CityReads│How Sociologists Study Space?

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How Sociologists Study Space?

In the interaction between structure and action, spaces are always constituted in the plural.

Martina Löw, 2016. The Sociology of Space: Materiality, Social Structures, and Action . New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Kusenbach, M. (2017). Martina Löw 2016: The Sociology of Space: Materiality, Social Structures, and Action . New York: Palgrave Macmillan. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 41(6), 1032–1034. doi:10.1111/1468-2427.12574

Source:https://www.palgrave.com/us/book/9781137487711

Geographers are always proud with the fact that space is their strong suit. But increasingly sociologists accept space as a field of study. A sociology professor at Technical University Berlin, Martina Löw is arguably the most eminent scholar of space, place and cities in contemporary German sociology, besides being a notable contributor to the fields of gender and education. It is therefore more than timely that her seminal work The Sociology of Space (originally published in German in 2001 and followed by a French translation in 2015) is translated and published in English. The book makes her sophisticated and original theory of space available in its entirety to a far wider international audience.

Of particular interest perhaps to international readers is one of Löw’s entry points stating that, despite increasing popularity in German urban and regional sociology, the concept of space (Raum in the original) has been undertheorized due to its historic associations with Nazi ideology.

The goal of this book is to formulate a sociology of space based on a processual concept of space that grasps the manner in which spaces develop. Löw hypothesize a social space that is characterized by material and symbolic components. All spaces (architectural spaces, urban spaces, regions, nation-states, bedrooms, recreation parks, river landscapes, etc.) are always also results of social production: not only in the sense that there are professions that plan and design these spaces, but also in terms of the challenging insight that spaces only become spaces for people inasmuch as they are—again and again and again—produced socially. In other words: the constitution of space is a performative act. In the interaction between structure and action, spaces are always constituted in the plural.

Space is constituted as a synthesis of social goods, other people, and places in imagination, through perception and memories, but also in spacing by means of the physical placement (building, surveying, deploying) of these goods and people at places in relation to other goods and people. In everyday life, the constitution of space (synthesis and spacing) often takes place in routines.

The book is clearly organized into seven chapters, with the first chapter explains why should sociology concern itself with space. Chapter 2 provides a solid foundation for Löw’s theory by chronicling the transition from an absolute to a relativist conception of space in philosophy and science, as well as offering critiques of various urban sociology classics. Chapter 3 clarifies the need for a new ‘processual’ and ‘relational’ notion of space, in the light of fundamental social and spatial changes such as the rise of modern mobility, virtual space and globalization, while placing special emphasis on childhood socialization

and embodiment. In chapter 4, Löw further zeroes in on her own theory by discussing agreements and disagreements with the spatial models of Elias, Lefebvre, Luhmann, Foucault, Harvey and Massey (among others).

Chapter 5 represents the longest and most important part of the book, a detailed description of Löw’s ‘dual’ conception of space as informed by, yet going beyond, Gidden’s structuration theory and Bourdieu’s habitus. First, on the level of ‘action’, Löw understands space to be a ‘relational arrangement of social goods and people (living beings) at places’ (p. 188). Space is constituted through two distinct processes called‘spacing’ and ‘operation of synthesis’. While ‘spacing’ refers to the (primarily material) placement of goods, people and information, ‘operation of synthesis’––unfortunately a somewhat unclear translation of the German Syntheseleistung––refers to the (primarily symbolic) linking of spatial elements into one unified space through ‘processes of imagination, perception, and memory’ (p. 189). As a result of placing and synthesis, spaces display ‘atmospheres’ which can be understood as sensual and emotional qualities that in turn influence action.

Of equal importance is the second level of Löw’s theory of space relating to‘structure’. Social structures are generated and reproduced by the above constitution of space. Essentially, social structures (which may also include ‘spatial’ structures) are unequal and cemented in wealth, status, knowledge, organization and association-based hierarchies. In Löw’s view, gender and class are fundamental aspects of all social actions, processes and structures, elevating them to the level of ‘structural principles’. Because the reproduction of structures is often rendered invisible through institutionalization, routinization, embodiment and unintended consequences, social change is difficult to

achieve yet it is ultimately possible. In sum, it is the dynamic ‘duality of space’ (p. 190) as rooted in action and social structure that gives Löw’s theory its unique complexity and connectivity.

Following this core part of the book, chapter 6 then attempts to demonstrate the empirical value of the theory through several analytic critiques and examples in the areas of education, gender and urban milieus.

Chapter 7 summarizes the sociology of space in eight theses.

1. Space is a relational arrangement of living beings and social goods at places. Space is constituted by two processes that must be analytically distinguished: spacing and the operation of synthesis.

2. Spaces are institutionalized when the arrangements remain in effect beyond individual action and entail conventional operations of synthesis and spacings.

3. We can speak of spatial structures when the constitution of space, that is, either the arrangement of social goods or people, or the synthesis of goods or people to spaces is inscribed into rules and secured by resources which are recursively incorporated in institutions independent of place and point in time. Spatial structures, like temporal structures, are also forms of social structures; together, they constitute the social structure. Action and structure are permeated by structural principles such as gender and class.

4. The possibilities of constituting spaces are dependent on the symbolic and material factors found in an action situation, on the habitus of the actors, on structurally organized inclusions and exclusions, as well as bodily capacity.

5. Spaces generate distributions which, in a hierarchically organized society, are generally unequal distributions or distributions that favor different groups of people. For this reason, spaces are often the object of social conflicts. Possibilities of utilizing money, credentials, rank, or association are decisive in enforcing arrangements; and the other way round, the possibility of utilizing spaces can become a resource.

6. Atmospheres are the external effectuality of social goods and people in their spatial arrangement as realized in perception. Due to atmospheres, people feel at home or strange in spatial arrangements. Atmospheres obscure the practice of placement.

7. The reproduction of spaces takes place repetitively in everyday life. Changes to individual spaces emerge as possible in relation to necessity, physical desire, other people’s manners of action, and the state of being considered “other.” Changes to institutionalized spaces or spatial structures must take place collectively with reference to the relevant rules and resources.

8. The constitution of space systematically generates places, just as places are needed to make the emergence of space possible. Place is thus both the goal and the result of placement. At one place, various spaces can emerge that coexist or compete with each other, or are negotiated in, for example, class- and gender-specific conflicts.

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