1. Production of Space
Chapter 1
Plan of The Present Work
Henri Lefebvre
Deniz Ertürk

2. Theoretical Background
Traditional philosophy of space
• Aristotelian space and time
• Cartesian space, placed in realm of absolute
• Kantian space, seperated from empirical, part of
consciousness realm

3. Theoretical Background
Science of Space - in mathematics
• Appropriation of space and time as abstract language
(curved spaces, non-euclidean spaces, x-dimensional spaces )
• Seperate from physical and social reality
• The problem of transition from mathematical to natural and
social

4. Theoretical Background
Science of Space
• Political use of knowledge
• An ideology concealing that use
• A technological Utopia

5. Theoretical Background
Space and the capitalist hegemony
• Economical power
• Hegemony of a class in the building of society
• Not only violence, but also cultural and intellectual exercise by
politicians, intellectuals...

6. Theoretical Background
Unitary theory of space
• Combination of physical, mental and social
• Defining interrelations
• Considering conflicts

7. Theoretical Background
Division of spaces
• ’The ideal and the real’ each of these two kinds of space
involves, underpins and presupposes the other
Spatial Code and Lefebvre’s System of Space
• The aim is to expose the actual production of space by
unifying various kinds of space together within a single theory.

8. Theoretical Background
Decoding the spaces
• Surrealism, from mental ‘inner world’ to the material realm of
body and the outside world
• Bataille’s tragically apprehended unity of mental, physical and
social
• Lafitte’s ‘mechanology’: consisting of active and passive
machines.

9. Theoretical Background
Fetishization of space in the service of state
• Hegelian space as occupied by the state
• Nietzche’s concept of space consisting both the state and its
negation
• Marxist concept of class struggle

10. • The aim is to detonate the given codes and construct
a new code of space
• Movement from products to production
Proposition:
‘ (Social) space is a (social) product’

11. The illusions that conceal the fact,
‘social space is a social product.’
• illusion of transparency
- a view of space as innocent, as free of traps or secret places
- comprehensible, without obstacles
• the realistic illusion
- 'things' have more of an existence than the 'subject‘

12. Implications of the proposition, ‘social space is a social product’ :
1. Natural space is disappearing
2. Every society, every mode of production, produces its own
space
3. Our knowledge of “space as a product” must be expected to
reproduce and expound the process of production

13. Spatial Triad
• Spatial Practice
- Includes production and reproduction
- Particular locations and spatial sets
- Physical
• Representations of Space
- Conceptualized by planners, scientists
- The ideal space of given system
- Mental
• Representational Space
- Directly lived through its associated images and symbols
- Space of 'inhabitants' and 'users,' but also of some artists
- Combination of mental and physical

14. Spatial Triad
• Spatial Practice
(Perceived)
• Representations of Space
(Conceived)
‘trialectics of spatiality’
The adoption of Lefebvre’s
• Representational Space concept by Edward Soja.
(Gregory, 2000)
(Lived)

15. Implications of the proposition, ‘social space is a social product’ :
4. If space is produced, if there is a productive
process, we are dealing with history. The history of
space and its production.
- Space is reproduced passing from one mode of production
to another.

16. • Absolute Space (concrete)
Physical and natural space including the everyday life.
• Abstract Space
Superstructure of economical and political institutions.

19. Conclusions
• Lefebvre’s system of space sets itself in opposition to
homogenizing efforts of state, politicalpower, world
market (abstract space)
• It implies the mobilization of differences
• He exposes the dynamics of capitalist
commoditization and defines the space as an actively
produced concept by these dynamics

20. References
• Lefebvre, Henri 'Plan of the Present Work' in The Production of Space
(Oxford. Cambridge: Blackwell, 2002) (First published 1974. English
translation first published 1991), pp.: 1-67.
• Gregory, Derek ‘Production of Space’ in The Dictionary of Human
Geography (Blackwell,2000), pp: 644-647,
• Gregory, Derek ‘Trialectics’ in The Dictionary of Human Geography
(Blackwell,2000), pp:776

21. Thanks for listening