Sixteenth International Conference on New Directions in the Humanities

Abstract

With society currently in the midst of contemporary capitalism, there has become an increasingly evident socio-spatial problematic. The geography of class, gender, and race in urban settings has capitulated itself to rigid boundaries, indicating that spaces of injustice are to be separate from those of justice. It is important to note, that while the intersection of space, society, and justice may seem new to the modern inquirer, in actuality, the dialectic of socio-spatiality has always been a part of the canon of theory. Henri Lefebvre, a preeminent French Marxist philosopher and sociologist is known for his critique of the “everyday life.” Within his book, “The Production of Space,” Lefebvre argues that, “The world of commodities would have no ‘reality’ without such [spatial] moorings or points of insertion, or without their existing as an ensemble.” Which is to say, that the significance of the material world would be obliterated without the establishment and subsequent understanding of space. This paper will review Henri Lefebvre’s theory of space in relation to urbanity. Moreover, this paper will question the significance of space in creating boundaries of class, gender, and race within an urban setting. Building upon the ideas of Friedrich Nietzsche and Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, this paper will explore the false consciousness of space in the urban dynamic, with the goal of understanding how space produces, imposes, and reinforces a socio-spatial problematic.