The Spatial Logic of Social Struggle: A Bourdieuian Topology

Pierre Bourdieu's theory of practice is widely regarded as among the most innovative and illuminating fruits of recent social thought. As evidence mounts that the "spatial turn" in the social sciences and humanities is no mere theoretical fad, but rather an enduring paradigm of social and cultural research, Bourdieu's status as a profoundly spatial thinker takes on a renewed importance. The Spatial Logic of Social Struggle: A Bourdieuian Topology focuses on Bourdieu's philosophy of space, arguing that space is at once a condition for social knowledge, a methodological instrument, and a physical context for practice. By considering Bourdieu's theory of social space and fields alongside his several accounts of socially potent physical spaces, Nikolaus Fogle develops an understanding of the systematic co-determinations between social and physical space. He traces Bourdieu's ideas about the spatiality of social life through his investigations of Algerian peasant villages and Gothic cathedrals, as well as spaces of class, lifestyle and cultural creation, revealing that social and environmental struggles are only logical insofar as they are topological. He also demonstrates how a Bourdieuian dialectical understanding of social and physical space can be brought to bear on contemporary issues in architecture and urban development. This book will be useful and accessible not only to philosophers, but also to architects, geographers, sociologists, and other scholars in the social sciences and humanities who take an interest in the social theory of space.

Table of Contents:
Chapter 1 Introduction Chapter 2 Chapter 1. Social Topology Chapter 3 Chapter 2. The Structures of Physical Space Chapter 4 Chapter 3. The Dialect of Social Space and Physical Space Chapter 5 Chapter 4. Creative Destruction in Urban Care Chapter 6 Chapter 5. Deconstructionist Architecture and Social Reproduction

About the Author :
Nikolaus Fogle is lecturer in philosophy at Renmin University of China.

Review :
The author indicates convincingly that Bourdieu's conception of space has implications for thinking in geography, architecture and urban sociology-fields in which Bourdieu has not been much deployed as a thinker.... This exposition of Bourdieu compares well with recent books on him which too often confine his work to the field of sociology. This brilliantly highlights the interconnectedness of Bourdieu's fieldwork and philosophy and its applicability to everyday issues. Pierre Bourdieu is one of the most spatial of social theorists and the most useful for a practical understanding of the role of architecture and urban design in social reproduction. Fogle clearly articulates Bourdieu's socio-spatial dialectic from a philosophical perspective. He applies this work to understand the creative destruction of capitalist urban development and the reproduction of social class under the guise of 'critical' architectural practice. The Spatial Logic of Social Struggle represents a major contribution to both the spatial turn in social theory and the social critique of urban spatial practice. Fogle's The Spatial Logic of Social Struggle brings to the fore an important but to a large extent overlooked domain of study in Bourdieu's oeuvre: the dynamics between social and spatial structures. It is a piece of brilliant scholarly work, erudite, enlightening, and pedagogically clear. In addition it is indeed a pleasure to read.