Henri Lefebvre and the Theory of the Production of Space

by Christian Schmid

Overview

Henri Lefebvre’s was the major theorist of space and of the urban. This is the definitive book on Lefebvre.

Shortlisted for the Deutscher Memorial Prize 2023

This book presents an encompassing, detailed and thorough overview and reconstruction of Lefebvre’s theory of space and of the urban.

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.

This book explains in an accessible way the theoretical and epistemological context of this work in French philosophy and in the German dialectic (Hegel, Marx, and Nietzsche), and reconstructs in detail the historical development of its different elements.

It also gives an overview on the receptions of Lefebvre and discusses a wide range of applications of this theory in many research fields, such as urban and regional development, urbanization, urbanity, social space, and everyday life.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781786637000
Publisher:	Verso Books
Publication date:	11/29/2022
Pages:	368
Product dimensions:	6.03(w) x 9.19(h) x 1.46(d)

About the Author

Christian Schmid is a geographer, sociologist and urban researcher, co-authored a pioneering analysis of urbanization (with star-architects Herzog and de Meuron), launched the famous debate on planetary urbanization (with Neil Brenner, Harvard GSD), leads currently a project on the comparison of urbanization processes in 8 metropolises (Future Cities Laboratory Singapore).

Table of Contents

Foreword ix

Introduction xix

Chapter 1 On the Reception of Lefebvre's Theory 1

1.1 The Specificity of the Urban and the Question of Social Space 3

1.2 Critical Urban Theory 13

1.3 Postmodern Geographies 28

1.4 Critical Research with Lefebvre 40

Chapter 2 The Three-Dimensional Dialectic 63

2.1 Henri Lefebvre: L'aventure du siècle 67

2.2 The Concept of Praxis 75

2.3 The Dialectical Movement 87

2.4 Towards a Three-Dimensional Dialectic 101

Chapter 3 Urbanisation and Urban Society 117

3.1 The Critique of Everyday Life 120

3.2 The Complete Urbanisation of Society 132

3.3 The Space-Time Axis of Urbanisation 145

3.4 The Urban Society 156

3.5 The Dialectic of Urbanisation 167

Chapter 4 The Urban Level 185

4.1 The City in an Urbanised World 187

4.2 The Urban Level: Mediation 193

4.3 The General and the Private 200

4.4 The Urban Form: Centrality 213

4.5 The Right to the City 223

4.6 The Dialectic of the Urban 234

Chapter 5 The Production of Space 248

5.1 Space as a Product 250

5.2 Physical, Mental, and Social Space 264

5.3 Perceived Space: Spatial Practice 270

5.4 Conceived Space: The Representation of Space 277

5.5 Lived Space: Spaces of Representation 283

5.6 The Three Dimensions of the Production of Space 292

5.7 The Dialectic of the Production of Space 312

Chapter 6 On the History of Spaces 323

6.1 Space as a Historical Product 326

6.2 Absolute Space 333

6.3 Abstract Space 342

6.4 Differential Space 357

6.5 The Urban as Concrete Utopia 376

6.6 Histories of Urban Spaces 391

Chapter 7 The State and the Commodification of Space 399

7.1 A Political Economy of the Production of Space 403

7.2 Space as Concrete Abstraction 422

7.3 Space and Social Relations 434

7.4 The State and the Act of Exchange 446

7.5 Space, the State, and the Reproduction of Society 455

Chapter 8 A Spatio-Temporal Theory of Society 469

8.1 Spatio-Temporal Dimensions 470

8.2 Spatio-Temporal Levels 479

8.3 Spatio-Temporal Configurations 495

8.4 Staying in Motion 503

Acknowledgements 505

Bibliography 507

Index 543

Editorial Reviews

Christian Schmid’s reception and interpretation of Lefebvre’s oeuvre refers strictly to the French originals and represents the first comprehensive epistemological reconstruction of the theory of the production of space. On that basis many of the previous confusions in the development of a critical spatial theory are clarified. This is where I see the highest significance of this path-breaking publication.”
—Prof. Dr. Benno Werlen, Friedrich Schiller University

“Schmid’s publication is a superb theoretical treatise on Lefebvre, clarifying many common misunderstandings. It is particularly timely for those urban China researchers who are keen to avoid past mistakes of randomly indigenising and appropriating Western concepts and develop locally relevant theories in fruitful conversation with critical urban research.”
—Prof. Dr. Wing-Shing Tang, Hong Kong Baptist University

“Christian Schmid provides us with a wonderfully lucid guide through the complexity and richness of Henri Lefebvre’s oeuvre. Among the many contributions of the book is the powerful new light it sheds on Lefebvre’s spatio-historical and dialectical theory of society. Without question, it opens up vital new possibilities for a renewal of social theory, empirical research and political practice.”
—Gillian Hart

“Christian Schmid’s carefully translated and strategically updated volume offers the most comprehensive reconstruction of Henri Lefebvre’s theory of the production of space available in the English language today. On the basis of an unusually methodical discussion of the various intellectual currents that converge in Henri Lefebvre’s vast life work, Schmid gives us crucial insights about the deeply dynamic and richly multidimensional ways in which space is produced. Henri Lefebvre and the Theory of the Production of Space constitutes mandatory reading for a wide audience ranging from specialists of 20th century social theory to thoughtful political organizers and practitioners of urban research.”
—Stefan Kipfer, Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change, York University

“In this authoritative book, Christian Schmid systematically reconstructs Henri Lefebvre’s theory of space production as a general theory of the urban society. By critically expanding the German-language original, this volume shows both the basis and the outcome of four decades of Schmid’s thinking and studying cities with Lefebvre.”
—Łukasz Stanek, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

“Christian Schmid has written the most meticulous, comprehensive and lucid interpretation of French Marxist philosopher Henri Lefebvre’s incomparable oeuvre on space. Henri Lefebvre and the Theory of the Production of Space is distinguished above all by Schmid’s imaginative grasp of Lefebvre’s dialectical method, especially in exploring spatial mediations of everyday life, state and capital. This book will be essential and exhilarating reading for anyone interested in how space is political.”
—Kanishka Goonewardena, Geography and Planning, University of Toronto

“In an age of planetary urban transformation, crisis and insurgency, Henri Lefebvre’s ideas continue to inspire radical urban research and practice around the world. In this long-awaited translation and elaboration of a work originally published in German over two decades ago, Christian Schmid offers a comprehensive reconstruction and systematic interpretation of Lefebvre’s philosophy of space, framed in direct relation to the challenges of deciphering ongoing patterns and pathways of urban restructuring, their contradictions and their potentialities. In so doing, makes a path-breaking contribution to radical urban theory.”
—Neil Brenner

From the Publisher