Sociology of space

The sociology of space is a branch of sociology that deals with the spatial relatedness of society. The emergence of spaces through social action is in this case as well as the dependence of action of analyzing spatial structures.

History

The category of the area played a minor role (see Schroer 2006) in sociological theorizing long time. Only in the 1990s, the understanding prevailed that certain social changes without increased attention to the spatial component of life can not be satisfactorily explained. This change of perspective is called " topological turn". Using the concept of space back organizational forms of co-existence in the view. Attention is focused on the difference between points and their mutual influences. This applies equally to the micro- spaces of everyday life like for the nation-state or global macro space.

Theoretical Basis for the increasing social-scientific study of the area were primarily approaches from the French- and English-speaking sociology, philosophy and human geography. These are, in particular, Michel Foucault's essay on "Other Spaces " (1967), in which the author the "age of the room exclaims" and Henri Lefebvre's influential magazine " La production de l' espace " (1974). The latter formed the basis of the Marxist theory of space that has been developed among others by David Harvey, Manuel Castells and Edward Soja on. The Marxist theories of space, emanating from a structural, ie, capitalist or global determinacy of spaces and a growing homogenization of the room, face action-theoretical concepts which the importance of the physical placing and the perception of spaces as though habitually pre-stamped, but subjective construction performance emphasize. An example of this is the spatial theory of Martina Löw ( 2001). In addition, experience in recent years approaches that connect it to the post-colonial discourse, a greater attention. Emphasize Also in delineation of (neo - ) Marxist concepts of space, for example, Doreen Massey (1999a / b ) or Helmuth Berking (1998), the heterogeneity of local contexts and the territorial nature of our knowledge about the world.

Absolutist and relativistic concepts of space

Based on the historical controversy over the spatial thinking in philosophy and physics, the distinction between " absolutist " and " relativist " models of thought has prevailed in social science literature. Absolutist thinking models design space as a neutral vessel or territory and are referred to as a container or container space concepts. Space as a vessel or territory can either be empty ( and even then still exist, if it is empty ), or arbitrarily filled with people, things, spheres or properties (which he, however, does not change ). It is crucial that space and matter are thought to be independent of each other. Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker (1986 ) counts, for example, Claudius Ptolemy, Nicolaus Copernicus, Galileo Galilei and Isaac Newton to this tradition. Applied to the sociology closes this dualism of space and bodies adopting a that space exists independently of the action. That is the logic of the container space, there are actions moving in or on a stationary se ( background ) space. This approach confronts the " relativistic " tradition, is derived in the room from the arrangement of moving bodies. Space is seen relativistic solely the result of relationship relationships between bodies, a position that represented in physics, for example, Nicholas of Cusa, Robert Bellarmine, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz and Ernst Mach. Sociologically speaking, this means that space is made procedurally in action. Relativistic models acknowledge the relationship or aspect of an action a primary role, but neglect the structuring moments existing spatial orders.

Duality of space

With the aim of overcoming the divisions of space theoretical thinking in absolutist and relativist positions, Martina Löw developed the idea of ​​a " relational " space model. The relational approach is focusing on the " (An) Orders" ( Loew 2001) of living beings and social goods and investigates how space is produced in perception, memory or imagination processes and manifests itself as a social structure. The notation ( An) combines order "order" (structural dimension spaces are ordered ) and " arrangement " (action dimension spaces are the result of a process of arranging ). Social theory, it connects to the Theory of Structuration by Anthony Giddens (1988 ), whose concept space sociologically extended the " duality of structure " Martina Löw to a " duality of space ". The basic idea is that individuals act as social actors ( while spaces are established), but their action depends on economic, legal, social, cultural, and ultimately spatial structures. Rooms are thus the result of actions. At the same structure spaces actions, that is, spaces can limit actions as well as enable.

With regard to the constitution of space Loew differs analytically two are usually mutually dependent processes: the "Spacing " and the " synthesis performance." The Spacing refers to the act of placing or the Platziertsein of social goods and people in places. As space effectively is one created on placements ( An) order according to Loew, however, only the fact that the elements of (An) are actively linked by humans and order via perception, imagination or memory processes. Loew calls this synthetic capacity. Empirically tested this concept was, inter alia, (who studied the constitution of space processes in everyday German Finance Manager in London and Singapore, see Meier 2009) in studies of Lars Meier, Cedric Janowicz ( who performed an ethnographic space sociological study for the food supplies of the Ghanaian city of Accra, cf Janowicz. 2008) and Silke Steets ( which dealt with space constitution making in Leipzig creative industries, see Steets 2008).

Marxist approaches

Most important driving force of the Marxist theory of space was Henri Lefebvre, who developed his findings on the basis of an analysis of the Fordist capitalist space of modernity. The social production of space arises Lefebvre ago as a dialectic interaction of three factors. Space created by

• The " spatial practice," thus space as it is reproduced in daily life,
• The "representation of the area ", that is, space as it is developed cognitive and
• Through the "spaces of representation " which Lefebvre complex symbolization and imagination rooms says.

The result of the production of space - so Lefebvre diagnosis for the 1970s - is a term coined by alienation of the non-reflexive space everyday, dominated by mathematical and abstract concepts of space and will be reproduced in the spatial practice. A line of flight out of the alienated space looks Lefebvre in the spaces of representation, so the ideas of non-alienated, mythical, pre-modern and artistic interior designs.

A significant development experiences the Marxist theory of space, especially through the work of David Harvey, who for the impact of the transition from Fordism to " flexible accumulation " on the experience of space and time interested in ( 1989). It shows how broken up through various innovations on economic and technological level, the crisis -inducing rigidity of Fordist system, and so the rate at which the capital is increased. This makes it come to a general acceleration of economic cycles. The result sees Harvey in a so-called "time -space compression". While lost on the level of time the sense of long-term, for the future, for continuity go, is becoming increasingly difficult to determine at the level of the area, the ratio of near and far.

Postcolonial theories of space

Theories of space, inspired by the post-colonial discourse, the focus to the heterogeneity of rooms. Doreen Massey writes that, for example, not in relation to a country in Africa makes sense to speak of a "developing country" could be because spatial differences as the time difference would be interpreted in this manner of speech ( Massey 1999b ). A country in Africa appears in this logic is not different but just as an early version of a country of the "developed " world, what they deciphered as " Eurocentrism ". This Picking up criticized Helmuth Berking theories that claim an increasing homogenization of the world through processes of globalization, as " Globozentrismus ". He juxtaposes this difference and the importance of local knowledge stocks for the production of ( different and each specific ) locations. Local contexts form according to him, a kind of framework or filter ever be appropriated through which global processes and globally circulating images and symbols, and so gain importance. Thus, the film character Conan the Barbarian in the right-wing circles of the Federal Republic was another figure than in the black ghetto of Chicago's Southside, just like McDonald's in Moscow means something different than in Paris.