1. The Spatial Turn in the Humanities
Dr. Ágnes Györke

2. The Structure of this Lecture
Conceptual change: shift from time to place
The concept of the flaneur
Gender, the flaneuse
The production of space, the importance of everyday life
Urban memory, the city as archive
Playable cities

3. 19th century historicism
The historicism of the 19th century subordinated the concept of space to the concept of time
Historicist thought linearized time and marginalized space by positing temporal stages of development; teleology, teleological world view
Time was seen as the dynamic carrier of social development and space was reduced to a fixed and neutral background
Universal master narratives were produced which did not take local differences into account; e.g. the civilizing mission, based on a belief in Western superiority (e.g., Joseph Conrad, The Heart of Darkness)

4. The Spatial Turn in the 20th Century
The reinsertion of the concept of space into the social sciences and the humanities
The recognition that space and local differences are as important in the unfolding of human affairs as time
Underlying assumption: space is a social construction relevant to the understanding of the different histories of human subjects and to the production of cultural phenomena.
A richer, more contextualized understanding of human experience and the production of culture emerged

5. … but when exactly?
Early 20th century urban theories: Georg Simmel, Walter Benjamin
1920s: The Chicago School
1960s: Henri Lefebvre, Michel Foucault. This is the time when the turn has become explicit; a profound critique of historicism; Focus on local differences, culturally specific ways to resist globalization, questioning universal master narratives, etc.

6. The role of the spatial turn in literary studies
Contextualisation; we need to pay attention to the context of cultural phenomena, literary works, ethnographic observations; i.e., analyse the specificities of their localities
Avoid relying on universal theories when analysing locally specific phenomena or literary works
The spatial approach is critical of historicism and teleology yet it is also critical of approaches that disregard historical contexts; a more sophisticated approach is needed

7. Urban Studies: An Interdisciplinary Field
„The geographic imagination is far too pervasive and important a fact of intellectual life to be left alone to geographers” /David Harvey/
Human geography, sociology, literary and cultural studies, political science, anthropology, history, art history, etc.
A challenge for literary scholars: what is the role of literary works in imagining space? How do novels, for instance, portray a city, life in the urban environment?
Monographs have been published which depict cultural history through literary works: John McLeod, Postcolonial London (2004); John Clement Ball’s Imagining London (2004); Vanessa Guignery, ed. Re-Mapping London (2008)
The approach still needs to be introduced in the East- Central European context: Budapest, Prague, Warsow, etc.

8. Urban Memory
The city as archive: artworks, novels, buildings and city spaces are material to be analysed
Musealised city centres and fantasyscapes of metropoles vs slums (one third of the world’s population lives in slums)
Various discourses: Jameson’s, which emphasises flattening, surfaces and exteriority and the discourse of cultural memory (Andreas Huyssen, for instance), which regards the city as the palimpsest of the past
Monuments function by metaphorical tropes to remind the citizenry of their relation to past deeds and events and to indicate their relation to utopia (Mark Crinson)
Memory is often epitomized by aimless wandering  the flaneur

9. Baudelaire’s Flaneur Baudelaire, „The painter of modern life” (1863)
“For the idler, for the passionate observer it becomes an immense source of enjoyment to establish his dwelling in the throng, in the ebb and flow, the bustle, the fleeting and the infinite” (Baudelaire)
“The poet is able to be away from home and yet to feel at home anywhere, to be at the very centre of the world, and yet to be unseen of the world”
Baudelaire, „The painter of modern life” (1863)
Charles Baudelaire ( )

10. The Flaneur Paul Gavarni, Le Flâneur, 1842.
Gustave Caillebotte, „Paris Street; Rainy Day ” (1877)

11. Robert Musil, A Man Without Qualities, 1930-1943
“Like all big cities, it consisted of irregularity, change, sliding forward, not keeping in step, collisions of things and affairs, and fathomless points of silence in between, of paved ways and wilderness, of one great rhythmic throb and the perpetual discord and dislocation of all opposing rhythms, and as a whole resembled a seething, bubbling fluid in a vessel consisting of the solid materials of buildings, laws, regulations, and historical traditions”
Vienna, last days of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy
The cover of the first edition of vol. 2

12. The tourist and the flaneur
Purposefully walks and travels
In search of meaning
A „ true urban hysteric” (Mark Crinson)
Interested in the mainstream, the spectacular
Dutiful, schematic
Aimlessly wanders
Not interested in meaning
Observes the world peacefully
Interested in the alternative, the hidden
Artistic, leisurely
The tourist
The flaneur

13. Walter Benjamin, 1929
„Even dreaming is forced to move along streets that are too well paved. And isn’t the city too full of temples, enclosed squares and national shrines to be able to enter undivided into the dreams of the passer-by, along with every shop sign, every flight of steps and every gateway? The great reminiscences, the historical frissons – these are all so much junk to the flâneur, who is happy to leave them to the tourist”

14. Flanerie and Gender
„The experience of anonymity in the city, the fleeting, impersonal contacts described by social commentators, the possibility of unmolested strolling and observation first seen by Baudelaire, and then analysed by Walter Benjamin, were entirely the experience of men” (Janet Wolff)
Women walking on the streets alone in Victorian London were prostitutes
They were not leisurely observing the environment but working
Middle class women were denied access to the public spaces of the city
In feminist discourse the flaneur represents men’s visual mastery over women (Rita Felski, Elizabeth Wilson, Janet Wolff etc.) Wandering through the city was a masculine freedom in 19th century Paris and London

15. Lefebvre and the production of space
„He didn’t know anything about how the economy works, how technology works… but he had a genius for intuiting what really was happening. Almost like an artist… he was probably the greatest philosopher on cities we have had”
His disciple, Manuel Castells
Henri Lefebvre ( )

16. The Production of Space (1974)
Basic assumption: space is socially constructed;
Social relations are inscribed in space; e.g. there are places you are not allowed to enter, places where the disabled cannot go, places exclusively for men, etc.
Place is planned – produced - for us but we also produce our own notions of space
„We are workers, producing our own factory just by walking down the street: that’s one way to summarize what I took away from Lefebvre’s The Production of Space”
Influenced postmodern theories of space (Edward Soja, David Harvey, etc.)

17. Everyday Life
Lefebvre’s concept of everyday life has also been influential: he saw it as a realm that was colonized by the commodity yet also an arena for meaningful social change
„All through his life he was preoccupied with a critical understanding of daily life lived in space. He was depressed by what he saw as the increasing penetration and control of everyday life by the state and its surveillant bureaucracy” (Edward Soja)
In the face of alienation (a basic notion in Marxist theories) moments offer a presence, a fullness; they are alive and connected  in everyday life

18. Flanerie and The Practice of Everyday Life (1980)
The flaneur is interested in the accidental, the everyday, the waste product of capitalism
No longer an artist; a detached observer of the city, critical of the practices of capitalism
Michel de Certeau,The Practice of Everyday Life

19. The panoptical view vs the flaneur’s perspective
Amsterdam, 2009
British Telecom Tower, London

20. Place and Space (Michel de Certeau)
Physical, planned
Trope of the map: it imposes order on space
Panoptical viewpoint
Imposes its rules and regulations on us
Lived, experienced
Trope of the tour: the flaneur observes space
The perspective of those who walk and transform place into space
Our subjective perceptions
Place
Space

21. Alternative tourism, or guided flanerie in the city
Budapest Beyond Sightseeing, Imagine Budapest, etc.
Alternative walks:
Poetic (places where poets lived at the beginning of the 20th century, for instance)
Architectural (e.g. Bauhaus)
Women in the city
Jewish district
Practical implications of social theory

22. Urban palimpsests
A city “a writing block on which words are written, erased or partly erased and written over, time and again” (Elizabeth Wilson)
Urban nostalgia: “it is the subtle pleasure of imaginatively experiencing the past from the detached standpoint of the present [. . .]. A movement whereby we reappropriate the present by acknowledging and understanding the past (Elizabeth Wilson)

23. Urban palimpsests – The House of Terror, Budapest

24. The House of Terror

25. The House of Terror

26. Housing Estate in Szeged

27. „Havanna” Housing Estate in Budapest

28. Memento Park, Budapest

29. Creative Cities, Playable Cities
Charles Landry, The Creative City (2000)
Interested in what makes cities successful
Redefines the concept of creativity
As opposed to the previous theories discussed: he is not interested in alternative visions and perspectives that are opposed to the mainstream but aims to collaborate with city planners and policy makers
His main presumption is that culture is a resource, an asset, which can make cities prosper economically
Culture is not simply a marginal add-on, it is beneficial to the economy
Creative Europe Programme : based on the assumption that culture enhances the industry

30. Ways of engaging with the built environment Opera House, Budapest, Sept. 2013

31. Bringing the built environment into dialogue with the inhabitants
The Medieval Astronomical Clock in Prague
600th years anniversary show

32. Encouraging engagement with the cultural heritage
The Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest
„Paint Up!” competition 2011

33. The production of space, literally
The Hall of Arts (Műcsarnok), Budapest
„Paint Up!” Competition
2012. October 6.

34. Hay-on-Wye, the town of books

35. Thank you for your attention!