Study On Henri Lefebvre’s Spatial Theory

Henri Lefebvre is a famous French Marxist scholar.His spatial theory research opened up the research of Marxist urban space paradigm.Urban problems are the source of many social problems.Studying Lefebvre’s spatial theory helps to think about the current social problems in China,such as regional incoordination and urban-rural antagonism.Except for the introduction,this article is mainly divided into four parts:The first part is the background of Lefebvre’s spatial theory.In theory,Lefebvre’s spatial theory originated from the academic background of the philosophical turn of linguistics in the 20 th century,and was mainly influenced by the ideas of Marx,Engels,Nietzsche and others;in reality,the research on Lefebvre’s spatial theory began after World War II.The phenomenon of urbanization in France,the French "May Storm" movement.These phenomena and events prompted Lefebvre’s research to turn to urban issues.The second part is the development process of Lefebvre’s spatial theory.Taking the three books of "Urban Revolution","Space and Politics",and "The Production of Space" as clues,I elaborated on the evolution of Lefebvre’s thoughts in the process of space research."Urban Revolution" is the starting point of Lefebvre’s urban space research.Lefebvre noticed that there is a contradiction between "urban planners" and "residents" in urban life.This contradiction stems from the "planners" neglecting the rights of the "residents",so he proposed the "urban revolution".To awaken the public’s awareness of "urban rights".With the deepening of research,Lefebvre pointed out that the reason for the neglect of“occupants” was that urban planning was manipulated by politics and capital.He concluded that “space is political” and proposed that “the political economy of space” should be used to study social production activities.And it extends the problem of social production to the problem of space production."The production of space" is the final stage of the research on Lefebvre’s spatial theory.Starting from the proposition that "(social)space is a product of(society)",the theory of "three-dimensional space dialectics" and "spatial history" was put forward,thereby establishing a space cognition system and a space history pedigree.The third part is the realistic critical form of Lefebvre’s spatial theory."Abstract space" generated under the capitalist.Its characteristic is eliminating differences,creating a homogeneous space,and to allow all commodities to be exchanged on the basis of homogeneity.The "abstract space" strengthens the capitalist dominance and also creates new problems: economically,capital dominates globalization,space becomes a commodity;Politically,capitalist ideology permeates the process of space production,which is embodied as a "center-periphery" hierarchical space hegemony;culturally,the symbolization of spatial production has led to the prevalence of “consumerism” and the fragmentation of daily life.The fourth part is the evaluation of Lefebvre’s spatial theory.In terms of rationality,Lefebvre’s spatial theory supplements the lack of research on spatial issues in traditional Marxist theories,adopts interdisciplinary research methods to examine space issues,and raises the understanding of space to an overall level;in terms of limitations,Lefebvre’s spatial theory deviated from the traditional Marxist theory and replaced the traditional Marxist principle of reproduction of social relations under the primacy of material production with "production of space",overemphasizing the importance of reproduction of production relations,leading Lefebvre to a utopian culture revolution.Generally speaking,the study of Lefebvre spatial theory has certain value.On the one hand,Lefebvre’s redefinition of the concept of space,the expansion of the concept of production and the interpretation of the spatialization of society provide us with a new perspective on the theoretical level of understanding human society and history;on the other hand,Lefebvre’s spatial theory the thinking about "urban rights" in this article has practical significance for the criticism of contemporary capitalist production methods,and has certain warning significance for us to pay attention to social fairness and justice and grasp the relationship between quality and quantity in development and construction.