Henri Lefebvre and the Theory of the Production of Space – Theory Seminar

Herbstsemester 2022

On the occa­si­on of the publi­ca­ti­on of the forth­co­ming book ‘Hen­ri Lefeb­v­re and the Theo­ry of the Pro­duc­tion of Space’ by Chris­ti­an Schmid, we are orga­ni­s­ing a spe­cial semi­nar in the autumn semes­ter 2022 in which we will read and dis­cuss the book together.

On the book:
Hen­ri Lefeb­v­re deve­lo­ped an extra­or­di­na­ri­ly and far-rea­ching spa­tio-tem­po­ral theo­ry of socie­ty that is today wide­ly appli­ed in huma­ni­ties and social sci­ence, par­ti­cu­lar­ly in urban stu­dies, human geo­gra­phy, socio­lo­gy, cul­tu­ral anthro­po­lo­gy, poli­ti­cal sci­ence, phi­lo­so­phy, lite­ra­tu­re, cul­tu­ral stu­dies and the arts, and also in archi­tec­tu­re, urban design and plan­ning.
This book pro­vi­des the first sys­te­ma­tic recon­s­truc­tion of Lefebvre’s theo­ry of the pro­duc­tion of space. While many recep­ti­ons repre­sent Lefebvre’s work as a coll­ec­tion of inspi­ring but dis­pa­ra­te thoughts and reflec­tions, this book starts from the the­sis of cohe­rence, assum­ing that this work is distin­gu­is­hed by a con­ti­nui­ty of con­cepts and cate­go­ries that are con­nec­ted in a con­sis­tent way. It reve­als the epis­te­mo­lo­gi­cal con­text of this theo­ry in French phi­lo­so­phy and in the Ger­man dialec­tic (Hegel, Marx, and Nietz­sche), and explo­res the his­to­ri­cal deve­lo­p­ment of the core con­cepts. It illu­mi­na­tes Lefebvre’s under­stan­ding of ever­y­day life, the right to the city, the the­sis of the com­ple­te urba­niza­ti­on of socie­ty, and the intrin­sic rela­ti­onship bet­ween space and the sta­te. It explains the famous dou­ble tri­ad of the pro­duc­tion of space: per­cei­ved, con­cei­ved and lived space – and spa­ti­al prac­ti­ce, repre­sen­ta­ti­on of space and spaces of repre­sen­ta­ti­on. And it deve­lo­ps a dialec­ti­cal matrix of a theo­ry of socie­ty, which is based on the core cate­go­ries of spa­tio-tem­po­ral dimen­si­ons, levels, and con­fi­gu­ra­ti­ons of social rea­li­ty. It also gives an over­view on the dif­fe­rent Lefeb­v­re recep­ti­ons and dis­cus­ses a wide ran­ge of appli­ca­ti­ons of his con­cepts in various rese­arch fields.

Lei­tung: Chris­ti­an Schmid, Nitin Bathla