This was quite a difficult read by Henri Lefebvre this week. It took me quite a while to go through it and gain a slight grasp of what he is arguing. He creates this notion that there is a tripartite as he calls it - this interconnected triangle that brings together three different notions of "social space": Spatial Practice (the perceived space), Representations of Space (the conceived space), and Representational Space (the lived space).
All of these spaces are interconnected through different means and different aspects of individuals lives. These are also connected by different individuals in places of power, the modes of production, and the individual level. For each of these social spaces there is a lived component as well, which I appreciated because it took the dense theoretics and connected them to living aspects of our lives. This was personally one of my biggest challenges was attempting to connect each aspect of his tripartite to current day, which I hope we can discuss in class about. Through analyzing all of these different aspects, Lefebvre, atleast in my understanding, is attempting to allow us to view space as a different marker, one that is also inherently political. Neil Smith's article we read earlier in the semester was a great connector of how this production of space could be utilized to interpret different actual places.
I struggled with this reading, without a doubt, and I still do not have a solid grasp about what is going on, so I'm looking forward to our discussion where we can unpack this further and gain a better understanding.
Matthew, you have given us a great start on the essay by identifying these three scales of analysis of the perceived, conceived, and lived. We will indeed discuss each of these terms and try to understand which Lefebvre means by each of them. You are right that Lefebvre proposes this method in hopes that space can be understood as inherently political in that it is constructed in and through human social relationships. If space is not neutral, how can we understand its political force upon us, and in turn seek to produce spaces that liberate human potential instead of alienate it?
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