The cultural code of the city and the production of space
DOI: 10.23951/2312-7899-2025-2-56-71
The article explores the concept “code of space” proposed by Henri Lefebvre, still little known and rarely encountered in contemporary urban studies, and reveals the role of this code in the process of space production. The author analyzes the concepts “spatial practice”, “representations of space” and “representational spaces”, which are key in Lefebvre’s theory. She shows that spatial practice is associated with the perception of territory, representations of space with comprehension, and representational spaces with experience. At the same time, the production of space, understood as social practice, is also conditioned by three aspects: (1) the action of material forces and technologies, (2) the results of accumulated knowledge, the achievements of science and intellectual thought, and (3) the free process of signification and creation of meanings. The code of space allows us to understand what the produced space communicates, that is, to reach the level of its content and meaning, which means that such a code belongs primarily to the field of representations of space. However, the code of space makes it possible not only to conceptualize a particular space, but also to live in it and to produce it. In other words, the code of space correlates with both experience (representational spaces) and perception (spatial practice). The author argues that the cultural code of the city can be interpreted as one of the variants of the code of space and also demonstrates the existence in modern urban studies of three approaches to the interpretation of the concept “cultural code of the city”: culturological, semiotic and anthropological. The author reviews the main statements of the mentioned approaches and explicates some separate theses, which are poorly coordinated with each other. The article recognizes the need to create an integral method that can take into account the advantages of each of the presented approaches and overcome the existing differences.
Keywords: urban studies, code of space (spatial code), Henri Lefebvre, representations of space, representational spaces, spatial practice, urban semiotics, anthropology of city
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Issue: 2, 2025
Series of issue: Issue 2
Rubric: ARTICLES
Pages: 56 — 71
Downloads: 52