Marx Social Space Theory And Its Contemporary Value

Time and space are always the basic dimensions of maintaining and evolution of human civilization. In the accumulation of time, human continue to create history, as well as the space conditions for survival by labor practice. However, Humanities and Social Sciences didn’t treat time dimension and space dimension equally, both in concentration and discussion. The theory explanation and the value of ascension of "Time- History" dimension had dominated the theoretical vision of the Humanities and Social Sciences research. But "Social- Space" dimension was neglected. Situation began to change in the second half of the twentieth Century. "Space" began to rise. It was represented as a previously ignored category and sphere. It began to carry specific social connotation, changing from pure geographical space into a social space. The Western Social Science generally showed a "Spatial Turn" in this period. There is a relationship exists between the primary contemporary space theory and Marx. It could be inheritance, development, introspection or critique. This means that Marx did not absent in the "Spatial Turn" of the contemporary social theory.In Marx’s view, social space is the space during the historical process of human society, which originates from human purposeful practice and also constructed and altered by human practical activities. The social space of human reality is a multidimensional complex social space. This article systematically teases it, depending on the establishment, process, main content and contemporary value of Marx Social Space Theory.The first part is "the establishment of Marx Social Space Theory". As the great geographical discovery and the Opening of New Sea-Route, human began to take the first step from "the National-Regional History" to "World History". Along with the space expansion of capital, capitalistic methods of production create enormous spatial changes in global space, city space and rural space. Such change is also the background of the establishment of Marx Social Space Theory. Basing on critique and inheritance on Democritus, Epicurus and Hegel’s space concept, Marx established and improved the social space theory system of his own. From the "doctoral dissertation", "capital", "1857-- 1858 manuscripts of economics" and the "Communist Manifesto", We can see its budding, establishment, development and maturity.The second part is "The Main Contents of Marx Social Space Theory". This part mainly introduces Marx’s opinion towards the real production process of human social space. Marx took "Capitalism" as "templet" of the real production process of human social space, revealing the production process of the capitalist social space, depicting the real prospect of production of human society space. Because of the extensity of capital accumulation, spatial production of capitalism gradually developed into a global space production. But it also created a global space of homogenization, and kept making space plunder towards poor countries and nationalities. For those capitalist countries, urban space is an important carrier of capital accumulation. However, over-capitalization of urban space also created series of space problems. The evident problems of these are class confrontation and housing shortage. As the development of "Urbanization", rural social space also had undergone a great change. Its disadvantage in spatial position is highlighted ceaselessly. A number of aspects are related to capitalistic social space. Marx caught three main dimensions: global spatial production, urban spatial production and the change of rural space. Through these, he outlined a real picture of capitalism changes especially the changes of capitalistic social space in the nineteenth century.The third part is "The Contemporary Value of Marx Social Space Theory". This part mainly digs from theoretical value and practical value, trying to find out Marx Social Space Theory’s guiding value on Chinese real social space nowadays. Marx Social Space Theory not only promoted the "Spatial Turn" of contemporary western social science and the development of new Marx Social Space Theory, but also pushed the Chinese Social Space Theory. Therefore it carries a great theoretical value. Meanwhile China has entered a high-speed development stage of spatial production. Marx Social Space Theory also carries a high practical value. On one hand, it is helpful for China to deal with global spatial production today. On the other hand, it also guides Chinese urban spatial production and dealing with the spatial contradiction of the dual social structure in the countryside and the cities.Foucault treats the twentieth Century as an era of "The Rise of Space". Now in the twenty-first century, in the huge social space, we are experiencing it, practicing according its rules, and being changed from it. Of course our discussion on space does not mean that the time is not important, but rather refers to that the space needs to be redefined relative to time. "Social Space" affects our world and our life continuously. To understand Marx Social Space Theory is now with profound significance.