Issues for discussion:

• How is space "produced"?   How is space commodified, made absolute or abstract?
• How do we apply Lefebvre's spatial triad to literary or cultural texts?  Bear in mind the different interpretations of Lefebvre by Ligget, Soja, and Harvey.

Lefebvre 的「全面的人」和日常生活批判 （《西方馬克斯主義》p. 442; 445; 450）。

II. "Plan of the Present Work"

  The theoretical background

• the traditional philosophy of space (categories or an immanent order), science of space (mathematics). --question p. 3
• the present discourse on space and its multiplicity p. 8  -- society as a whole continues in subjection to political practice, that is, state power.
• space and capitalist hegemony p. 9-11 [the many facets of capitalism; the hegemony of one class; space-- taking an active role but not being a passive locus of relations]
   
  Lefebvre's theoretical position
   
  • a unitary theory of space pp. p.14 -- of physical, mental and social space 'each of these two kinds of space involves, underpins and presupposes the other" (14)
  • the aim:
    • The project I am outlining. . . does not aim to produce a (or the) discourse on space, but rather to expose the actual production of space by bringing the various  kinds of space and the modalities of their genesis together within a single theory.
    • dialectical -- A theory can only take form, and be formulated, at the level of a 'supercode'.  . . . instead of emphasizing the rigorously formal aspect of codes, I shall instead be putting the stress on their dialectical  character.  Codes will be seen as part of a practical relationship, as part of an interaction between 'subjects' and their space and surroundings.  I shall attempt to trace to coming-into-being and disappearance of codings/decodings.
    • p. 24  [The book] aims to foster confrontation between those ideas and propositions which illuminate the modern world even if they do not govern it, . . .treating them . . .as prefigurations lying at the threshhold of modernity.
      　
  • examples of the switching of spatial codes --
    • surrealists [from subjective space to the material realm of the body and the outside world]
    • George Bataille [the entirety of space --mental, physical, social -- is apprehended tragically.]
    • theorist of technology Jacque Lafitte [technocratic utopia with 'active' machines and 'passive' machines]
    
      Lefebvre's critique of two illusions (of transparency and realist) pp. 27-

• The illusion of transparency -- space appears as luminous, as intelligible, as giving action free rein.  [related to the ideology which privileges speech and/or writing; has a kinship with philosophical idealism. ]
• The realist illusion -- the belief that 'things' have more of an existence than the 'subject,' his thought and his desires.   [closer to materialism]
• His argument: (social) space is a (social) product.  implications:
  1. (physical) natural space is disappearing. p. 30
  2. every society--and hence every mode of production with its subvariants . .. --produces a space, its own space.
  3. Social space contains (1) the social relations of reproduction, i.e. the bio-physiological relations between the sexes and between age groups, along with the specific organization of the family; and (2) the relations of production, i.e. the division of labour and its organization in the form of hierarchical social functions.
     • Three interrelated levels in capitalist society: (1) biological reproduction (the family); (2) the reproduction of labour power; (3) the reproduction of the social relations of production.  p. 32
  4. If space is a product, our knowledge of it must be expected to reproduce and expound the process of production.  The 'object' of interest must be expected to shift from things in space to the actual production of space.  (36-37)
     [how is space produced?]
    Lefebvre's  spatial triad: the percieved, the conceived, and the lived pp 38-39
  1. Spatial practice
  --p. 33 which embraces production and reproduction, . . . Spatial practice ensures continuity and some degree of cohesion.
  -- p. 38 The spatial practice of a society secretes that society's space; it propounds and presupposed it, in a dialectical interaction; it produces it slowly and surely as it masters and appropriates it.
  e.g. In the Middle Ages -- embraced not only the network of local roads ... but also the main roads between towns and the great pilgrims' ways.
   
  2. Representation of space:
  --p. 33 tied to the relations of production and to the 'order.'
  -- p. 38  conceptualized space, the space of scientists, planners, urbanists, technocratic subdiverders and social engineers. . . all of whom identify what is lived and what is perceived with what is conceived.
  --e.g. In the Middle Ages -- including the Earth, the world, the Cosmos, ... a fixed sphere within a finite space, diametrically bisected by the surface of the Earth; below is Hell, and above the Firmament.

  3. Representational spaces:
  --p. 33  embody complex symbolisms, sometimes coded, sometimes not, linked to the clandestine or underground side of social life, as also to art.  
  -- p. 39  space as directly lived through its associated images and symbols, and hence the space of 'inhabitants' and 'users,' but also of some artists and perhaps of those, such as a few writers and philosophers, who describe and aspire to do no more than describe.
   --e.g. In the Middle Ages -- the village church, graveyard, hall and fields, or the square and the belfry.
  e.g. In the Middle Ages --

    absolute space -- made up of fragments of nature. . . but [the sites'] very consecration ended up by stripping them of their natural characteristics and uniqueness.  .  ..  religious and political in character, was a product of the bonds of sanguinity, soil and language, but out of it evolved a space which was relativized and historical.  p. 48   abstract space -- . . . the forces of history smashed naturalness forever and upon its ruins established the space of accumulation (the accumulation of all wealth and resources: knowledge, technology, money, precious objects, works of art and symbols).

Source
Lefebvre, H.  The production of Space.  London: Basil Blackwell, 1991.

(external) Literary Criticism Databank: Postmodernism and Urban Space ;
Postmodern Theories and Texts ;
Postmodern Space, Postcolonial Resistance  Spring, 1999