Production of space from the digital front: From everyday life to the everyday politics of networked practices

Abstract

Everyday life expands the debates about the role of capitalist production relations in the production of space and urbanisation to everyday life practices. The digital space has become part of everyday life with extensive use of social media by individuals and institutions as a key communication sphere. Dwelling on these, this paper explores the role of the digital space in the processes of the production of space and the role of the networked practices of local governments within those processes. Investigating the practices of local governments and their engagement with individuals opens up areas of exploration for everyday life, local governance and institutional politics. The paper explores these via two case studies about acts of everyday life: holiday-making during the re-running of an election campaign and New Year's Eve celebrations in Turkey. It discusses the dialectical relationship between the lived space and the conceived space (Lefebvre, 1991) and how everyday politics submerges with everyday life via the practices of local governments by focusing on the networked (Castells, 2004) engagements among local governments and with ordinary citizens through the use of social media. It concludes that the digital space acts as a conduit where the conceived and the lived are submerged.