Postmodern Space

8/8/2019 Postmodern Space

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Postmodern approaches

to space

Michiel Arentsen (0342653)

Ruben Stam (0313092)

Rick Thuijs (0312665)



Summary

The ‘post’ on the beginning of the word postmodernism means that there was a modern

way of thinking that proceeds the postmodern way of thinking. Knox and Marston

(2004) defined modernity as ‘a forward-looking view of the world that emphasises

reason, scientific rationality, creativity, novelty, and progress’. This means that ascientist should be able to withhold the truth and must, at all times, strive to discover

new things.

Postmodernism is a reaction on modernism. It emphasises the unclearness, the

fragmented, the multiformity, the missing of real conformity and of big ordering

principles in society. There is not one universal truth, but there are multiple views or

theories which always are bounded to place and time. Meanings are related to the given

context.

The postmodern way of thinking has taught geographers a lot. The most

important thing geographers learned from it is that observations are steered and

selected, coloured and organized by the ideas and expectations of the observer.

Postmodernism lays the emphasis on ‘the meaning of Geography’, instead of ‘the

material aspects’ of Geography (as modernism does).

The post-modern space is characterized through spatial variety over short

distances, through feeling for historical and scenic qualities on the spot, through a local

instead of regional architecture, through a revaluation of old business buildings and

through the introduction of playful or ironic elements in the physical surroundings.

An important geographical thinker on postmodern geography is Soja. He

introduces his epistemological approach to “space”. Three main concerns unfold from

Soja’s project. First and foremost, Soja makes the point that space is never given. It is

never an “empty box” to be filled, never only a stage or a mere background. On the

contrary, space is always a cultural constructed entity. It is part of the general culturalweb, and like any cultural entity space is formed and changed, accepted or rejected.

This is however a point that is made by many theorists on space.

The most important contribution of Soja to the postmodernism’s way of

thinking is that he visualized the other way (láutre) postmodernists look at being and

spatiality. As the title of his 1996 monograph indicates, he introduces the conception of

“Thirdspace” (lived space), in contrary with modernists who divided two spaces, the

conceived and the perceived space. Soja defines 'spatiality' as 'socially produced space'.

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Contents

1. Introduction 3

2. Modernism vs. Postmodernism 3

2.1 Modernism 32.2 Postmodernism 4

2.3 Critique on Postmodernism 6

3. Postmodernism in Geography 7

3.1 Edward Soja 7

4. Postmodernism and space 8

4.1 Soja’s theory on postmodern space 8

5. Conclusion 11

References 12

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1. Introduction

When you think of postmodernism you can

think of the movement in art, literature andarchitecture, but also in film and music. A

building such as the Groninger Museum

(figure 1) is seen as an example of postmodern

architecture.

But this isn’t the type of

postmodernism we want to study, the

philosophy behind the postmodern movement

in art, literature etcetera is. We are interested

in what the postmodern way of thinking is.

Everyone has heard of it, but they can’t, in a

few sentences, make clear what it is.

Figure 1: Groninger Museum

That’s why we’re going to explain what postmodernism is. In the next chapter

we will try to make clear what modernism is (the word ‘post’ in front of

‘postmodernism’ is there for a reason) and what the differences between modernism

and postmodernism are. In chapter three where going to explain how it influences

geography. This is done by introducing some thinkers of postmodernism and making

clear what the relation with space is. We will give examples where it is necessary, so

you can understand it more easily.

2. Modernism vs. Postmodernism

The ‘post’ on the beginning of the word postmodernism means that there was a modern

way of thinking that proceeds the postmodern way of thinking. So before we are going

to explain what postmodernism is, the modern way of thinking is being described.

2.1 Modernism

Knox and Marston (2004) defined modernity as ‘a forward-looking view of the world

that emphasises reason, scientific rationality, creativity, novelty, and progress’. This

means that a scientist should be able to withhold the truth and must, at all times, strive

to discover new things. Looking back to the past wasn’t a modern thing to do. Anotherimportant element of modernism is dichotomy and going out of boundaries. There are

only two ways of thinking. For instance black-white, reality-fiction, feeling-reason.

In the vision of the French (postmodern) philosopher Lyotard, modernism was

based on three starting-points or ‘Grands Récits’1:

• The subjection of and total control over the nature (economic rationalisation)

• The subjection of and total control over politics (political rationalisation)

• The possibility of gaining objective knowledge (scientific rationalisation)

The modern philosophy thought that people could think completely rational so that they

could obtain objective knowledge (this is called positivism) and therefor use this to do

what’s best for the human being. When people know everything or could know1 www.historischhuis.nl/Scripties/090202Posmod.html

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culture for each individual. Difference and diversity are very important to

postmodernists.7

Creativity, which is important for modernism, won’t be developed with the fixed

patterns and structures modernists are searching for. Postmodernists tend not to use

these fixed patterns and structures.8

Modernists see novelty and progress as a goal or objective, what must be achieved.

Postmodernists don’t see that as the most important thing to reach.

The modern way of thinking only consists of binary categories. Postmodernists

don’t think that there are only two ways of thinking (for instance city-village). With

each dichotomy you can add another dimension. This is a dimension of how a

person sees the connection of the dichotomy. The third dimension differs from

person to person. Someone can think that there’s more between the city and the

village.9

The way of reading and understanding a text isn’t the same as in modernism. In that

way of thinking the interpretation of a text is fixed. Every reader interprets a text

the same. But Derrida came up with the so called ‘deconstruction’ of language,

which means that every single word in a text can have thousand different meanings.Everyone has his own interpretation of a word.

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Postmodernism is also focused on consumption which nowadays is related with a

certain lifestyle. This lifestyle is part of one’s identity and distinctiveness. Advertising

strategies have reacted to this changing consumption pattern, by presenting products

not as newer, better, more efficient and more economical (like modernists would do),

but in terms of their association with a certain lifestyle. The utility of a product has

become less important in opposite to the symbolic meanings of product which is very

important in the postmodern way of thinking. Besides material consumption there’s

also visual and experiential consumption. This type of consumption can take the form

of television, sites on the internet, window shopping, watching people or visiting

museums.11

The next (modern!) table lets us see an overview of what exactly the differences are

between postmodernism and modernism12

:

Postmodernism Modernism

(Inter)subjectivity, discourses Objectivity, facts

Identification, experience Rationalisation

Relativism Absolutism

Deconstruction (what becomes) Discover, representation (what is)Practices, interactions, strategies Structures, systems

Hybrid Categories

Heterotopia Utopia

7 www.users.voicenet.com/~grassie/Fldr.Articles/Postmodernism.html8 ibid.9 www.colorado.edu/English/ENGL2012Klages/pomo.html10

www.historischhuis.nl/Scripties/090202Posmod.html11 Knox and Marston, 200412 Table 1: Postmodernism vs. Modernism : lecture of Arnout Lagendijk, 21-09-2004

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2.3 Critique on Postmodernism

Of course there is also critique on postmodernism. Critical persons think that

postmodernism is been locked up in it here and now, and that it is a blind mole

existence. They think postmodernism is a typical characteristic of civilizations

weariness. Postmodern thinkers have lost their critical view of the social structure. 13

Another critical point that is often made is that postmodern thinkers make

linkages, but they don’t judge anything. No writer knows where it is all about, is it

about a concept, style, streaming, historical period or an economic phase?

Also a critical point is made by students and other outsiders. They think that the

postmodern world is very complicated and much more difficult than the modern world.

It seems they can’t understand the postmodern world. An example is that there are in

the modern world only a few choices which you can make and in the postmodern world

there are much more choices.

13 www.apologetique.org/nl/artikelen/filosofie/pomo/TWM_CVP_Pomo_vaag_begrip.htm

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3. Postmodernism in Geography

We have explained that postmodernism as ‘a way of thinking’ came after modernism.

This was also the case in geography. In the post-modern way of thinking Geography is

seen different then in the modern way. The post-modern way of thinking in geography

was also a sort of reaction on the modernistic way. In the extreme form postmodernismhas only convinced a few geographers.

But, and that is very important, postmodernism has taught geographers a lot.

The most important thing geographers learned from it is that observations are steered

and selected, coloured and organized by the ideas and expectations of the observer.

Postmodernism lays the emphasis on ‘the meaning of Geography’, instead of ‘the

material aspects’ of Geography (as modernism does).14

In correlation with the shift to the ‘meaning of Geography’ is the rise of the

cultural geography. Since the rise of postmodernism, the interest in aspects of the daily

life in the Western culture was rising fast, and thus also Cultural Geography was rising.

Cultural geographers are studying the way how culture influences places.

Through cultural geography, some new themes are introduced in Geography. Some

examples are: race, gender, sexuality, language, subcultures and identity. Cultural

geographers are interested in the different uses of space by different people. In other

words: they are interested in the meaning of the space that is given by their ‘users‘. So

the users are you and me, everyone who is living in space. That also means that

meanings of space can be different for each other. Because everyone looks different to

space, and also everyone use the space on a different way. An easy example is a street.

Some children could find it a place to play, while taxi-drivers see it as a place to drive

their cars.15

The consequences of postmodernism were also visual. The modern space was

characterized through position separation, large-scale (because it looked efficient), aconcise rationality and spatial specialisation and standardization (see the residential

areas from the 60’s and the 70’s). The post-modern space is characterized through

spatial variety over short distances, through feeling for historical and scenic qualities on

the spot, through a local instead of regional architecture, through a renovation of old

business buildings and through the introduction of playful or ironic elements in the

physical surroundings.16

3.1 Edward Soja

Professor Soja teaches in the Regional and International Development (RID) area of Urban Planning and also teaches courses in urban political economy and planning

theory. After starting his academic career as a specialist on Africa, Dr. Soja has focused

his research and writing over the past 20 years on urban restructuring in Los Angeles

and more broadly on the critical study of cities and regions. His wide-ranging studies of

Los Angeles brings together traditional political economy approaches and recent trends

in critical cultural studies. Of particular interest to him is the way issues of class, race,

14

De Pater and Van der Wusten, 199615 www.geografie.nl/geografie/inhoud_show.php?id=18116 De Pater and Van der Wusten, 1996

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gender, and sexuality intersect with what he calls the spatiality of social life, and with

the new cultural politics of difference and identity that this generates.17

In addition to his work on urban restructuring in Los Angeles, Dr. Soja continues to

write on how social scientists and philosophers think about space and geography,

especially in relation to how they think about time and history. His latest book bringsthese various research strands together in a comprehensive look at the geohistory of

cities, from their earliest origins to the more recent development of what he calls the

"postmetropolis." His policy interests are primarily involved with questions of regional

development, planning and governance, and with the local effects of ethnic and cultural

diversity in Los Angeles.18

4. Postmodernism and space

4.1 Soja’s theory on postmodern spacePostmodern geography deconstructs the modernist logic of space in which reality leads

to ideology. This can lead to the consideration of imagined spaces, such as the utopia,

in which imagination leads to reality. But note that postmodern geography never

allows the discourse to remain on the imagination, but instead to return ever to the

material and the spatial. Space consists of “socially constructed worlds that are

simultaneously material and representational”19

Much of the work on critical spatiality is inspired by Foucault’s concept of

heterotopia and Henri Lefebvre’s monumental, ‘Production of Space’ , whose views are

extended by geographer Edward W. Soja who we mentioned earlier in the chapter of

postmodernism in geography. Soja introduces his epistemological approach to “space”.Three main concerns unfold from Soja’s project. First and foremost, Soja makes the

point that space is never given. It is never an “empty box” to be filled, never only a

stage or a mere background. On the contrary, space is always a cultural constructed

entity. It is part of the general cultural web, and like any cultural entity space is formed

and changed, accepted or rejected. This is however a point that is made by many

theorists on space.

The most important contribution of Soja to the postmodernism’s way of

thinking is that he visualized the other way (láutre) postmodernists look at being and

spatiality. As the title of his 1996 monograph indicates, he introduces the conception of

“Thirdspace”. Soja defines 'spatiality' as 'socially produced space'. Soja is arguing that:

“Spatiality [i.e. socially produced space] is a substantiated and recognizable

social product, part of a 'second nature' [i.e. the transformed and socially

concretised spatiality [[socially produced space]] arising from the application of

purposeful human labour] which incorporates as it [i.e. socially produced space]

socializes and transforms both physical and psychological spaces.

This seems to amount to the notion that social space produces more social

space, which,

17

www.sppsr.ucla.edu/dept.cfm?d=up&s=faculty&f=faculty1.cfm&id=25118 Ibid.19 www.cwru.edu/affil/GAIR/papers/2002papers/berquist.html

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http://www.sppsr.ucla.edu/dept.cfm?d=up&s=faculty&f=faculty1.cfm&id=251




apart from being circular, is no help whatsoever in understanding the social

processes

involved”

Figure 1: “ The trialectics of being” (Soja: 1996)

For Soja, spatiality is an essential aspect of human life and descriptions of the

world. He considers three modes of spatial thinking: perceived space, conceived space,

and lived space (note that they are not completely distinct, the lines dividing them are

blurred). The modernists divided space only in perceived and conceived space. Edward

Soja further identifies a third aspect to spatiality itself, one beyond more physical form

or mental construct, but an alternative that incorporates and transcends both. Soja uses

the concept of thirdspace to capture a radical new way of thinking that always posits an

alternative to binary conceptions of space. This conference posits that only within

thirdspaces lies the potential to be simultaneously a place of both built and socialhybrids. Thirdspaces are created by the effects of a changing culture, and are spaces of

transition; transition between localities and over time. They elude the reflection of a

single permanent power structure and are places of simultaneity and transience. They

relate to both poles of binary conceptions of cross-cultural space and yet at the same

time entirely transcend them. More than a mental place, thirdspaces hold the

possibility for socio-political transformation.

Figure 2: “ The trialectics of spatiality” (Soja: 1996)

Perceived space, Soja's Firstspace, consists mainly of concrete spatial forms,things that can be empirically mapped, but are also socially produced, as mediums and

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outcomes of human activity, behavior, and experience. This materialized, "physical,"

socially produced, empirically measurable space is space that can be directly sensed

and is open to relatively accurate measurement and description. Perceived space is thus

apparent in the concrete and mappable geographies of our lifeworlds, ranging from the

emotional and behavioral space "bubbles" which invisibly surround our bodies, to the

complex spatial organization of the social practices that shape our "action spaces" insuch contexts as households, neighborhoods, villages, cities, regions, and nations.

Conceived space (Soja's Secondspace) is that space that is constructed in mental

or cognitive forms (or, as Lefebvre puts it, it is "imagined"). Conceived space is

expressed in systems of "intellectually worked out" signs and symbols, that is, in the

written and spoken word. For Lefebvre, this is the dominant space in any society.

Located in these "dominating" mental spaces are the representations of power and

ideology.

Lived space (Soja's Thirdspace) consists of actual social and spatial practices,

the immediate material world of experience and realization. Lived space overlays

physical space, making symbolic use of its objects, and tends to be expressed in

systems of nonverbal symbols and signs. For Lefebvre lived space was both distinctfrom physical and mental space and an all-encompassing mode of spatial thinking, as

Soja puts it, a "transcending composite of all spaces" Lived space embodies the real and

imagined lifeworld of experiences, emotions, events, and political choices. As Soja

describes it, this space is "directly lived," the space of "inhabitants" and "users,"

containing all other real and imagined spaces simultaneously. Thus, Thirdspace is a

mode of thinking about space that draws upon both the material and the mental spaces

of perceived space and conceived space, but extends well beyond them in scope,

substance, and meaning. It is simultaneously real and imagined and more.20

Perceived Conceived Lived

Spatial Practice Representations of Space Spaces of Representation

First Space Second Space Third Space

Physical Space Mental Space Social Space

Surfaces Transparency Active Experience

Materialism Idealism Imaginative

Visual Geometric Phallic

Drawn from Lefebvre, The Production of Space, and Soja, Thirdspace.

Figure 3: “Perceived, conceived and lived space” (http://www.game-

research.com/art_simcity.asp)

Soja argues that there is no such thing as a purely postmodern city. He writes

more easily of a postmodern “transition” that may lead into something like a

postmodern city or a postmetropolis. All cities, Soja argues, are hybrid forms with

changing realities. This provides a good clue for our own work on ancient space, and

Soja provides practical help in interpreting such hybridities. He suggests six outlines to

20 Soja, 1996

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this postmetropolitan transition: (1) globalization of capital, labor, culture, and

information flows; (2) postfordist economic restructuring (such as high-technology

manufacturing, craft-based/design-intensive industries, and financial/business services,

all of which participate in very complex patterns of concentration and dispersal); (3)

restructuring of urban form (no centrality, with a methodological focus on multiple

localities instead of the city as a whole); (4) restructuring the social order (olderpolarities are replaced with fragmentations and intense rise of inequalities); (5)

“carceral cities” in which regulation is panoptical and pervasive; (6) simcities.21

5. Conclusion

To conclude our paper we can say that postmodernism has some influence on

Geography. The ways of approaching space has changed. In modernism there are two

spaces, the conceived and the perceived space. But Soja puts another dimension to

spatiality. He visualized the other way (láutre) postmodernists look at being and

spatiality. He defines it as lived space, a thirdspace. This space is an imagined space,

which consists of actual social and spatial practices, the immediate material world of

experience and realization. Lived space overlays physical space, making symbolic use

of its objects, and tends to be expressed in systems of nonverbal symbols and signs. The

most important contribution of postmodernism to today’s Geography is the way of

looking at the other.

21 Soja, 2001

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References

Knox, P. and S. Marston, Places and regions in global context: Human Geography,

Pearson Eduction Inc., New Jersey, 2004

Pater, B. de, H. van der Wusten, Het geografische huis. De opbouw van eenwetenschap. Coutinho, Muiderberg, 1996

Soja, E., Postmodern Geographies. The Reassertion of Space in Critical Social Theory,

Verso, London, 2001

Soja, E., Thirdspace. Journeys to Los Angeles and other real-and-imagined spaced ,

Blackwell Publishers Inc, Malden, 1996

Websites

www.apologetique.org/nl/artikelen/filosofie/pomo/TWM_CVP_Pomo_vaag_begrip.ht

m

www.colorado.edu/English/ENGL2012Klages/pomo.html

www.cwru.edu/affil/GAIR/papers/2002papers/berquist.html

www.geografie.nl/geografie/inhoud_show.php?id=181

www.historischhuis.nl/Scripties/090202Posmod.html

www.iath.virginia.edu/elab/hfl0242.html

www.sppsr.ucla.edu/dept.cfm?d=up&s=faculty&f=faculty1.cfm&id=251

www.users.voicenet.com/~grassie/Fldr.Articles/Postmodernism.html

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Postmodern Space