Dr Andy Zieleniec, Lecturer in Sociology and Programme Director for Liberal Arts has a chapter included in a new publication. This is part of his ongoing interdisciplinary research into various aspects of the interface between space, culture and society.
The
Hermeneutics of the Urban Spatial Sociologies of Simmel, Benjamin and Lefebvre in
Janz, B. (ed.) (2017) Place, Space and Hermeneutics, Springer
Sociology
as a discipline has a long history of hermeneutic approaches to understanding
the complexity of interpreting meanings and actions. However, there is less
emphasis on the contribution of sociologists to theories of space and spatial
theories. Social life takes place and is shaped and moulded not only by actions
but the meanings and values that are attached through everyday life and
practice in, through and to space. This chapter will provide a discursive
introduction to the works of three seminal sociologists whose theories and
analysis explicitly address the spatial dimensions of social interaction, of
socio-spatial formations, of the impact and influence of the social production
of space. That is, the works of Georg Simmel (the first ‘sociologist of
space’), of Walter Benjamin (social and cultural critic of the city of
modernity) and of Henri Lefebvre (the major influence in the spatial turn of
the social sciences). Whilst I do not claim that any or all of these theorists
would have identified themselves with an explicitly hermeneutic approach,
philosophy or method a hermeneutic analysis can be applied to their works to
elucidate the practical application of their insights and perspectives. Taking
space seriously is not only important for the social and human sciences but
also for understanding space as an essential element of hermeneutic practice.
Each of these theorists has an explicit focus on the city and the urban which
can be treated hermeneutically as a text-analogue. That is, from the social,
cultural and historical context in which we are situated we can seek to
interpret and understand these theorists of space and spatial theories to
analyse and explain the similarities and differences, the continuities and
contrasts with our own urban times, experiences, spaces and places.
