scholarly journals Sustainability and Metabolic Revolution in the Works of Henri Lefebvre

World ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 300-317
Author(s):  
Brian M. Napoletano ◽  
Brett Clark ◽  
John Bellamy Foster ◽  
Pedro S. Urquijo
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
Cooperative Control ◽  
First Century ◽  
Valuable Insight ◽  
Henri Lefebvre ◽  
Production Of Space ◽  
Metabolic Rift ◽  
Social Ecological ◽  
Sustainable Human Development ◽  
The Right

Humanity’s present social–ecological metabolic configuration is not sustainable, and the need for a radical transformation of society to address its metabolic rifts with the rest of nature is increasingly apparent. The work of French Marxist Henri Lefebvre, one of the few thinkers to recognize the significance of Karl Marx’s theory of metabolic rift prior to its rediscovery at the end of the twentieth century, offers valuable insight into contemporary issues of sustainability. His concepts of the urban revolution, autogestion, the critique of everyday life, and total (or metabolic) revolution all relate directly to the key concerns of sustainability. Lefebvre’s work embodies a vision of radical social–ecological transformation aimed at sustainable human development, in which the human metabolic interchange with the rest of nature is to be placed under substantively rational and cooperative control by all its members, enriching everyday life. Other critical aspects of Lefebvre’s work, such as his famous concept of the production of space, his temporal rhythmanalysis, and his notion of the right to the city, all point to the existence of an open-ended research program directed at the core issues of sustainability in the twenty-first century.

Henri Lefebvre

Urban Studies ◽  
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andy Zieleniec
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
Right To The City ◽  
Social Production ◽  
Henri Lefebvre ◽  
Production Of Space ◽  
The Social ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
The Right ◽  
The University ◽  
The City

Henri Lefebvre is now established as one of the most important social theorists of the 20th century. Over a long life (b. 1901–d. 1991) he wrote and published prodigiously more than sixty books and several hundred articles on a range of issues and themes. His legacy and lasting impact not only includes being the most influential and seminal theorist on the reprioritization of space in social and critical analysis but also recognition for his contribution to the analysis of everyday life, modernity, the Right to the City, and the urban. He continues to influence and inspire research across a number of disciplines and fields; these include rural and regional studies, sociology, geography, politics, philosophy, and urban studies. Lefebvre’s commitment Marxism; his nondogmatic and humanist approach to the definition, discussion, extension, and application of key concepts; and his integration of those concepts into his various analyses of the rural and the city, of the state, of space and politics, and of modernity and everyday life led him to a conflicted relationship and at times marginalization within the structuralist-influenced French Academy and the Communist Party of France in which he was a member for thirty years. His anti-Stalinist stance and nonconformist opposition to the structural determinism prevalent within the party led to his expulsion, but throughout the 1960s, as professor of sociology at the University of Strasbourg and latterly at the new university at Nanterre, he became one of the most respected teachers and intellectuals inspiring and influencing the May 1968 student revolt. Lefebvre’s work after that, still influenced and committed to Marxist dialectics and critique, increasingly focused on the urban, the social production of space, everyday life, modernity, and the survival of capitalism. Of these his introduction of the concept of the right to the city and the social production of space have been immensely influential for a range of urban scholars and theorists and his work as a whole is being increasingly adopted, adapted, and extended by a variety of researchers of the city in a range of disciplines. The works selected below reflect Lefebvre’s long career and extensive corpus of work. However, only those books and articles that have been translated into English are included here. They represent his exegesis of Marxism and its application to a range of themes that were applied or are important for urban analysis. The secondary literature cited is organized thematically and while not comprehensive provides an overview of the expanding literature on, about, and applying Lefebvrian analysis.

scholarly journals Henri Lefebvre, Planning’s Friend or Implacable Critic?

2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 1-4
Author(s):  
Michael E. Leary-Owhin
Keyword(s):  
Urban Planning ◽  
Everyday Life ◽  
Urban Society ◽  
Academic Journal ◽  
Henri Lefebvre ◽  
Production Of Space ◽  
Late 20Th Century ◽  
Global North ◽  
The Right ◽  
North And South

This is the first issue of an academic journal, of which I am aware, to focus on Henri Lefebvre and urban planning. Urban spatial planning evolved as a concept to integrate the complex social, economic, environmental, political and land use conundrums of late 20th century society. Similarly, the spatial ideas of Henri Lefebvre encompass these issues but stress the importance of everyday life, production, culture and history. This thematic issue of Urban Planning is predicated principally on three of Lefebvre’s major works: The Production of Space (Lefebvre, 1974/1991), Critique of Everyday Life (Lefebvre, 1947/1991) and The Urban Revolution (Lefebvre, 1970/2003). Lefebvre’s ideas regarding the investigation of cities and urban society have been taken up most vigorously in the fields of geography, urban studies and latterly architecture. Despite this, it is clear that Lefebvre’s five central concepts—the production of space, abstract space, everyday life, the right to the city and planetary urbanisation—provide powerful tools for the examination of urban planning, cities and urban society in the Global North and South. Anglophone urban planning first embraced Lefebvre’s ideas in the 1980s. Surprisingly then, it is only in the last ten years or so that urban planning academia and research has witnessed a blossoming of interest in Lefebvre’s ideas.

scholarly journals Towards a spatialized utopia: romanticism and everyday life in the Marxism of Henri Lefebvre

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-25
Author(s):  
César Simoni Santos
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
Right To The City ◽  
Henri Lefebvre ◽  
Social Imagination ◽  
Critical Tradition ◽  
Revolutionary Romanticism ◽  
Practical Program ◽  
The Right ◽  
The City ◽  
Spatial Element

The presence of the spatial element in the reflections of Henri Lefebvre does not merely result from work involving the translation and adaptation of critical thinking developed up until his time. The realization that not even the highest expression of the critical tradition had sufficiently noticed this crucial dimension of life was one of the connecting points between theoretical advance, represented by the spatial orientation of critique, and the effort to renew the utopian horizon. A very distinct assimilation of the early work of Marx and the proximity to revolutionary romanticism, particularly of Nietzschean extraction, rendered a decisive impact on Lefebvrian conception. Practice, body, pleasure and instincts, recovering their place in the critical social imagination, went on to become the basis for the re-foundation of a theoretical-practical program that involved the formulation of the notion of the right to the city. The perspective of appropriation thus replaced the vague emancipatory statements of the subject's philosophies.

scholarly journals Lefebvre’s thought in contemporary urban sociology

Sociologija ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 55 (3) ◽  
pp. 475-491
Author(s):  
Miloje Grbin
Keyword(s):  
Urban Sociology ◽  
Right To The City ◽  
Henri Lefebvre ◽  
Production Of Space ◽  
Theoretical Assumptions ◽  
The Right ◽  
Space Production ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The City

This paper presents the impact of Henri Lefebvre?s thought in contemporary urban sociology. In the first chapter, the reader can find brief descriptions of two most relevant Lefebvre?s concepts linked to his comprehension of space: production of space, the right to the city and a couple of firmly related concepts. The second chapter presents several examples of their recent interpretations by the authors from different theoretical backgrounds. Simultaneously, it evaluates the relevance of Lefebvre?s theoretical assumptions in contemporary social context, as well as their theoretical and methodological relevance for further research and development of urban sociology. Conclusion emphasizes that Lefebvre?s ideas have a deep and long term influence in urban sociology.

scholarly journals INTERTEKSTUALITAS JAKARTA SEBAGAI RUANG URBAN DALAM ANTOLOGI ESAI TIADA OJEK DI PARIS

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 16-28
Author(s):  
Joesana Tjahjani
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
Urban Space ◽  
Modern Human ◽  
Text Structure ◽  
Henri Lefebvre ◽  
Production Of Space ◽  
Economic Dynamics ◽  
Metropolitan City ◽  
Analytical Frameworks ◽  
Over Time

As a metropolitan city, Jakarta is growing rapidly both physically and demographically. Jakarta's socio-economic dynamics also show significant developments over time. In an essay titled Tiada Ojek di Paris, Seno Gumira Ajidarma discusses Jakarta as an urban space that is filled with modern human problems. This paper aims to show the intertextuality that exists in the collection of essays, as well as the intertextuality resulting from the mention of various other texts in the work. Lucien Goldmann's genetic structuralism approach, Julia Kristeva's intertextuality theory, and the concept of the production of space from Henri Lefebvre are used as analytical frameworks. Analysis of the text structure shows the identification of Jakarta as a problematic urban space and close to everyday life reality. This was told by the narrator as well as the focalizer from an academic perspective, according to the background of the author who is a writer as well as an academic. The intertextual relations that are built from a series of texts that exist in Tiada Ojek di Paris represent the reflection, criticism, and dominant discourse that produces social spaces in urban Jakarta. Meanwhile, the intertextuality that results from the mention of various other texts in the anthology of essays confirms the position of the writer as a writer and academic in constructing arguments.

scholarly journals Place of Worship as Capital Space: The Relationship between Masjid Raya Bandung and Shopping Centers

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 137-156
Author(s):  
Yuris Fahman Zaidan ◽  
Aquarini Priyatna ◽  
R. M. Mulyadi
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
Shopping Centers ◽  
Henri Lefebvre ◽  
Economic Sectors ◽  
Production Of Space ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
Economic Process ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The City ◽  
Depth Interviews

The mosque is generally known as a place of worship for Muslims.  Besides being seen as a physical and spiritual space, a mosque is also a cultural space.  The culture is manifested through the everyday life of people who are connected to the mosque.  The economy is part of the everyday life that will connect the mosque with other economic sectors such as shopping centers.  This research will show the relationship between the mosque and shopping centers that contribute to the development or production of capital space in the city.  Masjid Raya Bandung (MRB) is the focus of research to uncover the formation of capital space and its relationship with shopping centers around the MRB.  The method used is observation and in-depth interviews with people visiting the mosque and shopping centers.  The theory used to look at this case is the production of space from Henri Lefebvre.  The results showed that the mosque was not only seen as a place of worship, but also a capital space.  The formation of this capital space can be seen from the relation of MRB with the shopping places around it and the relations of the activities of visitors who presuppose these two spaces: the mosque and the shopping centers.  That way, the mosque is used as a means of perpetuating the economic process or consumerism in the surrounding spaces, including in shopping centers.

Mystified Consciousness

2020 ◽  
pp. 14-21
Author(s):  
Andy Merrifield
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
Human Condition ◽  
First Century ◽  
Henri Lefebvre ◽  
Twenty First Century ◽  
The Human Condition

The great French Marxist Henri Lefebvre authored sixty-eight books, since translated into thirty languages, making brilliant analyses on dialectics and alienation, everyday life and urbanism, ecology and citizenship. Yet, his La conscience mystifiée(Mystified Consciousness), published in 1936, has seemingly been forgotten in every language, largely ignored everywhere. Though it may well be his most enduring political tract, it was his most prescient thesis for understanding the human condition in the twenty-first century.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document