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BODIES, SENSATIONS, SPACE AND TIME:
THE CONTRIBUTION FROM HENRI LEFEBVRE
by
Kirsten Simonsen
Simonsen, K., 2005: Bodies, sensations, space and time: the con- althoughhe wasveryfirmabouttheneedto reinstate
tribution from Henri Lefebvre. Geogr. Ann., 87 B (1): 1-14. the body in philosophyandsocialthought:
ABSTRACT. In geography as well as other human/social scienc-
es, issues on the body and embodiment have increasingly come
Westernphilosophyhas betrayedthe body; it
to the fore over recent decades. In the same period, and in partic- has actively participatedin the great process
ular following the English translation of The Production of Space, of metaphorizationthat has abandoned the
Henri Lefebvre has been a central figure in the geographical dis-
course. However, even though a range of writers on Lefebvre do
body; and it has denied the body. The living
acknowledge his emphasis on embodiment, it seems that he has body, being at once 'subject' and 'object',
only partially found his way into the core of the body literature. cannottoleratesuch conceptualdivision, and
The aim of this paper is to explore Lefebvre's contribution to a consequentlyphilosophicalconcepts fall into
geographical theory of the body, in particularwhen it comes to the the categoryof the 'sign of non-body'.
conception of a generative and creative social body as an intrinsic
part of social practice. I start by exploring the way in which Lefe- (Lefebvre,1991, p. 407;
bvre's conception of the body is developed in creative dialoque emphasisin original)
with other philosophers, such as Marx, Heideggger and Ni-
etzsche, and continue by way of an explication of his own contri-
bution. This is done under the headings of 'spatial bodies' and
Probablyone of the reasons why the Lefebvrian
'temporal bodies', in this way also emphasizing creative, moving
contributionhad not the greatappealfor the early
bodies. Instead of a conclusion the paper argues that Lefebvre's (mainly sociologist) theoristsof the body is that
contribution could gainfully interact with later (not least feminist) when authorslike Featherstoneand Turnerargue
approaches, and through such interactions add to current discus- that'we needto developan embodiednotionof the
sions on 'body politics' and 'performativity'.
humanbeing as a social agentandof the functions
Key words: body, embodiment, space, time, Lefebvre
of the body in social space' (1995, p. 7), space is
conceived of in a purely metaphoricalsense. To
Lefebvre,on the contrary,theorizingthe body inev-
Introduction itablyinvolvesa focus on space,on the body's im-
Inrecentdecadestherehasbeenanoutpouring of lit- plicationin and constitutionof a 'sensory-sensual
eratureon the importanceof embodimentand the space'.Later,withmoregeographicalinterventions,
bodyin (notleastfeminist)geographyas well as oth- the space-bodyrelationshiphas come much more
er partsof the humanitiesand social sciences.A into the centreof analysis.All the same, although
numberof monographs(see e.g. Turner,1984;Shil- quitea few writerson Lefebvrenoticehis emphasis
ling, 1993; Butler, 1993; Grosz, 1994; Longhurst, on embodiment(see Gregory,1994;BlumandNast,
2001) andcollections(e.g.Feheret al., 1989;Feath- 1996; Pile, 1996; Shields, 1998; Merrifield,2000;
erstoneet al., 1991; Duncan,1996;Ainley, 1998; Elden,2004), he does not seem to be considereda
NastandPile, 1998)haveappeared,andin 1995the majorcontributor to a theoryof the body.
journalBody & Societywas established.These at- As in manyof his themes,Lefebvre'swritingson
temptsto establishthe body in social theoryhave the body-space relationshipinclude a conceptual
beenfuelledby a diverserangeof theoreticaltradi- as well as a historicalanda politicaldimension,and
tions;amongthemostimportant areFrenchfeminist his discussionslips in andout of these differentdi-
authorssuch as deBeauvoir,Kristeva,Irigirayand mensions. Smith, not without some justification,
Cixous;phenomenologicalcritiquesof Cartesian- talks about an unresolvedcontradictionbetween
ism in theworkof Husserl,HeideggerandMerleau- ontology andhistoryin muchof Lefebvre'svision
Ponty;andhistoriesof thebodyliketheonesof Elias (Smith, 1998). But Lefebvre also mindfully de-
andFoucault.Few,however,seemto considerLefe- ploys these slippages and ambiguitiesin his Ni-
bvreto be a majorcontributor to theseendeavours, etzsche-inspiredstyle of Anti-Logos,in particular
as performed in The Production of Space (see e.g. space, but also in the work of images, signs and sym-
Merrifield, 1995), and his genealogical exploration bols. These bodies are transferredand emptied out
of concepts and relations. In his search for a non- via the eyes, a process that is not only abstract and
essentialist Marxism, Lefebvre incessantly resisted visual, but also phallocratic. It is embodied in a mas-
even the slightest hint of systematization and foun- culine will-to-power and, metaphorically, abstract
dationalism, and for him the conceptions of body space and its material forms symbolize force, male
and space are inseparable both from their history fertility and masculine violence.1
and the concomitant critique and politics. For Lefebvre, however, the body serves as a crit-
Among these dimensions, Lefebvre's contribu- ical figure too. It is not possible totally to reduce the
tion to the understanding of the history of the hu- body or the practico-sensory realm to abstract
man body is the most thoroughly explored, first and space. The body takes its revenge - or at least calls
most elegantly by Gregory in his Geographical Im- for revenge - for example, in leisure space. It seeks
aginations (1994). With take-off in The Production to make itself known, to gain recognition, as 'gen-
of Space, he identifies one of its major themes to be erative'. This renders necessary another under-
a history of the decorporealization of space, thus standing of the body, not only as the subject of his-
establishing an indispensable connection between torical abstraction and visualization, but also as an
the history of the body and the history of space and, intrinsic partof social practice. It is Lefebvre's con-
more particularly, comprehending the shift from tribution to this endeavour, to the conception of the
'the space of the body to the body-in-space' which generative and creative social body - a phenome-
somehow facilitates 'the spiriting-away or scot- nological body, you could say - that I want to ex-
omization of the body' (Lefebvre, 1991, p. 302). plore in the remaining part of this article.
The term is borrowed from psychoanalysis, but is
used here to signal a historical process of abstrac-
tion of the body through an overlapping of the vis- Inspiration and dialogue
ual and the linguistic. Gregory (with Lefebvre) Lefebvre's interest in the body is founded on a con-
traces this decorporealization of space through the ception of practice that is complex, open-ended and
history of space - from analogical space, over cos- holding many dimensions. It relates to nature,to the
mological and symbolic space, to abstract space - past and to humanpossibilities, and it ranges in scale
and demonstrates it by examples from philosophy from gestures andcorporeal attitudes,over everyday
and science, from cities and architecture, and from activities, to overall social practice in the economic
art. Here, the body is disdained, absorbed, and bro- and political spheres. The considerations on the
ken into pieces by images: body in this connection are formulated in dialogue
with a range of philosophers and social theorists,
Picasso's cruelty toward the body, particularly only the most importantof whom I will touch upon.
the female body, which he tortures in a thou- First and foremost, a point of departureis taken
sand ways and caricates without mercy, is dic- in Marx. It is important to maintain that Lefebvre
tated by the dominant form of space, by the was first of all a Marxist philosopher, but also that,
eye and by the phallus - in short, by violence. in his view, Marxism should be treated as one mo-
(1991, p. 302) ment in the development of theory and not, dog-
matically, as a definitive theory. From Marx comes
As indicated in this opinion on Picasso, for Lefebvre the idea that human beings are characterized by the
other processes or 'histories' accompany the decor- way in which - through work - they transform na-
porealization of space. First and foremost, although ture and, at the same time, their own nature. In this
this is less developed in the text, the decorporealiza- process of production - or domination and appro-
tion of space is paralleledby a decorporealizationof priation of nature- both biological (physiological)
time. The optical and visual world fetishizes abstrac- and social (historical) dimensions are involved.
tion and detaches the pure form from its impurecon- Productive activity is always oriented towards an
tent - 'from lived time, everyday time, and from objective, and during the process bodies, limbs and
bodies with their opacity and solidity, their warmth, eyes are mobilized, involving both 'materials'
their life and their death' (1991, p. 97). Furthermore, (stone, wood, leather) and 'materiel' (tools, lan-
the process involves a logic of visualization and one guage, instructions, agendas) (Lefebvre, 1991, p.
of metaphorization;living bodies, the bodies of 'us- 71). In this way, a dialectic is established between
ers' are caught up, not only in the toils of parcellized social practices (work), bodies and nature.
However, Marx's concept of social practice is is, besides Heidegger also to Merleau-Ponty and in
not sufficient to an understanding of human beings particularto Sartre3- in his development of the ac-
and their bodies. The most importantreason for this tive side of consciousness and sensations in the
is that he reduces human reality to work, to making process of human becoming. These considerations
tools or to conquering nature. As Lefebvre tells us, also, more or less explicitly, involve the body.
Marx accentuated homo faber, without neglecting Heidegger himself does not refer explicitly to the
homo sapiens too much; he did not insist on homo body, but with notions such as 'being-towards-
ridens, and also homo ludens was put aside; he also dead' or 'ready-to-hand' his terminology is highly
disregarded death and the consciousness about suggestive. Lefebvre, then, stresses the fact that,
death (Lefebvre, 1975, p. 143). In other words, sub- with his restitution of the practico-sensory realm,
jectivity was founded in work and partially in Heidegger continues the work that young Marx
knowledge, while issues such as joy, desire and had started (Lefebvre, 1975). He emphasizes
play were missing. Shortly, it was reduced to tool- Heidegger's introduction of the question of 'the
making and had no right of satisfaction of its own. thing', not as technical product but as 'the work'
Marx therefore was unable sufficiently to integrate (oeuvre) - as process and result of creative, bodily
materialism and spiritualism.2 To cope with these activity. In this sense the thing was rich in poetry
problems and elaborate a richer conception of hu- (not understood as verbal art, but as the practical
man beings, Lefebvre enters into dialogue with oth- truth of orientated, bodily activity). Lefebvre criti-
er authors, in particular Heidegger and Nietzsche. cized Heidegger for translating this insight into a
In doing so, however, he makes clear his dissocia- cult of the artisan, touchingly patriarchal and Ger-
tion from what he considers the false, fascist inter- manic feeling for the home.4 For him, rather than
pretation of Nietzsche's thinking and the tendency the home, it was the city that symbolized a person's
in Heidegger towards German chauvinism (Lefeb- being and consciousness, reflecting a shift from the
vre, 1975). individual to the collective level. So when Lefebvre
Heidegger is probably the twentieth-century adopted the existentialist concept of poesis - con-
philosopher with whom Lefebvre was most en- necting orientated bodily activity with the experi-
gaged. They shared a number of preoccupations ence and creation of human nature - he gave it a
concerning existence and the world, but did not ratherbroad content. It includes the creation of vil-
come to the same conclusions (see also Elden, lages and cities, the formation of territorial groups,
2004). The relationship is most obvious in Lefeb- the idea of 'absolute love', psychoanalysis, the de-
vre's trilogy Critique of Everyday Life (1958, cision to change one's life - all connected in the
1961, 1981). The concept of everydayness (Lefe- creative ability of daily life (see also Poster, 1975).
bvre; Quotidiennete, Heidegger; Alltaglichkeit) in Yet it is importantto maintain the dialectical nature
both authors refers to a theory of alienation, even of everyday life. Poesis cannot be sustained beyond
if the substance is divergent. In Being and Time specific 'moments'; continuous dis-alienation
(1962), Heidegger uses the concept to character- would be an impossible, utopian condition. It exists
ize the inauthentic existence of Dasein. As every- in dialectic with the routinization of everyday life
day Being-with-one-another, it stands in subjec- and the historical process of institutionalization
tion to others, not some definite others, but the in- and stabilization of interaction into systemic do-
determinate mass of 'they', of averageness and mains.
publicness. Dasein stops being itself and the as- Another important source for the understand-
cendancy of others rids it of its being. In this way, ing of the body, including sexuality, poetry and
everydayness opens the way to a loss of direction, drama, is Nietzsche, whom Lefebvre sought to
to dereliction and disquiet. Lefebvre 'marxianiz- conjoin with Marx. Lefebvre (1991) himself de-
es' these ideas, reformulates them from an exis- clares his critique of philosophy as rooted on the
tential critique towards a more social one. He adds one hand in social practice (Marx) and on the other
a historical and a utopian dimension and develops hand in art, poetry, music and drama (Nietzsche)
a theory of alienation that is an extension of what - and rooted, too, in both cases, in the (material)
he considers Marx's incomplete one, extending it body. From Nietzsche comes the idea that prior to
from production to the whole range of spheres of knowledge, and beyond it, is the body and the ac-
social life. tions of the body - suffering, desire and pleasure.
In this connection Lefebvre also looked to Let Lefebvre himself summarize the consequenc-
French phenomenology and existentialism - that es of these ideas:
Annaler 87 B (2005) 1
Geografiska 3
KIRSTEN SIMONSEN
of the self- of designating oneself to an individual of places and space in gestural systems is obvious.
as well as a public identity. On the other hand, space But organized gestures, which are codified ges-
serves an intermediary or mediating role through tures, are not simply performed in space. Bodies
which 'one' seeks to apprehend something or themselves generate spaces, which are produced by
somebody else. It offers sequences, sets of objects and for their gestures, and this also goes for systems
and concatenations of bodies, giving the impres- ranging from the everyday microgestural realm to
sion of transparency,of the world as reflected with- the most highly formalized macrogestural one.
in each body in an ever-renewed to-and-fro of re- Lefebvre sees gestural systems as something that
ciprocal reflection. Social space itself becomes a can connect representations of space and spaces of
mirror, in a collective and historical sense. representations.
This duality between opacity and transparency, More generally, therefore, the articulation be-
subjectivity and objectivity, is a point of intersec- tween bodily practices and social space may be un-
tion between the body and social space. Lefebvre derstood through the way in which the body is in-
however also offers more material solutions to the volved in the constitution of the dimensions of so-
relationship between the two. More precisely, he cial space. In order to consider this, let us very
considers the articulation between sensory and briefly recapitulate Lefebvre's by now widely dis-
practico-perceptual space on the one hand and spe- cussed conceptual triad of social space (see e.g. So-
cific or practico-social space on the other. Histori- ja, 1989, 1996; Shields, 1998). He introduces it
cally, sensory-sensual space may be seen as sedi- twice in the introductory chapter of The Production
ment, destined to survive as one layer or element in of Space and even though it is not developed later
the stratification and interpenetration of social in the book, it permeates the whole text.8 Briefly re-
spaces. But that does not address the issue of more capitulated, the three dimensions are:
specific articulations.
One immediate answer given by Lefebvre is a 1. Spatial practice, which embraces social pro-
conception of social practice and its objects as an duction and reproduction and the particularlo-
extension of the body. Among the last-mentioned cations and spatial forms characteristic of a giv-
are everyday utensils or tools, which extend the en social formation. It would, for example, in-
body in accord with its rhythms, or speech and writ- clude the built environment, urban morphology
ing, which sometimes disclose and sometimes dis- and the creation of zones for specific purposes.
simulate.6 Practically, this takes place through per- Through everyday practices, space is dialecti-
formance of gestures and development of gestural cally created as a human and social space. This
systems. Social gestures in Lefebvre's sense consist aspect of spatiality helps to ensure continuity
of articulated movements mobilizing and activat- and some degree of cohesion in social configu-
ing the whole body. Their accomplishment implies rations. The spatial practice of a society at the
the existence of affiliations, of groups (family, same time propounds and presupposes its space
tribe, village, city) and of activity - the most obvi- in a dialectic interaction; it relies on a 'common-
ous example being gestures of labour.7Ensembles sense' understanding of space including both
of gestures or gestural systems are further invested the taken-for-granted dimensions of everyday
with meaning and codes. Like language, they are life and the rationalized institutions and urban
made up of symbols, signs and signals. Such codes networks that we pass through in our daily rou-
are, of course, specific to a particular society: tines. Lefebvre characterizes this space as aper-
ceived space, which embodies the interrelations
To belong to a given society is to know and between institutional practices and daily expe-
use its codes for politeness, courtesy, affec- riences and routines.
tion, parley, negotiation, trading, and so on-
as also for the declaration of hostilities. 2. Representations of space are connected with the
(1991, p. 215) dominant 'order' of any society and hence with
its codes, signs and knowledge about space.
What this sentence says is that gestural systems These are the forms of knowledge of space in
embody ideology and history and bind them to society, the ideological content and claims of
practice, thus recalling a spatialized version of truth of theories, and the conceptual imagina-
Bourdieu's theory of practice and the body's incor- tions of space linked to production relations.
poration of history (1977, 1990). The importance This is a conceived space, conceptualized and
ing it in terms of our bodies being in space, or in Last but not least, Lefebvre's approach to the
time - they inhabit space and time: body is definitely in need of juxtaposition with
some of the extensive feminist literature on the
I am not in space and time, nor do I conceive body. I have already touched on the fact that even
space and time; I belong to them, my body if Lefebvre in his later writings makes numerous
combines with them and includes them. The references to male sexuality and its production of
scope of this inclusion is the measure of that spaces and to the symbolic distortion, objectifica-
of my existence. tion and control of female bodies, he never seri-
(Merleau-Ponty, 1962, p. 140) ously engaged with the production and practices of
sexualized bodies and their relationship to social
This means that the active body, using its acquired space. An interaction between Lefebvre's ideas
schemas and habits, positions its world around it- and those of feminist authors who, like him, are in-
self and constitutes that world as 'ready-to-hand', terested in concrete, material bodily practices
to use a Heideggerian expression. Lefebvre would would therefore stimulate the project. The most
agree with such a conception of the spatiality and obviously relevant contribution for this purpose is
temporality of the body, but he would find it inad- Elisabeth Grosz's (1994) corporeal feminism, em-
equate. Unique to Lefebvre's contribution to a con- phasizing the material and sexed/gendered charac-
ception of the body is the way in which he deals ter of bodies. She has a starting point in psychoa-
with its involvement in different social modalities nalysis but departs from it by moving the body and
of space and time. sexual difference from the periphery to the centre
Another author who can add to some of Lefeb- of analysis, thus considering it the very 'stuff' of
vre's ideas of the body is Goffman, in particular subjectivity. Moreover, in a seminal essay she ap-
when it comes to the performance of gestural sys- proaches the way in which the modern metropolis
tems. When Lefebvre writes about gestures and assimilates the subject into the space of the city
gestural systems and considers the way in which (Grosz, 1992), an approach, however, which in my
their codifications form the basis of social interac- opinion would benefit from the input of Lefebvre's
tion, he definitely touches on a theme that is more stronger spatial dialectics. Other possible partners
thoroughly worked out by Goffman. Goffman's ap- in a marriage between Lefebvre and feminism
proach to the body is characterized by three main could be Iris MarionYoung (1990) when she draws
features: (1) the body is viewed as a material prop- on phenomenology to explore the possibility of
erty of individuals, as a resource which both re- specifically 'feminist' body comportment in rela-
quires and enables people to manage their move- tion to space, or Toril Moi (1998) in her explora-
ments and appearances; (2) meanings attributedto tions starting from the idea of the body as a 'situ-
the body are determined by 'shared vocabularies of ation'. These perspectives could in different ways
body idiom' which are not under immediate control add a much needed genderization/sexualization to
of individuals; (3) the body plays an important role Lefebvre's spatio-temporal bodies (see also Si-
in mediating the relationship between people's monsen, 2001, 2003).
self-identity and their social identity (Goffman, In conclusion, it may be interesting to relate
1963, 1990). From this he demonstrates, among Lefebvre's formulations to a rather dominant ten-
other things, how social interaction in daily life re- dency in social discussions on the body - a theo-
quires a high degree of competence in controlling retical distinction that is often attributedto the work
the expressions, movements and communications of Merleau-Ponty and Foucault (Crosley, 1996).
of the body. Such an approach could definitely de- On one side of the line stand analyses of the active
velop Lefebvre's ideas, and some of the weakness- role of the body in social life, of the body as lived
es of Goffman's analysis - its lack of macro-social and generative, and on the other side are studies of
connections and its less adequate sense of the body the body as acted upon, as socially and historically
as an integral partof human agency - may be coun- constructed and inscribed from the outside. The in-
teracted by the Lefebvrian contribution. Consider- teresting point about Lefebvre's discussion of the
ing the role that Goffman's work (acknowledged or body is that he transcends this division, and that the
unacknowledged) has achieved in contemporary means of this transcendence is the production of
geographical literature on performativity (see space. In Fig. 1 I attempt in a very simple manner
Crang, 1994; McDowell, 1997; Gregson and Rose, to illustrate the two sides of Lefebvre's conjunction
2000), this connection gains particularrelevance. of body, space and time.
10 GeografiskaAnnaler* 87 B (2005) 1
BODIES, SENSATIONS, SPACE AND TIME: THE CONTRIBUTION FROM HENRI LEFEBVRE
The upperpartof the figurerepresentsthe dis- Thanksto its sensoryorgans,from the sense
cussion primarilyconducted in this essay. It is of smell and from sexuality to sight ... the
aboutthe generativeandcreativesocial body,as it body tends to behave as a differential field. It
would be representedin a theory of practice.As behaves, in other words, as a total body,
partof the lived experience,the body constitutesa breakingout of the temporaland spatialshell
practico-sensory realmthatis performedin thespa- developedin responseto labour
tio-temporalrhythmsof everyday life. In these (Lefebvre,1991, p. 384).
rhythms, constituting and constituted, different
modalitiesof social spatialityandsocial temporal- This meansthatthe body, as a producerof differ-
ity are incorporated,as cyclical and linearrepeti- ence (throughrhythms,gestures,imagination),has
tions, and as the conjunctionof the perceived,the an inherent right to difference, formulated against
conceivedandthe lived.Inthe lowerpartof the fig- forces of homogenization,fragmentation,and the
ure,Lefebvre'scommoninterestwith Foucaultin hierarchicalorganized power. Lefebvre located
powerandthehistoryof thebodyis represented. To these strugglesfor the rightto be differentat many
Lefebvre,thisis abouttheabove-mentioned history scales, but at the scale of the body two aspectsare
of increasingabstraction,of the decorporealization crucial.One is the 'Festival',as the site of partici-
of spaceandtime.Forbothspaceandtime(andthe pationandof the possibilityof thepoesis of creat-
body), Lefebvredescribesthis processof abstrac- ing new situationsfromdesireandenjoyment.The
tion as simultaneouslyone of homogenization, otheris sexuality,involvingstrugglesof relations
fragmentationand hierarchization.This history betweenthe sexes (a femininerevolt)as well as re-
differsfrom the one given by Foucaultbecauseof lationsbetweensexualityandsociety.
its basis in the productionof space.Heretoo Lefe- The seconddebateto whichLefebvre'sconcep-
bvretreatsspace as both producingand a product tion of the body mightcontributeis the currentone
of the humanbody,as a perceptionand a concep- on performativity(see e.g. collections edited by
tion, not simply the impositionof a concept,or a Rose and Thrift, 2000, Dewsbury et al., 2002,
space,uponthe body (see also Stewart,1995). LathamandConradson,2003). It has been argued
As a consequenceof this dualityin Lefebvre's thatthese contributionsrepresenta turnin cultural
discussionof thebody,it is possibleto arguethathe geographyfrom 'text' and representationsto per-
locateshimself in the centreof two recentdebates formanceandpractices(Nash,2000), andthebody
on thebody in geography.The firstof theseis about and embodimentare distinctiveelements in this
bodypolitics. In the intersectionbetween Lefeb- shift. However,besides the above-mentionedin-
vre'ssocial ontologyof the body andhis historyof spirationfromGoffman,one of the mainpointsof
thebody,thebodyturnsintoa criticalfigure- a site access to this discussion was Judith Butler's
of resistanceandactivestruggle: (1990, 1993) Foucauldian feminism in which
identity (and the body) is performative - that is, 5. These ideas seemingly come close to Nietzsche when he
enacted and inscribed by way of discourse. Anoth- talks about the human body or 'organism' in the context of
the bodies of all organic beings.
er line of work informing this discussion is what 6. The Heideggerian undertones in some of these formulations
has been labelled 'nonrepresentational theory' in are obvious.
geography proposed primarily by Nigel Thrift 7. Lefebvre also uses bodily gestures as a critical figure of, and
mediation between, distinctions such as inarticulate/articu-
(e.g. 1996, 2000). Drawing on a whole array of late, nature/culture or body/mind.
theoretical inspirations - ranging (to mention just 8. In his book Thirdspace- Journeysto LosAngelesand oth-
a few) from phenomenological (and related) theo- er Real-and-imagined places (Cambridge,MA and Ox-
ries of practice through pragmatism and conversa- ford: Blackwell, 1996), Edward Soja interprets this triad
tional analysis to the emphasis on non-human as part of a general strategy in Lefebvre of 'thirding-as-
Othering'.
agency and relational networks in actor network 9. These ideas come close to the ones of Foucault on the dis-
theory and heterogeneous fragments, flows and as- cursive formation of the body, even if Lefebvre several
semblages in Deleuze and Guattari- nonrepresen- times throughout The Production of Space dissociates him-
tational theory concerns practices shaping 'sub- self from Foucault's thinking.
10. Lefebvre at this place refers to Gaston Bachelard for, una-
jects' as decentred, embodied, relational, expres- ware of it himself, having revealed the contradictionbetween
sive and involved with others and objects in a the cumulative and non-cumulative, the linear and the cycli-
world continually in process. Although there is cal.
11. As for everyday life, these ideas date back to the 1920s.
good reason to appreciate the work on bodies and Lefebvre developed around 1960 in Critique vol II op.cit.
embodiment in these traditions, I think that Lefe- and in La somme et le reste (2 vols., Paris: La Nef de Paris,
bvre's both phenomenological, rhythmic and po- 1959), and later he linked moments with the idea of creating
litical understanding of the body (whatever ro- new situations in Les temps de mdprises (Paris: Stock,
mantic bias it might hold) can still inform the dis- 1975). In this way, his ideas conjoined with the ones of the
situationist movement, also developed in Paris in the late
cussion and partially counteract Butler's more dis- 1950s.
cursive bodies and the barely living bodies of actor 12. The argument was that rhythm analysis is much more con-
network theory. crete than psychoanalysis, closer to a pedagogy of appro-
priation (the appropriation of the body, as of spatial prac-
tice). Instead of some kind of fetishized unconsciousness,
then, the 'space of dreams' should be described as a space
Notes where dispersed and broken rhythms are reconstituted
1. Throughout Lefebvre's later writings are numerous refer- (Production, op.cit. pp. 205, 208-209). Lefebvre's inten-
ences to male sexuality and its production of spaces and tions by these suggestions, however, never become very
femininity, exploitation of women in everyday life, and the clear.
objectification and control of female bodies. He does not, 13. In this sense, rhythm analysis may be seen as a social and
however, elaborate at length an interpretation of gendered philosophical translation of Eisteinian notions of space-
bodies and gender relations. time relativity, as suggested by Kofman and Lebas in their
2. A similar critique may be found in Habermas' work, earliest introduction in Lefebvre (1996).
in Jiirgen Habermas, Erkenntnmsseund Interesse (Frankfurt 14. Lefebvre himself was rather critical towards Merleau-Pon-
am Mein: Suhrkamp, 1968) and Jurgen Habermas, Arbeit ty. He criticized him of eclecticism, of conducting a mysti-
und Interaktion. Bemerkungen zu Hegels Jenenser 'Philoso- fying syncretism between phenomenology, Gestaltism and
phie des Geistes',in Technikund Wissenschaft
als 'Ideolo- organic psychology, and of leaving out history and social
gie' (Frankfurtam Mein: Suhrkamp, 1968), pp. 9-47. But I practice in the attempt (Henri Lefebvre, 'M. Merleau-Pon-
think the resulting formulations are quite divergent; partly ty et la philosophie de l'ambiguite', La Pensde 68, 1956,
because of the more dualist character of Habermas' think- pp. 44-58 and 73: 37-52). It seems to me, however, that
ing, and partly because of his interest in communication overlap in interest occurred, and that in the harsh critique
rather than practice. much was bound up with an ongoing debate in which Mer-
3. In the 1940s, Lefebvre had dismissed Sartre's existentialism leau-Ponty's increasing scepticism about Marxism was the
in uncompromising hostile terms, characterizing it as femi- issue.
nine - as passive and emotional. These male chauvinist for-
mulations stand in contrast to his own later critique of the
Kirsten Simonsen
phallocratic character of modernism. With the publication
of Sartre's Critique de la ralson dialectique however, some Department of Geography and International
rapprochement between the two of them occurred. For a Development Studies
closer description of these debates see Mark Poster, Existen- Roskilde University
tial Marxism in Postwar France (Princeton, NJ: Princeton
Postboks 260
University Press, 1975).
4. This parallels Lefebvre's later critique (Production of DK- 4000 Roskilde
Space) of the nostalgic aura in Heidegger's writing. Howev- Denmark
er, his own writings of everyday life, especially the early www.geo.ruc.dk
ones, do not escape a nostalgic glorification of the peasant
E-mail: kis@ruc.dk
community.
er real-and-imagined places. Blackwell, Oxford, UK, and TREBITCH, M., (1991): 'Preface', in LEFEBVRE, H.: Critique
Cambridge, MA. of Everyday Life, vol I. Verso, London.
STEWART, L., (1995): 'Bodies, visions, and spatial politics: a re- TURNER,S., (1984):TheBody&Society:Explorationsin Social
view essay on Henri Lefebvre's The Production of Space', Theory. Blackwell, Oxford.
Environment
andPlanningD: Societyand Space,13:5,609- YOUNG,I.M.,(1990):ThrowingLikea girl and OtherEssaysin
619. FeministPhilosophyand Social Theory.IndianaUniversity
THRIFT, N., (1996): Spatial Formations. Sage, London, Thou- Press, Bloomington.
sand Oaks, CA, and New Delhi.
THRIFT, N., (2000): 'Afterwords', Environment and Planning
D: Society and Space, 18: 213-255.