Social space
Encyclopedia
A social space is physical or virtual space such as a social center
, Facebook
, or other gathering place
where people gather and interact. Some social spaces such as town square
s or park
s are public places; others such as pubs, website
s. or shopping mall
s are privately owned and regulated.
Henri Lefebvre
emphasised that in human society all 'space is social: it involves assigning more or less appropriated places to social relations....social space has thus always been a social product'.
Social space becomes thereby a metaphor for the very experience of social life - 'society experienced alternatively as a deterministic environment or force (milieu) and as our very element or beneficent shell (ambience)'. In this sense 'social space spans the dichotomy between "public" and "private" space...is also linked to subjective and phenomenological
space'.
For Lefebvre, 'the family, the school, the workplace, the church, and so on - each posseses an "appropriate" space...for a use specified within the social division of labor'. Within such social spaces 'a system of "adapted" expectations and responses - rarely articulated as such because they seem obvious - acquire a quasi-natural self-evidence in everyday life and common sense': thus everybody consensually 'knows what he is talking about when he refers to the town hall, the post office, the police station, the grocery store, the bus and the train, train stations, and bistros' - all underlying aspects of 'a social space as such. an (artificial) edifice of hierarchically ordered institutions, of laws and conventions'.
The interaction of different levels may be symbiotic or it may be conflictual: as a Michigan cabinet member put it to two Southern colleagues shortly before the American Civil War
, '"I see how it is; you are a Virginian and you are a South Carolinian; I am not a Michigander, I am an American"'.
For the individual, as well as the social institution, different levels of social space come to the fore at different times. To a Britisher, for example, '"we" sometimes narrows to southern England, sometimes broadens to refer to "Britain and America" or "Europe" or "the west"'. In precisely the same way, 'a resident of Rome may define himself with varying degress of intensity as a Roman, an Italian, a Catholic, a Christian, a European, a Westerner' - a sequence of stratified social spaces.
increasingly tears space away from place'. Whereas in the premodern 'every thing has its assigned place in social space', postmodernists would proudly proclaim that 'we need to substitute for the magisterial space of the past...a less upright, less Euclidean space where no one would ever be in his final place '.
The way 'migration, seen as a metaphor, is everywhere' in postmodernity - 'we are migrants and perhaps hybrids, in but not of any situation in which we find ourselves' - is rooted in the postmodern forms of production of social space.
Lefebvre considered globalization
as the creation, and superimposition on nature, of 'worldwide-social space...with strong points (the centers) and weaker and dominated bases (the peripheries
)'.
The madman, by contrast, is not 'someone to be counted on to know his place': in many ways, 'mental symptoms are wilful situational improprieties'. Whereas in 'public and semi-public places - streets, shops, neighbourhoods, public transportation, and the like -...a fine mesh of obligations obtains which ensures the orderly traffic and co-mingling of participants...many classic symptoms of psychosis
are precise and pointed violations of these territorial arrangements'.
Lacan
considered that 'it would be worthwhile mapping the places in social space that our culture has assigned to these [psychotic] subjects', and saw their difficulties as in part 'the effects of the breakdown produced by the symbolic discordances that characterize the complex structures of civilization': what Goffman termed '"The Insanity of Place"'.
Social center
Social centers are community spaces. They are buildings which are used for a range of disparate activities, which can be linked only by virtue of being not-for-profit. They might be organizing centers for local activities or they might provide support networks for minority groups such as prisoners...
Facebook
Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
, or other gathering place
Gathering place
A gathering place is any place where people are able to congregate. Gathering places may be public; for example, city streets, town squares, and parks; or private; for example, churches, coffee shops, stadiums, and theaters....
where people gather and interact. Some social spaces such as town square
Town square
A town square is an open public space commonly found in the heart of a traditional town used for community gatherings. Other names for town square are civic center, city square, urban square, market square, public square, and town green.Most town squares are hardscapes suitable for open markets,...
s or park
Park
A park is a protected area, in its natural or semi-natural state, or planted, and set aside for human recreation and enjoyment, or for the protection of wildlife or natural habitats. It may consist of rocks, soil, water, flora and fauna and grass areas. Many parks are legally protected by...
s are public places; others such as pubs, website
Website
A website, also written as Web site, web site, or simply site, is a collection of related web pages containing images, videos or other digital assets. A website is hosted on at least one web server, accessible via a network such as the Internet or a private local area network through an Internet...
s. or shopping mall
Shopping mall
A shopping mall, shopping centre, shopping arcade, shopping precinct or simply mall is one or more buildings forming a complex of shops representing merchandisers, with interconnecting walkways enabling visitors to easily walk from unit to unit, along with a parking area — a modern, indoor version...
s are privately owned and regulated.
Henri Lefebvre
Henri Lefebvre
Henri Lefebvre was a French sociologist, Marxist intellectual, and philosopher, best known for his work on dialectics, Marxism, everyday life, cities, and space.-Biography:...
emphasised that in human society all 'space is social: it involves assigning more or less appropriated places to social relations....social space has thus always been a social product'.
Social space becomes thereby a metaphor for the very experience of social life - 'society experienced alternatively as a deterministic environment or force (milieu) and as our very element or beneficent shell (ambience)'. In this sense 'social space spans the dichotomy between "public" and "private" space...is also linked to subjective and phenomenological
Phenomenology (psychology)
Phenomenology is an approach to psychological subject matter that has its roots in the philosophical work of Edmund Husserl. Early phenomenologists such as Husserl, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Maurice Merleau-Ponty conducted their own psychological investigations in the early 20th century...
space'.
As metaphor
As metaphor, 'social space contributes a relational rather than an abstract dimension...has received a large variety of attributes, interpretations, and metaphors'. Such 'social space...i[s] an intricate space of obligations, duties, entitlements, prohibitions, debts, affections, insults, allies, contracts, enemies, infatuations, compromises, mutual love, legitimate expectations, and collective ideals'.For Lefebvre, 'the family, the school, the workplace, the church, and so on - each posseses an "appropriate" space...for a use specified within the social division of labor'. Within such social spaces 'a system of "adapted" expectations and responses - rarely articulated as such because they seem obvious - acquire a quasi-natural self-evidence in everyday life and common sense': thus everybody consensually 'knows what he is talking about when he refers to the town hall, the post office, the police station, the grocery store, the bus and the train, train stations, and bistros' - all underlying aspects of 'a social space as such. an (artificial) edifice of hierarchically ordered institutions, of laws and conventions'.
Morphology
Defining a stratified morphology as a series of 'discrete units embedded within one another in a definite order', one can see that a distinct 'morphology exists in social space - from the "room" or hut to the house and the building; from the building to the group of houses, to the village and the neighbourhood; from the neighbourhood to the city, the region, the nation, and the State...continent [&] planet'.The interaction of different levels may be symbiotic or it may be conflictual: as a Michigan cabinet member put it to two Southern colleagues shortly before the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
, '"I see how it is; you are a Virginian and you are a South Carolinian; I am not a Michigander, I am an American"'.
For the individual, as well as the social institution, different levels of social space come to the fore at different times. To a Britisher, for example, '"we" sometimes narrows to southern England, sometimes broadens to refer to "Britain and America" or "Europe" or "the west"'. In precisely the same way, 'a resident of Rome may define himself with varying degress of intensity as a Roman, an Italian, a Catholic, a Christian, a European, a Westerner' - a sequence of stratified social spaces.
Pre/postmodern space
'In premodern societies, space and place largely coincided....ModernityModernity
Modernity typically refers to a post-traditional, post-medieval historical period, one marked by the move from feudalism toward capitalism, industrialization, secularization, rationalization, the nation-state and its constituent institutions and forms of surveillance...
increasingly tears space away from place'. Whereas in the premodern 'every thing has its assigned place in social space', postmodernists would proudly proclaim that 'we need to substitute for the magisterial space of the past...a less upright, less Euclidean space where no one would ever be in his final place '.
The way 'migration, seen as a metaphor, is everywhere' in postmodernity - 'we are migrants and perhaps hybrids, in but not of any situation in which we find ourselves' - is rooted in the postmodern forms of production of social space.
Lefebvre considered globalization
Globalization
Globalization refers to the increasingly global relationships of culture, people and economic activity. Most often, it refers to economics: the global distribution of the production of goods and services, through reduction of barriers to international trade such as tariffs, export fees, and import...
as the creation, and superimposition on nature, of 'worldwide-social space...with strong points (the centers) and weaker and dominated bases (the peripheries
Periphery countries
In World Systems Theory, the periphery countries are those that are less developed than the semi-periphery and core countries. These countries usually receive a disproportionately small share of global wealth. They have weak state institutions and are dependent on – according to some, exploited...
)'.
The insanity of place
Education, formal and informal, might be described as in large part a process whereby the new recruit to the human race 'must learn to represent the many dimensions of the local social space...through the veil of degraded inputs, chronic ambiguity, and the occasional deliberate deception'. Faced with such intricacies, R. D. Laing concluded that 'it is just as well that man is a social animal, since the sheer complexity and contradiction of the social field in which he has to live is so formidable'.The madman, by contrast, is not 'someone to be counted on to know his place': in many ways, 'mental symptoms are wilful situational improprieties'. Whereas in 'public and semi-public places - streets, shops, neighbourhoods, public transportation, and the like -...a fine mesh of obligations obtains which ensures the orderly traffic and co-mingling of participants...many classic symptoms of psychosis
Psychosis
Psychosis means abnormal condition of the mind, and is a generic psychiatric term for a mental state often described as involving a "loss of contact with reality"...
are precise and pointed violations of these territorial arrangements'.
Lacan
Lacan
Lacan is surname of:* Jacques Lacan , French psychoanalyst and psychiatrist** The Seminars of Jacques Lacan** From Bakunin to Lacan: Anti-Authoritarianism and the Dislocation of Power, a book on political philosophy by Saul Newman** Lacan at the Scene* Judith Miller, née Lacan...
considered that 'it would be worthwhile mapping the places in social space that our culture has assigned to these [psychotic] subjects', and saw their difficulties as in part 'the effects of the breakdown produced by the symbolic discordances that characterize the complex structures of civilization': what Goffman termed '"The Insanity of Place"'.
Cultural examples
- In Pride and Prejudice, Darcy is initially riven with 'uncertainty as to whether he can bring himself to cross the great social space which, as he sees it (he is still proud), separates Elizabeth from himself'.
- In 'postmodern art...a cubist painting presents multiple perspectives simultaneously,fracturing "space" and literally requiring any single spectator to be in several different places at once...this postmodern crisis of subjectivity'.
- 'Lefebvre suggests that art may come to be defined "less as a code of space than as a code of representational spaces"' - 'the space of representations and the representation of space...a mental space ' which both reflects and interacts with social space.
See also
Further reading
- Desmond Morris, Manwatching (London 1987)
- Henry Lefebvre, The Production of Space (1991)
- Alfred Schutz, The Phenomenology of the Social World (Illinois 1997)