Concept Of Social Space Research Articles

Spatial distribution and classification of objectified capital in the Gerês-Xurés Transboundary Biosphere Reserve

Despite its ecological significance and UNESCO Biosphere Reserve status, the Gerês-Xurés Transboundary Biosphere Reserve (GX), spanning the border region between northern Portugal and southern Galicia (Spain), faces increasing socio-environmental challenges. However, existing research rarely addresses the interdependences of the social and physical spaces in peripheral regions of protected natural areas. Drawing on Pierre Bourdieu's concept of social space, this study analyses the spatial distribution and classification of objectified capital footprints in the GX region. The analysis is based on the most recent available data on road networks, nocturnal luminosity, building density, and carbon monoxide emissions (2022–2024), including a longitudinal series for nocturnal radiance (2014–2024). By spatially mapping these variables and integrating spatial quantitative methodologies with ethnographic fieldwork, the study identifies distinct spatial clusters characterized by varying degrees of connectivity, industrialization, and urbanization. The results underscore significant socio-environmental asymmetries and highlight the value of integrating sociological and spatial analyses to link air pollution emissions in physical spaces with competitive dynamics in social spaces. Although currently situated on the periphery of major capital-intensive zones, the GX region is increasingly impacted by tourism-related pressures in some areas, emphasizing the need to reinforce established policy responses.

앙리 르페브르의 사회적 공간과 지역문화재생을 위한 콘텐츠 액티비즘

Henri Lefevre took a sociological look at the traditional concept of space. In his book, The Production of Space, Lefevre did not see space as a physical place. Instead, he saw it as a social product under the concept of social space, and focused on the interdynamic relationship between space and society. He saw space as a product with a totality, not just a product of nature or a simple phenomenon of culture, but a product that refers to a set of relationships, a product that intervenes in production through interactions and reactions. He saw space as capable of connecting the social, cultural, spiritual, and historical. The space targeted in cultural regeneration is an idle space, and it is a space where social activities can no longer be carried out according to its purpose, and by incorporating the method of regeneration into it, it is connected to overcome spatial alienation and emphasize differences through creative development so that its existence can be recognized. Space is a social product, and community. Cultural regeneration is not just about building infrastructure or applying various contents that utilize space, but it is a process of forming a web of meaningful relationships with the people who share their daily lives there. Community cultural regeneration is sustainable when it creates a sense of place and engages local people in direct action throughout the entire process of strategy and practice, and when it includes motivation to continue working together. In order to be successful, local cultural regeneration in social spaces needs to be actively and sustainably organized around contents. Contents activism, a process in which everyone involved in a place participates in the process of creating new value around content and leads to greater cooperation, can create the most important value that can increase the sustainability of local cultural regeneration.

Social spaces: from Georg Simmel to Erving Goffman

Focusing on the concept of social space in the writings of three sociologists, Georg Simmel, Robert E. Park, and Erving Goffman, this article examines the classic theoretical formulations of social spaces in the tradition of the Chicago School of Sociology. For Simmel and the Chicago School, the foundation of social spaces lies in the social interactions among actors, and social entities and structures emerge from these interaction processes. This theoretical tradition emphasizes the interdependence of physical space and social space, highlighting two featured assumptions about social space: endogeneity and temporality. It also focuses on the relationship between spaces and human emotions.

Elogio da “construção densa”

Building on my book The Poverty of the Ethnography of Poverty ([2023]2025), I make the case for “thick construction” as a rationalist approach to framing and conducting ethnography. Infused by Pierre Bourdieu’s sociological epistemology, thick construction is a “construction squared,” that is, a scientific (analytic) construction of an ordinary (folk) construction. Anchored by the concept of social space, thick construction aims to dodge the danger of “ethnographism,” the tendency to want to describe, interpret and explain a phenomenon based solely on the elements discerned through fieldwork. It allows us to avoid committing one or another of the five organic fallaciesof participant observation: interactionism, inductivism, populism, presentism and the hermeneutic drift. I diagram how thick description, grounded theory, the extended-case method, abductive theorizing and thick construction configure the duet of theory and observation. Eschewing the false opposition between concept and percept, thick construction aims to build heuristics for fabricating new objects. In this approach, contrary to conventional views, theory is not the haughty master but the humble servant of empirical research as approximation of the real

Support for eco-social policy from a class perspective: Responsibilities, redistribution, regulation and rights

The political agenda of eco-social policy seeks to create synergies between social justice and ecological goals, such as mitigating climate change. While the concept already has a strong theoretical foundation, and many concrete policy instruments have been proposed, support for eco-social policy is still insufficient to mobilize political action. We assume that one cause of this lack of action are the diverging interests and ideologies of different classes. In this article we apply a class perspective and conduct an empirical study to explore class support for and opposition to eco-social policy. We use data from a representative survey in Germany and identify nine class fractions, based on Bourdieu's concept of social space. We first compare the carbon footprints of the classes, to determine their varying degrees of responsibility for supporting political efforts to mitigate climate change. We then compare class support for eco-social policy, considering the dimensions of redistribution, regulation and rights. We find that the economic upper class – a fraction equating closely with the ruling class – and the old working class oppose eco-social policy the most. The cultural upper class are the strongest proponents of eco-social policy. The lower-class fractions showed considerable concern about the costs associated with eco-social policy. We conclude that a stronger focus on the social justice element when designing and advocating for eco-social policy could lead to greater support from the lower classes and help to build eco-social welfare states that offer protection in times of increasing social and ecological risks.

Broken Compass: A Screenplay Exploring Economic Inequality in Indonesia’s Education System

Good quality education should be accessible to everyone, regardless of their economic status. Unfortunately, often better education in Indonesia comes with a heavy price tag that eliminates working class people from accessing it. This thesis attempts to find out why the working class people are economically discriminated and how they face the discrimination. Using screenplay and young adult dystopian genre, this thesis tries to show the side effects of said economic inequality if taken to the extreme. With Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of school as cultural reproduction, the working class students, including the protagonist Thalia, are discriminated against because they are seen as threats to their resources. To reciprocate, Thalia challenges the system, which sparks a rebellion inside the school. The worldbuilding aspect of the genre is based on Pierre Bourdieu's concepts of social space, capitals, and agency. Thalia from the working class utilizes her agency to face the discrimination.

Researching high-skilled migrants between social stratification and methodological nationalism

Methodological nationalism as a critique of container-based and nation-state-focused theory and empirical research is currently strongly anchored within migration studies, where it was initially developed. While this has led to extensive literature and critical engagement with methodological nationalism, and ways to circumvent the national trap in many (sub-)disciplines, it has not much penetrated theories of social stratification. This conceptual paper will address this gap by discussing the social positioning of high-skilled migrants in contemporary stratified societies. This exemplary discussion will bring together a critical perspective of methodological nationalism on class and milieu theory. It will also confront the critique of methodological nationalism with the question of the origin of social power and dominance, which are the foundation of stratification theories. This article will specifically draw on Pierre Bourdieu's concept of social space and its derivative. Emphasis will also be given to Michael Vester's development of social milieu to highlight blind spots according to the critique of methodological nationalism. This paper shows that these theories have not grasped high-skilled migration thoroughly. It also outlines that migrant theories and their critique of methodological nationalism inadequately address the source of symbolic hierarchy and the formation of social stratification. Thus, both theoretical strands would benefit from a deeper conversation with each other.

A new multidimensional approach to measuring the middle class dynamics: evidence from Morocco

PurposeThis paper aims to propose a dynamic multidimensional approach to identify the middle class and then to reliably study the structural changes that have marked it in terms of demographic and socioeconomic characteristics and aspirations.Design/methodology/approachThis study uses Moroccan data from the 2007 and 2014 household expenditure surveys. The method consists in applying a factor analysis of mixed data on a set of variables inspired by Bourdieu’s concepts of social space and forms of capital, then performing a hierarchical ascending classification consolidated by the k-means clustering, along with adopting the same indicators and weighting for both years studied to ensure reliable comparison.FindingsThe classification results identified three social classes whose changing size reveals a decline of the lower class and an expansion of the upper and middle classes. Some characteristics of the middle class are becoming close to those of the upper class, like fertility behavior, while a significant gap remains between the two classes in other characteristics, like education. Moreover, middle-class perceptions reflect their downgrading, confirming that the so-called decline of the middle class is more related to feelings than to objective realities.Originality/valueMiddle class studies are generally based on a single criterion (income or consumption) with somewhat arbitrary boundaries that are often ill-suited to developing countries. This paper proposes a new dynamic multidimensional approach to overcome these problems while adopting a new technique for reliable intertemporal comparisons.

Poker faces and smooth operators: The social space for women professionals in the Finnish screen industry in financing negotiations

The article examines the positions of professional women in negotiations for early development in Finnish film and television production. According to recent studies, closed evaluation practices exclude women professionals and narrow the diversity of women’s representations and narratives on screen. We argue that women in the Finnish screen industry encounter prolonged psychological and economic constraints during their active careers. We analyse the qualitative data of 40 active professional women using Pierre Bourdieu’s concepts of social space and symbolic power. We find that gender-based economic harm is constructed and implemented in the discourses of the institutionalized undervaluation of professional women’s work. Three recurring discourses shape the practice of decision-making in early development and position women professionals on the margins of the social space of the Finnish screen industry. The analysis illustrates the construction of gendered symbolic power in the Finnish screen industry that can be developed and applied to other national contexts.

The Concepts of Social Space and Social Value: An Interpretation of Clinical Nursing Practice in Vietnam

This research draws on broader inquiry that explores the construction of the spatial positioning of nurses in Vietnam and how power structures sustained that positioning. Observations and individual interviews were undertaken with 32 registered nurses. Analysis of participant data and relevant policy documents moved beyond coding to theorising and thus to the abstraction of key concepts. Social space and social value were significant concepts developed in the research. The concept of space reflected the ways in which nurses constantly engaged in processes of negotiation to embed a sense of control over their practice. The related concept of social value brought focus to a power structure whereby the fiscal priorities of health care managers reinforced a disconnect between the use and exchange values of nurses. An interpretation of power relations that underpinned the material and symbolic spaces in which nurses worked was framed within the historical context of Vietnam.

Коммуникативные практики торгового пространства: эволюция и виды

The paper provides analysis of communicative practices that arise in the trading space from antiquity to the present. The exchange of goods and products has commutative nature, and is the basis of society formation and existence. The methodological basis was informed by G. Simmel's concepts of social space and its evolution, P. Bourdieu's theory of habitus, the theory of distancing of the Chicago school, P. Sorokin's social hierarchy, as well as the concept of zoning by E. Giddens and “presentation of self in everyday life” by E. Goffman. The author comes to conclusion that the evolution of communicative practices has witnessed different shifts from the direct interpersonal interaction inherent in the first trading spaces — open markets of antiquity, the Middle Ages and flea markets of our time, within the public space; — to interpersonal direct interaction within the framework of medieval private shops and small shops emerging in separate urban areas, where trade is based on close relationships and personal acquaintance between the seller and the buyer; — to impersonal mediated interaction in retail spaces, from the second half of the 19th century to the present, when the seller's personality fades into the background and becomes invisible. Communication takes place with things, shop windows, counters, and the moments of visiting stores are aimed not only at making a purchase, but also for entertainment, walks and games.

A Perpetuity of Lesser Emptiness: The Social Space of the Postcolonial Small Town and Vinod Kumar Shukla’s Naukar kī kamīz

The article provides an analysis of the spatial configuration of the Hindi novel Naukar kī kamīz by Vinod Kumar Shukla (translated into English as The Servant’s Shirt). In highlighting the argumentative and structural similarities between the content of the novel and various concepts of social space and literary spatiality developed by Catherine Régulier, Henri Lefebrve, Edward Soja, Mikhail Bakhtin, and others, the article proposes to read the novel not only as a rare example of a detailed engagement with the social space of a postcolonial small town, but also as a text that provides a useful method and indeed a theory for the analysis of such a small town and its literary representation.

O mercado de games: Gênese, transformações e tendências

Games fazem parte da indústria cultural multibilionária, possuindo, portanto, relevância econômica e social. Neste ensaio, buscamos realizar uma sociogênese da indústria de games, ancorada nos conceitos de espaço social e campo, a partir de diversos autores, com destaque para Pierre Bourdieu. Com recorte temporal, feito entre os anos 1940 até o momento atual, início da segunda década do século 21, mostramos o fato de que esse espaço social vem sendo reconfigurado, devido às inovações advindas de campos sociais vizinhos, como os da indústria de eletroeletrônicos, informática, telecomunicações e jogos de azar. Tais reconfigurações implicam em rearranjos de posições de agentes, criação de estruturas institucionais e estabelecimento de relações sociais diversas. Por fim, tecemos as considerações pertinentes ao futuro dessa indústria.

ВИЗУАЛЬНОСТЬ ГОРОДА В ВЫСОТНОЙ ФОТОГРАФИИ РУФЕРОВ

The article examines the representation of the city in rooftopping photography. Methodologically, the research is based on A. Lefebvre’s concept of social space, and also M. de Certeau’s concept of spatial practices as agents of its production. The principal notions in this analytical framework employed in the article are the urban imaginary and the gaze in constructivist understanding, which not only reflects, but also forms the object of vision. Rooftopping photography is considered in the context of the history of the view of the city from above, which has become an important factor in the urban imagination. The expansion of rooftopping photography into the public space and the presentation of cities is associated with the development of new communication and optical representation technologies in the 2010s. The analysis of the rooftoppers’ visualizing of the city carried out in semantic, aesthetic and rhetorical aspects revealed its substantive and aesthetic qualities. Rooftoppers photos capture the moment when a person faces the city as a whole. The city converges with natural and landscape objects. In the night panoramas that make up the bulk of roofer photography, the city is represented as a space of energy flows. In rhetorical terms, in contrast to the metonymy of a promenade, roofer photography is metaphorical. In general, it is concluded that the subject of rooftopper photography is not so much the identity of the city as its universal urban beginning embodied in the centers of the world’s megalopolises. Following D. Nye and his interpreters, the aesthetic mode of the city in roofer visuality is interpreted as urban version of the sublime.

СИМВОЛІЧНЕ НАСИЛЬСТВО У СОЦІАЛЬНІЙ ТЕОРІЇ П'ЄРА БУРДЬЄ: РЕЦЕПЦІЯ В РЕЛІГІЙНІЙ СФЕРІ

The purpose of the article is to uncover the potential of symbolic violence in the religious sphere on the basis of an analysis of P. Bourdieu's social space concept. The achievement of the goal involves solutions for the following tasks: a) to determine the peculiarities of the rivalry of religious relations subjects for domination in the religious field; b) to find out the impact specifics of the symbolic resource depending on the religious interests and needs of individuals. The theoretical basis of the study is based on P. Bourdieu's concept of social space, which is built around the triad "field" – "capital" – "habitus". The basis of symbolic violence in the religious field is, on the one hand, the competition for monopoly on symbolic capital, on the other, the laity's demand for religious needs and the supply of capital by religious instances – individuals or instituts. Religious habitus determines the nature, form and effectiveness of strategies that may involve religious authorities to the activities distribution for the satisfaction of their own religious interests. The scientific novelty of the results obtained is the understanding of the rivalry of agents of the religious field for the possession of symbolic capital as a struggle for recognition by other entities, as well as by laity as consumers of religious services. Social recognition is seen as a vital need of individuals, rooted in the intersubjective conditions of their activity and dependent on the approving reactions of an entourage. Within the religious field, symbolic violence unfolds depending on the individuals' or instituts' position in the structure of the religious power distribution, as well as the nature of competition for the monopoly on the production and disposal of religious capital. Religious capital acts as a tool of domination, which allows to commit symbolic violence in the religious sphere by imposing senses, meanings, norms, rules. Consequently, practices of symbolic violence function in the form of introducing into the habitus of individuals perceptions of the social world based on religious values. The rivalry of participants in the struggle for monopoly ownership of symbolic capital in the religious field of – a "church", a "prophet" and a "sorcerer" – is accompanied by the establishment of religious pluralism and a free "religions market".

Space­time coordinates of society: accessible and inaccessible time

The article is devoted to the analysis of prospects for a sociological study of the space­time coordinates of society. The philosophical interpretation of the categories “time” and “space” are considered in the framework of German ide- alism. The transition of I. Kant’s transcendental ideas to sociology is represented. The origin of the concepts of social space and social time is considered in the framework of the research program of E. Durkheim. Attention is focused on the study of social time in the works of P. Sorokin, R. Merton, P. Shtompka, E. Zerubavel. The dichotomy of astronomical and social time is considered as a point of problematization in sociological research. This dichotomy seems to be insufficiently correct, because the astronomical concept of time does not reflect “objective time”, but acts as a generally accepted scale, according to which people correlate their actions. In order to avoid terminological inaccuracy, it is proposed to distinguish the following categories: “time” as a meta­phenomenon that permeates all spheres of reality; “time scale” as a universal measuring con- struct; “temporary regularity” as the rhythm of events. The productivity of using the category “temporality” in the analysis of social phenomena is justified in the article.

El proyecto de espaciología de Henri Lefebvre

Este artículo parte de la consideración del concepto de “espacio social” como clave constructiva, comprensiva e interpretativa del conjunto de la obra de Henri Lefebvre. Por consiguiente, se expone la genealogía del proyecto lefebvriano de “espaciología” (o análisis de la producción social del espacio social) y su importancia para el pensamiento crítico contemporáneo. A la par, se esclarece el fuerte ascendiente que tienen los planes de la crítica de la economía política, de Marx, en la pregunta lefebvriana por el espacio social y, consecuentemente, en la cuestión del desafío histórico que implica el dominio capitalista del espacio y las posibilidades de su emancipación. Finalmente, se caracteriza el alcance de la determinación nodal del concepto lefebvriano de espacio social: la “reproducción de las relaciones sociales de producción”. Ideas destacadas: artículo de reflexión que presenta avances de una investigación doctoral sobre el concepto de espacio social, de Henri Lefebvre, y el proyecto lefebvriano de una “espaciología” o analítica del espacio social y de su producción.

SABERES, TRAJETÓRIAS E ESPAÇO SOCIAL: cartografia da alteridade e etnografia reflexiva entre comunidades quilombolas

A pesquisa a priori se propôs realizar um esboço etnográfico das quatro comunidades quilombolas no médio sertão maranhense, atentando para os elementos intrínsecos da produção de conhecimentos. Como suporte metodológico, as interlocuções seguiram pelo viés dos estudos que privilegiam as alteridades e os saberes locais como pressupostos analíticos fundamentais. Nessa perspectiva, procuramos nos afastar da maioria dos estudos voltados para comunidades quilombolas que trazem como abordagem central, as lutas fundiárias, o reconhecimento por direitos, no entanto, compreendemos que essas abordagens são fundamentais como marco de compreensão das lutas políticas. As comunidades quilombolas aqui pesquisadas somente foram certificadas pela Fundação Palmares no ano 2006, porém há mais de meio século essas comunidades mantém entre si relações de sociabilidade e intercâmbios culturais. Não obstante, a nossa busca de conhecimento está pautada nos saberes, nas trajetórias e nas concepções de espaço social (território) referenciado na alteridade. Dessa forma, procuraremos captar os processos de criatividade cosmopolítica, sociocosmológica e antropológica, dando ênfase para as suas próprias elaboração e construção de conceitos. Para esse fim, o trabalho de campo foi um instrumental metodológico de suma importância, aliado a outras metodologias, por exemplo, a história oral, a etnohistória e os cuidados com a linguagem local, elementos fundamentais inerentes às ciências sociais. Palavras-chave: Quilombolas, Cosmopolítica, médio sertão maranhense.

"Upoután vozíkový": absence zdvořilé nevšímavosti jako bariéra při pohybu prostorem uživatelů a uživatelek elektrických vozíků

The article is based on disability geography and draws on the social-geographic conception of relational space, which is perceived as being constantly created, never finished, heterogeneous, and embodied, and not a space that is given and everywhere the same. It offers a specific way of linking the discursive and material dimensions of disability, which intersect in the concept of social space, and refers to Lefebvre's trialectics of production - spatial practices, the representation of space, and spaces of representations. To analyse the mutual production of social space and social bodies, we use Goffman's concept of civil inattention. We ask how such social practices as gazing, addressing, asking, or dodging that co-create the social space of electric wheelchair users influence their movement through material space, and through the spatial reactions of wheelchair users responding to unwanted attention we trace the homogenisation and differentiation of space. The text is based on a long-term study (2010-2018) of the temporal/spatial behaviour of five electric wheelchair users (four men and one woman) diagnosed with muscular dystrophy who live in the City of Brno.

Steps toward a theory of place effects on drug use: Risk, marginality, and opportunity in small and remote California towns

Steps toward a theory of place effects on drug use: Risk, marginality, and opportunity in small and remote California towns