Abstract
Space is introduced here as a relational arrangement of social goods and living beings at places. Space emerges in the interplay of action and structure, through the processes of spacing and acts of synthesis. Spacing describes the placing of human beings, social goods, and cultural signs for the purpose of forming spatial arrangements. The act of synthesis describes the ability to perceive, imagine, and remember the spatial placing of human beings and social goods as coherent and reliable. The reproduction of institutionalized spaces occurs through repetition in everyday routine. Space is interwoven with cultural notions of class and gender. The chapter concludes with reflections on how space and place are associated and with a discussion of methodological consequences.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Notes
- 1.
The English neologism “spacing” was used in the original German version of this book because according to the dictionary (Wahrig 1997, 1009) the German word that readily comes to mind, the verb “räumen” (derived from “Raum,” space), means either “to empty,” “to clear,” “to vacate,” which is contrary to what is meant here, or “to bring something to another place,” which only applies to a substance and does not grasp the complex process of formation.
- 2.
In many societies and in many social contexts in Germany, ethnicity can also be counted as one of the structural principles. However, ethnicity conceptually presupposes a process of group formation corresponding to the ethnic group (on this point, cf., e.g., Rex 1990), which, however, in contrast to class and gender, is not observable in every situation. So as not to provoke a scientific categorization for something that in social practice proves to be more differentiated, ethnicity shall be conceptualized not as a structural principle, but as an influencing factor.
- 3.
Ilse Lenz (1995) extends the two-fold to a “three-fold socialization” by pointing out the dimension “ethnic group” as a socialization in the modern nation state.
- 4.
It is often difficult to work with Bourdieu’s concepts because he has no interest in a precise formulation of the concepts and wishes instead to develop “fuzzy concepts” (Bourdieu and Wacquant 1992 [1996]). For practical purposes this often means that he will develop concepts, but then does not always use them consistently, and as a rule also does not justify deviations. Here I shall discuss the most prevalent definitions of these concepts.
- 5.
[Translator’s note: Translated from a German translation of Bourdieu’s French. No French or English version of the article quoted here could be found. The chapter “Site Effects” in The Weight of the World [Bourdieu 1999] is closely related to the article quoted, but does not include this or a similar passage.]
- 6.
General reflections on perspective can be derived from this, in particular on the dependency of perspectives not only on habitus, but also on localization. In feminist philosophy of science as developed in particular by Sandra Harding (1991, 1994), the perspectival character of scientific work is discussed as something bound to a standpoint, in Harding’s discussion class, gender, and ethnicity (cf. e.g. Haraway 1995). Harding thus draws attention to an important phenomenon, the constitution of the object of science depending on habitus. But in so doing she also takes on the problem that she has to allege that there is, e.g., a uniform experience of a gender. The distinction between place and person makes it possible to link the perspective not only to the habitus of a person, but also to the place where the person takes place. This brings clarity to the idea that from one place, the domestic kitchen, a different perspective is adopted than from a desk in an office, although in both cases it is the gender perspective of a person with a feminine socialization.
- 7.
[Translator’s note: In the published English translation of Luhmann’s work, the sentence referred to here is not translated literally so that the figure to which our author alludes is lost. The published translation of the passage reads: “Atmosphere makes visible both the unity of the difference that constitutes space and the invisibility of space as a medium for the creation of forms. But it is not the same as space, which, as a medium, can never become visible” (Luhmann 2000, 112; italics added for better recognition of the pasage in question). A more literal translation of Luhmann’s sentence might read: “Atmosphere is thus the manifestation [literally: the becoming visible] of the unity of the difference that constitutes space and is hence also the visibility of the invisibility of space as a medium for the creation of forms.”]
- 8.
Cf. Giddens’s (1984) distinction between allocative and authoritative resources.
References
Assmann, Jan. Das kulturelle Gedächtnis. Schrift, Erinnerung und politische Identität in frühen Hochkulturen. Munich: C.H. Beck, 1997.
Ayaß, Ruth. Kommunikation und Geschlecht. Eine Einführung. Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, 2007.
Becker-Schmidt, Regina. “Die Doppelte Vergesellschaftung – die doppelte Unterdrückung,” in Die andere Hälfte der Gesellschaft. Österreichischer Soziologentag 1985, edited by Lilo Unterkircher and Ina Wagner, 10–27. Vienna: Verlag des Österreichischen Gewerkschaftsbundes, 1987.
Berger, Peter and Thomas Luckmann. The Social Construction of Reality. Garden City, NY: Anchor, 1966. Published in German as Die gesellschaftliche Konstruktion der Wirklichkeit. Eine Theorie der Wissenssoziologie. 3rd edition. Translated by Monika Plessner. With an introduction to the German edition by Helmuth Plessner. Frankfurt am Main: Fischer, 1972.,
Bock, Stefanie, Susanne Heeg, and Marianne Rodenstein. “Reproduktionsarbeitskrise und Stadtstruktur. Zur Entwicklung von Agglomerationsräumen aus feministischer Sicht,” in Durch die Wand! Feministische Konzepte zur Raumentwicklung, edited by Christine Bauhardt and Ruth Becker, 33–52. Pfaffenweiler: Centaurus, 1997.
Böhme, Gernot. Atmosphäre: Essays zur neuen Ästhetik. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1995.
Bollnow, Otto. Mensch und Raum. 6th edition. Stuttgart, Bern, and Cologne: Kohlhammer, 1989, First published in 1963.
Bourdieu, Pierre. Outline of a Theory of Practice. Translated by Richard Nice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1977. Originally published as Esquisse d’une théorie de la pratique, précédé de Trois études d’ethnologie Kabyle. Paris: Seuil, 1972. Published in German as Entwurf einer Theorie der Praxis auf der ethnologischen Grundlage der kabylischen Gesellschaft. Translated by Cordula Pialoux und Bernd Schwibs. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1976.
Bourdieu, Pierre. Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste. Translated by Richard Nice. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1984. Originally published as La Distinction. Critique sociale du jugement. Paris: Éditions de Minuit, 1979. Published in German as Die feinen Unterschiede. 2nd edition. Translated by Bernd Schwibs and Achim Russer. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1982.
Bourdieu, Pierre. “The Social Space and the Genesis of Groups,” Theory and Society, 14.6 (1985): 723–44.
Bourdieu, Pierre. 1991c. Sozialer Raum und “Klassen”. 2nd. ed. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1991.
Bourdieu, Pierre. “Die verborgenen Mechanismen der Macht,” in Schriften zur Politik und Kultur, 2nd edition, edited by Margareta Steinrücke. Hamburg: VSA Verlag, 1992.
Bourdieu, Pierre et al (eds.). The Weight of the World. Social Suffering in Contemporary Society. Translated by Priscilla Parkhurst Ferguson, Susan Emanuel, Joe Johnson, and Shoggy T. Waryn. Cambridge: Polity Press, 1999. Originally published as La misère du monde. Éditions du Seuil: Paris 1993. Translated into German as Das Elend der Welt. Zeugnisse und Diagnosen alltäglichen Leidens an Gesellschaft. Konstanz: UVK Verlagsgesellschaft, 1997.
Bourdieu, Pierre and Loïc J.D. Wacquant. An Invitation to Reflexive Sociology. Chicago: University of Chicago Press and Cambridge, UK: Polity Press, 1992. Originally published as Réponses. Pour une anthropologie reflexive. Paris: Seuil, 1992. Published in German as Reflexive Anthropologie. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1996.
Bourdieu, Pierre. “Die männliche Herrschaft,” in Ein alltägliches Spiel. Geschlechterkonstruktionen in der sozialen Praxis, edited by Irene Dölling and Margareta Steinrücke, 153–217. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1997a.
Bourdieu, Pierre. “Eine sanfte Gewalt. Pierre Bourdieu im Gespräch mit Irene Dölling and Margareta Steinrücke,” in Ein alltägliches Spiel. Geschlechterkonstruktion in der sozialen Praxis, edited by Irene Dölling and Margareta Steinrücke, 218–30. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1997b.
Brauns, Jörg. “Heterotopien”. Wissenschaftliche Zeitschrift der Hochschule für Architektur und Bauwesen Weimar 3+4 (1992): 163–69.
Breckner, Ingrid and Gabriele Sturm. “Raum-Bildung: Übungen zu einem gesellschaftlich begründeten Raum-Verstehen,” in Raumbildung – Bildungsräume. Über die Verräumlichung sozialer Prozesse, edited by Jutta Ecarius and Martina Löw, 213–36. Opladen: Leske + Budrich, 1997.
Bruner, Jerome S. Beyond the Information Given: Studies in the Psychology of Knowing. London: W. W. Norton, 1974.
Castells, Manuel. “Space of Flows – Raum der Stöme. Eine Theorie des Raumes in der Informationsgesellschaft,” in Stadt-Welt. Über die Globalisierung städtischer Milieus, edited by Peter Noller et al. Frankfurt am Main and New York: Campus, 1994.
Ciompi, Luc. Außenwelt – Innenwelt. zur Entstehung von Zeit, Raum und psychischen Strukturen. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1988.
Ecarius, Jutta. Individualisierung und soziale Reproduktion im Lebensverlauf. Konzepte der Lebenslaufforschung. Opladen: Leske + Budrich, 1996.
Eddington, Arthur. Space, Time and Gravitation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995.
Elias, Norbert. What is Sociology? Translated by Stephen Mennell and Grace Morissey. London: Hutchinson, 1978b; Dublin: University College Dublin Press, 2012. Originally published as Was ist Soziologie? 7th ed. Weinheim, Munich, 1993.
Elias, Norbert. Time: An Essay. Edited, in part translated by Edmund Jephcott. Oxford: Blackwell, 1992. Republished 2007 as An Essay on Time, in Collected Works of Norbert Elias, edited by Steven Loyal and Stephen Mennell. Vol. 9. Dublin: University College Dublin Press. Published in German as Über die Zeit. Arbeiten zur Wissenssoziologie II. Translated by Holger Fliessbach, revised by Michael Schröter, augmented and revised by the author. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1994 5th ed. [1984].
Fächergruppe Designwissenschaften (ed.). Objektalltag – Alltagsobjekte. Berlin: Hochschule der Künste, n.d.
Foucault, Michel. The History of Sexuality. The Will to Knowledge. Translated by Robert Hurley. London: Penguin Books, 1998. Originally published as La Volonté de savoir, Histoire de la sexualité. Paris, Gallimard, 1976.
Foucault, Michel. “Of other spaces,” Diacritics, 16.1 (1986a): 22–7. Also published in English and French at URL http://foucault.info/doc/documents/heterotopia/foucault-heterotopia-en-html [last accessed July 2016]. Originally published in French as “Of Other Spaces, Heterotopias,” Architecture, Mouvement, Continuité, Nr. 5 (1984b), 46–9. Published in German as “Andere Räume,” in Stadt-Räume. Die Zukunft des Städtischen, edited by Martin Wentz, 65–72. Frankfurt am Main and New York: Campus, 1991.
Frerichs, P. (1997) Klasse und Geschlecht 1. Arbeit, Macht, Anerkennung und Interessen. Opladen: Leske + Budrich.
Frerichs, Petra and Margareta Steinrücke. “Kochen - ein männliches Spiel? Die Küche als geschlechts- und klassenstrukturierter Raum,” in Ein alltägliches Spiel. Geschlechterkonstruktionen in der sozialen Praxis edited by Irene Dölling and Beate Krais, 231–55. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1997.
Gibson, James S. Wahrnehmung und Umwelt. Der ökologische Ansatz der visuellen Wahrnehmung. Munich, Vienna, and Baltimore: Urban und Schwarzenberg, 1982.
Giddens, Anthony. The Constitution of society. Outline of the Theory of Structuration. Cambridge: Polity Press, 1984. Translated into German as Die Konstitution der Gesellschaft. Grundzüge einer Theorie der Strukturierung. Translated by Wolf-Hagen Krauth and Wilfried Spohn. Frankfurt am Main and New York: Campus, 1988.
Giedion, Sigfried. Space, Time and Architecture: The Growth of a New Tradition. 5th, revised and enlarged edition, 16th printing. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1967. Published in German as Raum, Zeit, Architektur. Ravensburg: Maier, 1965.
Gildemeister, Regine. “Die soziale Konstruktion von Geschlechtlichkeit,” in Feministische Vernunftkritik. Ansätze und Traditionen, edited by Ilona Ostner and Klaus Lichtblau, 220–39. Frankfurt am Main: Campus, 1992.
Grosz, Elizabeth. “Bodies-Cities,” in Sexuality and Space edited by Beatriz Colomina, 241–53. Princeton: Princeton Architectural Press, 1992.
Hagemann-White, Carol. Sozialisation: weiblich-männlich. Opladen: Leske + Budrich, 1984.
Halbwachs, Maurice. La topographie legendaire des évangiles en Terre Sainte. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1941.
Hannemann, Christine. Die Platte. Industrialisierter Wohnungsbau in der DDR. Braunschweig and Wiesbaden: Wieweg + Teubner, 1996.
Harding, Sandra. Whose Science? Whose Knowledge?: Thinking from Women’s Lives. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1991. Published in German as Das Geschlecht des Wissens. Frankfurt am Main: Campus, 1994.
Hasse, Jürgen. Mediale Räume. Wahrnehmungsgeographische Studien zur Regionalentwicklung – Schriftenreihe der Carl von Ossietzky Universität. Oldenburg: Schriftenreihe der Carl von Ossietzky Universität, 1997.
Hasse, Jürgen. “Zum Verhältnis von Raum und Körper in der Informationsgesellschaft,” Geographica Helvetica. Schweizer Zeitschrift für Geographie und Völkerkunde 2 (1998): 51–59.
Haug, Wolfgang Fritz. Kritik der Warenästhetik. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1971.
Heidegger, Martin. Poetry, Language, Thought. Translated by Albert Hofstadter. New York: Harper & Row, 1975. Originally published as Vorträge und Aufsätze. Pfullingen: Klett-Cotta, 1985.
Honneth, Axel. “Die zerrissene Welt der symbolischen Formen. zum kultursoziologischen Werk Pierre Bourdieus,” Kölner Zeitschrift für Soziologie und Sozialpsychologie 1 (1984): 126–46.
Ipsen, Detlev. Raumbilder. Kultur und Ökonomie räumlicher Entwicklung. Pfaffenweiler: Centaurus, 1997.
Krais, Beate. “Soziales Feld, Macht und kulturelle Praxis. Die Untersuchungen Bourdieus über die verschiedenen Fraktionen der ‘herrschenden Klasse’ in Frankreich,” in Klassenlage, Lebensstil und kulturelle Praxis, edited by K. Eder, 47–70. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1989.
Kreckel, Reinhard. Soziologisches Denken. Eine kritische Einführung. Opladen: Leske + Budrich, 1976.
Kreckel, Reinhard. “Class, Status and Power? Begriffliche Grundlagen für eine politische Sozialisation der sozialen Ungleichheit,” Kölner Zeitschrift für Soziologie und Sozialpsychologie 34 (1982): 617–48.
Kreckel, Reinhard. Politische Soziologie der sozialen Ungleichheit. Frankfurt am Main: Campus, 1992.
Läpple, Dieter. “Essay über den Raum. Für ein gesellschaftswissenschaftliches Raumkonzept,” in Stadt und Raum. Soziologische Analysen, edited by Hartmut Häußermann, 157–207. Pfaffenweiler: Centaurus, 1991.
Lenz, Ilse. “Geschlecht, Herrschaft und internationale Ungleichheit,” in Das Geschlechterverhältnis als Gegenstand der Sozialwissenschaften, edited by Regina Becker-Schmidt, 19–46. Frankfurt am Main and New York: Campus, 1995.
Luhmann, Niklas. “Autopoeisis, Handlung und kommunikative Verständigung,” Zeitschrift für Soziologie 11 (1982): 366–79.
Luhmann, Niklas. Art as a Social System. Translated by Eva M. Knodt. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2000. Originally published in German as Die Kunst der Gesellschaft. 2nd edition. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1998.
Mann, Michael. “A Crisis in Stratification Theory? Persons, Households/Families/Lineages, Genders, Classes, and Nations,” in Gender and Gratification, edited by Rosemary Crompton and Michael Mann, 40–56. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986.
Massey, Doreen. Space, Place and Gender. Oxford: Blackwell & Polity Press, 1994.
Merleau-Ponty, Maurice. Phenomenology of Perception. Translated by Colin Smith. London: Routledge, 1962. Originally published as Phénoménologie de la perception. Paris: Éditions Gallimard, 1945. Published in German as Phänomenologie der Wahrnehmung. Translated by Rudolf Boehm. Berlin: De Gruyter, 1966.
Modelmog, Ilse. Versuchungen. Geschlechterzirkus und Gegenkultur. Opladen: Leske + Budrich, 1994.
Mühlen-Achs, Gitta. Wie Katz und Hund. Die Körpersprache der Geschlechter. Munich: Frauenoffensive, 2000.
Petzold, Joseph. Das Weltproblem vom Standpunkt des relativistischen Positivismus aus. Leipzig and Berlin: Teubner, 1924.
Pini, Barbara and Belinda Leach. Reshaping Gender and Class in Rural Spaces. Farnham: Ashgate, 2011.
Rabe-Kleberg, Ursula. Frauenberufe. Zur Segmentierung der Berufswelt. Bielefeld: Kleine, 1987.
Rabe-Kleberg, Ursula. Verantwortung und Macht. Ein Beitrag zum Verhältnis von Geschlecht und Beruf angesichts der Krise traditioneller Frauenberufe. Bielefeld: Kleine, 1993.
Rendell, Jane, Barbara Penner, and Iain Bordain. Gender Space Architecture: An Interdisciplinary Introduction (Architext Series). London: Routledge, 1999.
Rex, John. “‘Rasse’ und ‘Ethnizität’ als sozialwissenschaftliche Konzepte,” in Ethnizität. Wissenschaft und Minderheiten, edited by Eckard Dittrich and Franz-Olaf Radtke, 141–53. Opladen: Leske + Budrich, 1990.
Schmitz, Hermann. System der Philosophie. Vol. 2, part 1: Der Leib. Bonn: Bouvier, 1965.
Schmitz, Hermann. System der Philosophie. Vol. 3, part 1: Der leibliche Raum. Bonn: Bouvier, 1967.
Schmitz, Hermann. System der Philosophie. Vol. 3, part 2: Der Gefühlsraum. Bonn: Bouvier, 1969.
Schnack, Dieter and Rainer Neutzling. Kleine Helden in Not. Jungen auf der Suche nach Männlichkeit. Reinbek: Rowohlt, 1994.
Sewell, William H. “A Theory of Structure. Duality, Agency, and Transformation,” Amercan Journal of Sociology 1 (1992): 1–29.
Spain, Daphne. Gendered Spaces. Chapel Hill and London: University of North Carolina Press, 1992.
Sturm, Gabriele. Wege zum Raum. Methodologische Annäherung an ein Basiskonzept raumbezogener Wissenschaften. Opladen: Leske + Budrich, 2000.
Tal, Josef. Der Sohn des Rabbiners. Ein Weg von Berlin nach Jerusalem. Munich: Deutscher Taschenbuch-Verlag, 1987.
Terlinden, Ulla. Gebrauchswirtschaft und Raumstruktur. Stuttgart: Silberburg, 1990.
Vallet-Kleiner, Danielle. Istanbul – Helsinki (La traversée du vide). 21 Black & White and Colour Photographs. Montigny, 1996.
Wacquandt, Loïc J. D. “Toward a Social Praxeology: The Structure and Logic of Bourdieu’s Sociology,” in Bourdieu, Pierre and Loïc J.D. Wacquant. An Invitation to Reflexive Sociology, 1–59. Chicago: University of Chicago Press and Cambridge, UK: Polity Press, 1992. Also published in German as “Auf dem Wege zu einer Sozialpraxeologie,” in Reflexive Anthropologie, edited by Pierre Bourdieu and Loïc J. D. Wacquant, 17–93. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1996.
Wahrig, Gerhard. Deutsches Wörterbuch. Cologne: Mosaik, 1997.
Welsch, Wolfgang. Ästhetisches Denken. Stuttgart: Reclam, 1995.
West, Candace and Sarah Fenstermaker. “Doing Differences,” Gender & Society 9 (1995): 8–37.
West, Candace and Don H. Zimmermann. “Doing Gender,” Gender & Society 1 (1987): 125–51.
Wex, Marianne. ‘Weibliche’ und ‘Männliche’ Körpersprache. Hamburg. 1979.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2016 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Löw, M. (2016). The Constitution of Space. In: The Sociology of Space. Cultural Sociology. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-69568-3_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-69568-3_5
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, New York
Print ISBN: 978-1-137-48771-1
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-69568-3
eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)