Hi Nadege,

I think you can have a look at Foucault's heterotopia,  Henri Lefebvre's spatial trialectics, and Edward Soja's Thirdspace. in all their conceptions, they argue that human-being create and modify (produce and reproduce) spaces which are not either place of oppressor or place of oppression. It means that the oppressor or just simply everyone who is influenced by power-relations creates a space within place of power through his/her everyday life experience. An example is Kubane where Kurdish people create their own spaces which is located in within the place of power, but governed and modified by themselves through their everyday life practices. Another example is West Bank or Gaza in occupied land of Palestine, in which Palestinians create their own living places through their everyday life experiences, through their resistance. Certainly this is a place of resistance, but it does not mean that resistance as its classic meaning is presented in the space, but as its influencing process through everyday life experiences of people who are living the oppression.

I hope it helps.

Roja

Yeah 'contested grounds' usually in some way or other. great question.

I'll have a think, got nothing yet :P

This is an awesome question, I can think of many positively framed theoretical structures but they all involve an underlying or omnipresent 'struggle' of some kind.

Some extrapolation of estrangement or anomie etc is always a contextual component, no matter how diaspora, empowerment models is used to colour it in and brighten it up. Um could the flanuer be the positive embodiment of a city? Completely at home, not oppressed as such as they get to 'choose' their struggles and instead the context is purpose rather than conflict?

Off the top of my head, i'll come back with more serious answers if I can find any. Theorists to cite etc.

Hi Nadege,

Probably, you could have a look on Debord 's Theory and also on the last published vol. of IJURR (Vol 39 n°4 july 2015). It could be useful.

Also the "delicious" work of Mathew Lamb "Negating the negation" and the book of Quentin Stevens (The Ludic City: Exploring the Potential of Public Spaces, Routledge 2007) could interest you.

Furthermore, if you're able to read some french writing articles (as your name suggest it), you could have a look  on the work of Michel Lussault (L'Homme spatial : La construction sociale de l'espace humain, Seuil 2007 ; De la lutte des classes à la lutte des places, Grasset 2009), of Maurice Blanc (as exemple : Maurice Blanc, « Espace, inégalité et transaction sociale », SociologieS [En ligne], Débats, Penser les inégalités, mis en ligne le 27 janvier 2012. URL : http://sociologies.revues.org/3832 ) and of course Michel de Certeau (l'Invention du Quotidien, Volume 1 Arts de Faire, Grasset 1980).

Finally, I try, in my work on public spaces, to proove that the dichotomy is not so pertinent and that there are many transactions that organize compromises.

Hope it could be usefull,

Christophe

Great answers, very helpful, thank you!! Merci!

Hi Nadege,

I think you can have a look at Foucault's heterotopia,  Henri Lefebvre's spatial trialectics, and Edward Soja's Thirdspace. in all their conceptions, they argue that human-being create and modify (produce and reproduce) spaces which are not either place of oppressor or place of oppression. It means that the oppressor or just simply everyone who is influenced by power-relations creates a space within place of power through his/her everyday life experience. An example is Kubane where Kurdish people create their own spaces which is located in within the place of power, but governed and modified by themselves through their everyday life practices. Another example is West Bank or Gaza in occupied land of Palestine, in which Palestinians create their own living places through their everyday life experiences, through their resistance. Certainly this is a place of resistance, but it does not mean that resistance as its classic meaning is presented in the space, but as its influencing process through everyday life experiences of people who are living the oppression.

I hope it helps.

Roja

You might be interested in some literature that employs complex systems theory to understand urban dynamics. Some examples would be Michael Batty, Hillier, and others. 

Another approach would be Mario Bunge's CESM(composition - environment - structure - mechanism) model. 

All them address urban systems as complex systems. 

Hope that might be helpful. 

I think, though not so directly, it is nearly an inescapable aspect of working on urban or urban related issues. Historically, urbanization has been a drain on rural space and life. Now, the current rural itself is part of urban or appendage to it. It is shaped by urban agents, processes, organizations, needs and technologies in many first world countries. Developing countries are following them hotly.  Rural spaces are gradually becoming backyards of agribusiness giants. Urban spaces are also configured by similar processes. How can we escape influences of the economy in ways we understand urban as long as we have a bird's eye view of the problem and not just a narrow professional concern? The economy differentiates skills, peoples, professionals, products, services and I think spaces also and hence we possibly can not refute this fact. You give it the name of capitalism, I call it in plain, simple and non polemical way- economy.

If this process of differentiation is explored one can encounter oppression and resistance. However, the lens of oppression/resistance to start with as a researcher is not always a good idea as it will make everything come out of this dialectic. And not include things which have come out of other factors. Everything urban has not come out of resistance or oppression but also cooperation and bonhomie.

I have a recent short paper on transformation of spaces:

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09614524.2015.986066.

It might interest some of you.

Best

Hi Nadege,

I also thought of Michel de Certeau and his analysis of strategies and tactics in "The practice of everyday life" (ISBN 0-520-06168-3 ). I think there is still something of that dualism in it you've been talking about.

Like Roja I recommend Michel Foucault, because his theory of power explicitly challenges that dichotomy. There are many scholars in urban studies that draw on Foucaultian perspectives. One I found quite inspiring is:

Pløger, John: Foucault's Dispositif and the City, Planning Theory, 7, 51–70, doi:10.1177/1473095207085665, 2008.

Maybe you can go on from there.

Best,

Moritz

Dear Nadège,

You might also be interested in the notion of coproduction of public spaces, which has been discussed a lot by researchers in the last decade. Some see it as an escape route from the dichotomy you describe. Some don't believe in such short-cuts. See for example 

this paper by Diana Mitlin

http://eau.sagepub.com/content/20/2/339.full.pdf+html

See also the denounciation of the notion of co-production as a neoliberal imposture:

Mark Swilling on Cape Town for example

http://usj.sagepub.com/content/51/15/3180.full.pdf+html

and this chapter by Sylvy Jaglin and Alain Dubresson on African cities:

http://horizon.documentation.ird.fr/exl-doc/pleins_textes/divers10-07/010035259.pdf

or this book by C. Delabaere:

http://www.clio-cr.clionautes.org/IMG/article_PDF/La-fabrique-de-l-espace-public-Ville-paysage-et-democratie_a3435.pdf

and this book by Michel Bassand, Vincent Kaufmann, Dominique Joye: les enjeux de la sociologie urbaine

and this paper by C. Gorra-Gobin

http://www.persee.fr/doc/geoca_1627-4873_2001_num_76_1_2499

Best regards

d.

Foucault's sees power in a sense as it produces things. In that sense use of Foucault writings will make one escape this dichotomy. But at another level there are many similarities  between Marx and Foucault. Pls. look at the following article.

http://core.ac.uk/download/files/108/101106.pdf

Best Regards

Nadege,

this is a central question when trying to understand both how urbanity is constructed, produced and reproduced. A lot of the relevant "classics" are already mentioned by previous respondents. I suggest to look at assemblage theory as an additional, alternative and / or complimentary framework - you might want to look at Colin McFarlane (2011) Assemblage and critical urbanism, City: analysis of urban trends, culture, theory, policy, action, 15:2, 204-224, DOI: 10.1080/13604813.2011.568715 for a good overview and introduction.

Bruno Latour and Actor-Network theory, as well as Deleuze and Guattari offer relevant insights, as does Derrida.

In my own research and teaching I tend to foreground the concepts of conflict, contestation and negotiation as persistent and continuous fundamentals of urban conditions, and the inevitable co-existence of conflicting positions and agendas that play themselves out and simultaneously are played out.

You might also look at Eric Swyngedouw's work, looking at metabolism and hybridity as explanatory frameworks for urban conflicts.

For another interesting perspective look at Doreen Massey, On Space.

Best,

Joern

Perhaps a dialectical approach that considers the balance in tension and agreement, advancing spatial superimposition and liminal experiences, drawing a parallel with the notion of entanglement in quantum mechanics:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/268516365_LIMINALITY_AND_AUTHENTICITY_EXPERIENTIAL_AND_SPATIAL_SUPERIMPOSITIONS_IN_URBAN_DESTINATIONS?ev=prf_pub

Conference Paper LIMINALITY AND AUTHENTICITY: EXPERIENTIAL AND SPATIAL SUPERI...

Look up literature on "third places/ third spaces," there is a book by Oldenberg on this that opened up some doors; also books on social capital, see Better Together by Robert D Putnam; and standard intros to social capital by Halpern and others.

Hi,

Yes as suggested by Clinton , notion of "third place"(tiers espace) could also be useful . You have a great book of Jean Viard (1990. Le tiers espace. Esai sur la nature) and an interresting article of Vanier (Qu'est ce que le tiers espace? ' Revue de Géographie Alpine, n*88, 2000, pp.

Simone, AbdouMaliq. For the City Yet to Come. Duke University Press, 2004.

Simone et al. “Assembling Douala: Imagining Forms of Urban Sociality.” In Alev Cinar and Thomas Bender eds. Locating the City: Urban Imaginaries and the Practices of Modernity. Minneapolis and London: University of Minnesota Press, 2006.

In my hypothesis the concept of city (town, urban) must always be investigated through the rural/urban relationships which are also analised in term of oppression and resistance. This is the way add relativity when the topic is used for urban space. Every place, every "milieu" can be understood through the opposite couple. But the most important now is to leave the concept of "space" for understanding and acting fo sustainable "milieu" urban or rural. I tied to replace this problematic  by the associated concepts of "culture de la nature" and "mode d'habiter" in order to enhance the relation of inhabitant to each place he inhabits cf. Nicole Mathieu Call for the interdisciplinary concept of sustainable milieu and other titles in French on Sustainable city. 

Thanks but do you agree with my position?

Dear Mathieu,

Oppression /resistance binary opposition explains a substantial part of the problem as resources are scarce. But can we neglect a part of making of the city which is done for creating public goods for which people cooperate? Is there not sizeable consensus with regard to these? With appropriate compensating mechanisms in place resistance of people whose resources are being appropriated (for making the city) can be converted into either willful acceptance or significantly lessened.

Best Regards

Mukul Kumar

Dear  Nadege Rolland-Samé 

You can see the following link

Workshop on Public Libraries and the Contemporary City

August 12, 2014 Rudolf 1 Comment

From November 11 until 14, 2014 an international workshop of the Network on Libraries in Urban Space will take place at HTW Chur/Switzerland.

The International Exploratory Workshop will deal with questions concerning Public Libraries and the contemporary city. It will treat questions from the fields of library and information science, architecture as well as sociology in an interdisciplinary manner.

This workshop is funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF). The number of participants is limited. Researchers in the field of Public Libraries and Urban Space can apply for participation – not only to the workshop but also to the Network NLUS. Please contact us using the contact form.

Richard Sennett's "Flesh and Stone" provides a sophisticated and historically grounded analysis of urban space in terms of interactions of bodies and sensory impact.

Like, everyone else, I recommend looking into notions of a "third space" and Edward Soja and even Homi Bhahba have interesting things to say on the matter of transgressing the binary that you've set up.

I think Doreen Massey's For Space (2005) might be particularly useful for you as she posits space as something defined by agents' intra-activity and thus problematises dualistic thinking whereby communities are either implicitly at home or rendered outside the hegemonic politics of space. For her, space is co-produced by the very binaries set up in urban space, and thus the minority culture - whether that's racial, religious, social, or geographical - has a key role to play in the production and maintenance of space.

Dear Nadege,

perhaps I have an interesting suggestion for you: I just uploaded the introduction to the volume I published with a colleague, - Urban Rituals in Italy and the Netherlands. Historical Contrasts in the Use of Public Space, Architecture and the Urban Environment - on the relationship between architecture and use: as art historian and architect some years ago working within Women's Studies in the Faculty of Architecture, Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands. Hope our introduction will be helpful!

kind regards, Heidi de Mare 

Chapter 1993 Urban Rituals in Italy and the Netherlands

HI,

Bourdieu has also made some interesting observations about social spaces that can be studied in the context of urban spaces. 

Look my papers but in French Approches urbaines insolites in Natures Sciences Societies and For constructing an interdisciplinary concept of sustainable urban milieu

Hi Heidi

Have a look at my paper, "Contrasting Resistance" History and Anthropology journal,  Which I have now uploaded. I discuss space there.

Best

Amos Megged

You might be interested in Jon Argaman "Cairo: The Myth of a City on the Verge of Explosion," Jaddalya, February 11, 2014.

hope it helps 

Nicoletta Pellegrino