The place of space in social and cultural theory

Abstract

This chapter argues that ‘space’ – both as a symbolic imaginary and as an empirical reality, as a conceptual tool of critical enquiry and as a constitutive element of society – deserves to be taken seriously by social and cultural theorists. This is essentially due to the fact that all domains of human existence are, directly or indirectly, affected by the production, and constant reinvention, of space. Hence, in order to uncover the social determinacy of the spatial, we need to grasp the spatial determinacy of the social, and vice versa. As elucidated in the first section of this chapter, it is worth remembering that, although space can be regarded as a marginal category in classical sociology, Simmel’s work provides useful insights into the spatial constitution of everyday life. As demonstrated in the second section of this chapter, Lefebvre’s writings are based on the assumption that the construction of society is inconceivable without the production of space. As a species, we have learned to shape not only the cultural and economic arrangements of social life, but also the spatial circumstances of our existence. Thus, in order to comprehend how we are embedded in society, we need to understand how we are situated in spatial forms of reality. As emphasized in the third section of this chapter, however, it is vital to be aware of the explanatory limitations of Lefebvre’s approach, in order to avoid painting a simplistic picture of the spatial organization of human societies. Finally, as shown in the fourth section of this chapter, there have been considerable developments in recent sociological studies of space. It is argued that several contemporary social and cultural theorists – as diverse as Urry, Castells, Giddens, Beck, Soja, Massey, Sassen, Harvey and Thrift – share one central conviction: human actors, given that they are bodily entities, will always have a place in space.