Cities and the Beginning Urbanization. Henri Lefebvre in Contemporary Urban Studies Authors Anne Vogelpohl institut für humangeographie, goethe-Universität frankfurt am Main, 60325 frankfurt am Main, robert-Mayer-straße 6-8, Deutschland DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13147-011-0105-3 Keywords: Henri lefebvre, Urbanization, Production of space, Urban theory, Urban studies Abstract In recent years, Henri Lefebvre’s theories have gained almost canonical status in urban and spatial studies, particularly in Anglophone countries. Although scholars often quote Lefebvre, his theories, however, tend to confuse due to their complexity and opaque language. By reconstructing his terminology through a close reading, this paper aims to interrogate the characteristics and dynamics of Lefebvre’s terms and their current relevance with regard to empirical and theoretical urban studies. Besides the frequently applied concept of the production of space, Lefebvre’s thesis on the urbanization of society is a prominent part of his works. But ambiguities remain between the terms “city” and “urban” as well as between actual societal realities and virtual possibilities. Following Lefebvre, the “city” is described as a historical condition and as having nearly vanished with industrialization. In contrast, the “urban” is posited as the emergent society consisting of differences, so that the notion of the urbanized society is intrinsically tied to the differential space within which it evolves. The discussion focuses on the dialectical movement between terms as an approach to potential empirical applications in urban and spatial studies. Additionally, this elaboration serves as a basis for continuing the necessary development of Lefebvre’s theories. Downloads Download data is not yet available. References Brenner, N.; Elden, S. (2009): Introduction. 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Downloads PDF (German) Published 2011-08-31 Issue Vol. 69 No. 4 (2011) Section Research Article License Copyright (c) 2011 RuR Editors This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. Articles in Raumforschung und Raumordnung – Spatial Research and Planning are published under a Creative Commons license. From Vol. 79 No. 2 (2021), the license applied is CC BY 4.0. From Vol. 77 No. 1 to Vol. 79 No.1, articles were published under a CC BY-SA license. Earlier volumes have been re-published by oekom 2022 under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License CC BY 4.0. How to Cite 1.Vogelpohl A. Cities and the Beginning Urbanization. Henri Lefebvre in Contemporary Urban Studies. RuR [Internet]. 2011 Aug. 31 [cited 2024 May 5];69(4):233–243. Available from: https://rur.oekom.de/index.php/rur/article/view/796 More Citation Formats ACM ACS APA ABNT Chicago Harvard IEEE MLA Turabian Vancouver Download Citation Endnote/Zotero/Mendeley (RIS) BibTeX
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