Production and Reproduction of Space in the Second Cycle of Capital Accumulation; A Critique of Everyday Life in Lived Space

Document Type : Research Article

Authors

1 Ph.D. Candidate of Geography and Urban Planning, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran.

2 Associate Professor and Faculty Member, Department of Human Geography, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran.

Abstract

Problem statement: Lefebvre’s space enters the social realm by departing from the infinite space of mathematicians and the mental space of philosophers. According to Lefebvre, this space is both produced and consumed and is in a sense, a kind of manufactured commodity as well as a consumable product. The overlapping of material production, the production of ideology and the production of meaning in one place and at a time are recognized as key elements of the production of social space that is reproduced in a trialectical rather than a dialectical process. The overlapping of Lefebvre’s theory with the secondary circuit of capital accumulation claimed by Harvey has a profound effect on the concretization of capitalist function. The process of space production and reproduction in the second cycle of capital accumulation carries the products that most left-wing thinkers attribute to the reactionary ways of civilization. What is more important than the productions of capitalist space is the analysis of the process of production and reproduction of space in the second cycle, in which Harvey is known as a pioneer and main descriptor of Lefebvre’s theories. Interpolation and analysis of Lefebvre and Harvey’s theories on the critique of everyday life and how to escape the space of capital and the trialectic cycle are the main issues in this study.
Research objectives: The main purpose of this study is to critique everyday life in a lived space filled with the domination of capital by analyzing the processes of space production and its products, based on the Lefebvre and Harvey intellectual apparatus and their theoretical commonalities.
Research method: This is a fundamental research that is descriptive-analytical. The main issue has been explored using genuine reference sources and finally the critique of everyday life in the Lived Space.
Conclusion: This research has been conducted based on the hypothesis that “the everyday life of citizens in the Lived Space or the second cycle of capital accumulation implies citizens’ objectivity and passivity and consumerism” based on which we conclude that the capitalist space is moving with the proponents of the trialectical process towards the establishment of a passive (consumerist) citizen and the establishment of subject and object, whose effects also govern the Lived Space in addition to the urban space.

Keywords


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