accepted social theory of space. In this the intention is not
to present a comprehensive overview of all the contributions to the
corpus of knowledge that constitutes the field of social theories of space.
Instead the objective is to be necessarily selective and approach the
development of ‘thinking on space’ in a somewhat chronological
manner. Similarly, the impacts and influence of such theories and analyses
are to provide an indication of the fruitfulness of incorporating a social
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preface
theory of space into empirical and theoretical investigations of the
complex social relations that constitutes, in various forms, the investi-
gation of social reality. In particular, but not exclusively, these theories
are important for providing an understanding of the city and the urban
which has and continues to be the focus of much social analysis of
modernity. It is perhaps instructive to give some personal details of my
own ‘coming to terms’ with space as a fundamental importance for
social analysis and investigation.
As an undergraduate I was encouraged in the development of my own
‘sociological imagination’ through instruction in the classical theoretical
foundations of the discipline (of Marx, Weber, Durkheim, Simmel,
Comte, Saint Simon, Tonnies, etc.) and the development of contemporary
theoretical approaches, perspectives, paradigms (from C. W. Mills,
Williams, Elias, E. P. Thompson, Goffman, Popper, Kuhn, Bauman,
Bourdieu, Foucault, Giddens, Beck, the post-modern debates of
Jameson, Lyotard, Baudrillard, etc.). These provided the epistemological
and ontological foundations of the discipline as well as its subsequent
development and which informed the study of substantive areas
including the urban, modernity, mass media, culture, consumption,
stratification, work, literature and informed the detailed exploration of
the methodological practice of sociology as well as its intellectual
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framework. In retrospect, it is perhaps easier to identify omissions than
accentuate the positive aspects of my own foundation in sociology.
In this, I could highlight the lack of an appreciation of the importance
of a sociological analysis and understanding of the spatial dimension of
the structure, organisation and experience of social relations and activities
in the various ‘specialisms’ that were covered.
This relative lack of focus on space in sociological analysis and in my
own knowledge only became apparent when conducting doctoral thesis
research necessitated understanding of the problematics of space.
Mythesis research involved the analysis of the origins and development
of urban public parks as inherent features of the social and physical
landscape of the city of modernity. What was revealed in my research
was that public parks, as fairly universal and ubiquitous urban spaces,
are composed of a complex interaction of physical features, dominant
representations and everyday uses and experiences that all combined to
‘define’ them as social spaces with the network of spaces and spatial
arrangements that constituted the social landscape of the city. This
complexity required a comprehensive understanding and analysis of
existing social theories of space and spatial social theory to provide a
theoretical framework for the empirical analysis of their origins and
development within the historical, social, economic, political and spatial