International Library of Sociology
2 total works
Lefebvre, Love and Struggle provides the only comprehensive guide to Lefebvre's work. It is an accessible introduction to one of the most significant European thinkers of the twentieth century. Rob Shields draws on the full range of Lefebvres writings, including many previously untranslated and unpublished works and correspondence. Topics covered include Lefebvre's early relationship with Marxism, his critique of the rise of fascism, as well as his Critique of Everyday Life and the significant work on urban space for which he is best known today.
Space and spatial practice has emerged as one of the key themes in the literature on modernity and post-modernity. Yet few attempts have been made to survey the theoretical terrain of space and modernity. Fewer still have endeavoured to apply this material in the form of concrete analysis. "Places on the Margin" attempts to correct the balance in three ways. First, it demonstrates the mutual relevance of sociology and geography. Second, it outlines a social theory of spatiality which focuses on the role of the spatial in making up culture. Third, it offers four case studies of the role of space in supporting social activities: Brighton and its place-image of the dirty weekend and the beach riots of Mods and Rockers in the 1960s, the cultural meaning of the Niagra Falls, the North-South divide in Britain and its role in national myths of British identity, and the Canadian spatialization of the Far North as the "Truth North Strong and Free" - a zone of purity and otherness where the distinctions upon which civilization is based break down.