Henri Lefebvre
Henri Lefebvre’s theory of the production of space is one of the most important contemporary contributions to the analysis of urbanisation and socio-spatial processes. This theory is of special importance for the transdisciplinary research in social sciences and architecture. The long-standing engagement of the Chair of Sociology with this theory resulted in numerous seminars, conferences and publications. It is also one of the key focuses of teaching and serves as an analytical basis for many of the Chair’s research projects.
Henri Lefebvre and the Theory of the Production of Space
In his book “Henri Lefebvre and the Theory of the Production of Space” (Verso, 2022), Christian Schmid provides a comprehensive, detailed and thorough overview of Lefebvre’s theory of space and the urban. It is an updated and extended translation of the German book “Stadt, Raum und Gesellschaft: Henri Lefebvre und die Theorie der Produktion des Raumes” (Steiner, 2005), almost two decades after its initial publication.
Henri Lefebvre belongs to the generation of the great French intellectuals and philosophers, together with his contemporaries Michel Foucault and Jean-Paul Sartre. His theory has experienced a remarkable revival over the last two decades, and is discussed and applied today in many disciplines in humanities and social sciences, particularly in urban studies, geography, urban sociology, urban anthropology, architecture and planning. Lefebvre, together with David Harvey, is one of the leading and most read theoreticians in these fields.
Both books explain in an accessible way the theoretical and epistemological context of Lefebvre’s work in French philosophy and in the German dialectic (Hegel, Marx, and Nietzsche), and reconstruct in detail the historical development of its different elements. They also give an overview on the reception of Lefebvre and discuss a wide range of applications of this theory in many research fields, such as urban and regional development, urbanisation, social space, and everyday life.
Reading Henri Lefebvre
„Space, Difference, Everyday Life: Reading Henri Lefebvre” (Routledge, 2008) edited by Kanishka Goonewardena, Stefan Kipfer, Richard Milgrom, and Christian Schmid is the result of a collective project of a group of theoreticians who engaged in a thorough discussion of the theoretical and epistemological foundations of Lefebvre’s theory. His encompassing oeuvre has generated two main schools of thought: one that is political economic, and another that is more culturally oriented and poststructuralist in tone. This book brings these two schools of thought together to better understand the contemporary urban question and the nature of spatialised social structures. It was the first encompassing edited volume on Lefebvre’s thinking and soon became a classic in the field.
“Space, Difference, Everyday Life: Reading Henri Lefebvre” (Routledge, 2008), edited by Kanishka Goonewardena, Stefan Kipfer, Richard Milgrom and Christian Schmid, is the result of a joint project by a group of researchers who have intensively examined the theoretical and epistemological foundations of Lefebvre’s theory. His comprehensive work has given rise to two strands of interpretations: one political-economic and the other more culturally oriented and poststructuralist in nature. This book brings these two strands together to better understand the contemporary urban question and the nature of spatial social structures. It was the first comprehensive English-language edited volume on Lefebvre’s thinking and quickly became a classic in the field.
Henri Lefebvre in Social Research and Architecture
Although Lefebvre’s theory has stimulated numerous debates on current urbanisation processes since the 1980s, for a long time there were few empirical studies based on this theory. In order to discuss this issue more broadly, the Chair of Architecture Theory and the Chair of Sociology at ETH Zurich, the Delft School of Design and the Jan van Eyck Academie, Maastricht organised two conferences: “Rethinking Theory, Space and Production: Henri Lefebvre Today” (TU Delft, November 11–13, 2008) and “Architecture and Social Sciences: Urban Research and Design beyond Henri Lefebvre” (ETH Zurich, November 24–26, 2009). Both conferences focused on the application and further development of Lefebvre’s theory in contemporary empirical urban research. They attracted considerable international attention and brought together scholars from various disciplines, including architecture, urban design, sociology, geography and political science.
Encouraged by the great international interest in the two conferences as well as by the high quality of the presentations, Łukasz Stanek, Christian Schmid, and Ákos Moravánszky launched the book project: “Urban Revolution Now: Henri Lefebvre in Social Research and Architecture” (Ashgate, 2014). It combined a selection of the conference contributions with newly commissioned essays. The ambition of this edited volume was to advance Lefebvre’s theory beyond the limitations of current theoretical debates; to develop a general theoretical and methodological framework for the analysis of contemporary urbanisation processes; and to conceive new planning and design tools in response to contemporary urban challenges.
