Postmodern approaches

to space

Michiel Arentsen (0342653)

Ruben Stam (0313092)
Rick Thuijs (0312665)
Summary
The ‘post’ on the beginning of the word postmodernism means that there was a modern
way of thinking that proceeds the postmodern way of thinking. Knox and Marston
(2004) defined modernity as ‘a forward-looking view of the world that emphasises
reason, scientific rationality, creativity, novelty, and progress’. This means that a
scientist should be able to withhold the truth and must, at all times, strive to discover
new things.
Postmodernism is a reaction on modernism. It emphasises the unclearness, the
fragmented, the multiformity, the missing of real conformity and of big ordering
principles in society. There is not one universal truth, but there are multiple views or
theories which always are bounded to place and time. Meanings are related to the given
context.
The postmodern way of thinking has taught geographers a lot. The most
important thing geographers learned from it is that observations are steered and
selected, coloured and organized by the ideas and expectations of the observer.
Postmodernism lays the emphasis on ‘the meaning of Geography’, instead of ‘the
material aspects’ of Geography (as modernism does).
The post-modern space is characterized through spatial variety over short
distances, through feeling for historical and scenic qualities on the spot, through a local
instead of regional architecture, through a revaluation of old business buildings and
through the introduction of playful or ironic elements in the physical surroundings.
An important geographical thinker on postmodern geography is Soja. He
introduces his epistemological approach to “space”. Three main concerns unfold from
Soja’s project. First and foremost, Soja makes the point that space is never given. It is
never an “empty box” to be filled, never only a stage or a mere background. On the
contrary, space is always a cultural constructed entity. It is part of the general cultural
web, and like any cultural entity space is formed and changed, accepted or rejected.
This is however a point that is made by many theorists on space.
The most important contribution of Soja to the postmodernism’s way of
thinking is that he visualized the other way (l´autre) postmodernists look at being and
spatiality. As the title of his 1996 monograph indicates, he introduces the conception of
“Thirdspace” (lived space), in contrary with modernists who divided two spaces, the
conceived and the perceived space. Soja defines 'spatiality' as 'socially produced space'.

1
Contents
1. Introduction 3

2. Modernism vs. Postmodernism 3

2.1 Modernism 3
2.2 Postmodernism 4
2.3 Critique on Postmodernism 6

3. Postmodernism in Geography 7
3.1 Edward Soja 7

4. Postmodernism and space 8

4.1 Soja’s theory on postmodern space 8

5. Conclusion 11

References 12

2
1. Introduction
When you think of postmodernism you can
think of the movement in art, literature and
architecture, but also in film and music. A
building such as the Groninger Museum
(figure 1) is seen as an example of postmodern
architecture.
But this isn’t the type of
postmodernism we want to study, the
philosophy behind the postmodern movement
in art, literature etcetera is. We are interested
in what the postmodern way of thinking is.
Everyone has heard of it, but they can’t, in a Figure 1: Groninger Museum
few sentences, make clear what it is.
That’s why we’re going to explain what postmodernism is. In the next chapter
we will try to make clear what modernism is (the word ‘post’ in front of
‘postmodernism’ is there for a reason) and what the differences between modernism
and postmodernism are. In chapter three where going to explain how it influences
geography. This is done by introducing some thinkers of postmodernism and making
clear what the relation with space is. We will give examples where it is necessary, so
you can understand it more easily.

2. Modernism vs. Postmodernism

The ‘post’ on the beginning of the word postmodernism means that there was a modern
way of thinking that proceeds the postmodern way of thinking. So before we are going
to explain what postmodernism is, the modern way of thinking is being described.

2.1 Modernism
Knox and Marston (2004) defined modernity as ‘a forward-looking view of the world
that emphasises reason, scientific rationality, creativity, novelty, and progress’. This
means that a scientist should be able to withhold the truth and must, at all times, strive
to discover new things. Looking back to the past wasn’t a modern thing to do. Another
important element of modernism is dichotomy and going out of boundaries. There are
only two ways of thinking. For instance black-white, reality-fiction, feeling-reason.
In the vision of the French (postmodern) philosopher Lyotard, modernism was
based on three starting-points or ‘Grands Récits’1:
• The subjection of and total control over the nature (economic rationalisation)
• The subjection of and total control over politics (political rationalisation)
• The possibility of gaining objective knowledge (scientific rationalisation)
The modern philosophy thought that people could think completely rational so that they
could obtain objective knowledge (this is called positivism) and therefor use this to do
what’s best for the human being. When people know everything or could know
1
www.historischhuis.nl/Scripties/090202Posmod.html

3
everything, it was possible to create the best environment to live in, politically and
naturally. The growing knowledge of the social and natural reality would lead to a
completely rational society and the history would be conquered.2
The period of modernity started in the 16th century, the time of the Renaissance
and the emergence of capitalism. The world of scientific discoveries and commerce
slowly took over the place of the world focused on the past. The philosophical
movement of modernism arose in the time of the Enlightenment (18th century) where
the belief in universal human progress and the sovereignty of scientific reasoning
became important. The philosophers were (or claimed to be) rational and were
searching for universal laws. The modern way of thinking developed through the
industrial revolution. Great progress was being made with the production that became
more efficient and more structured. At the end of the industrial revolution the modern
way of thinking was widely accepted.3
Until the 60’s of the 20th century, modernism was the dominant philosophy and
also the dominant movement in art. But through the years the belief in improvement
slowly faded because of some events that happened. The First World War, the collapse
of the Wallstreet-index of 1929, Stalinism and national-socialism made scientists and
philosophers question the rationality of humans. 4

2.2 Postmodernism
Postmodernism is a complicated term, or set of ideas, that emerged in academic studies
in the mid-80’s of last century, but it’s not clear exactly when postmodernism begins.
It’s also hard to define, because it is a term which appears in many different disciplines,
such as art, architecture, music, film, literature, sociology, communications, fashion,
and technology. Postmodernism emphasises the unclearness, the fragmented, the
multiformity, the missing of real conformity and of big ordering principles in society.
There is not one universal truth, but there are multiple views or theories which always
are bounded to place and time. Meanings are related to the given context. 5
Another definition is given in Knox and Marston (2004). They say that
postmodernity ‘is a view of the world that emphasizes openness to a range of
perspectives in social inquiry, artistic expression, and political empowerment.’ The
perspective something is approached and the context something is put in is essential to
understand the meaning of it.
There are many differences between the modern and the postmodern way of
thinking. Here some important differences are given:
ƒ In modernism past is seen as something to forget. It is behind us and now we must
look forward and make progress. A postmodernists sees the past as a manifold of
events which can’t be seen as one, because every event isn’t the same as the other.
And these events also happened in another time where the world was different.6
ƒ In modernism there wasn’t place for cultural diversity. There is only one best
culture (the modern one) and other cultures are accepted, but are seen as inferior.
According to postmodernists there isn’t an universal best culture, but there is a best

2
www.historischhuis.nl/Scripties/090202Posmod.html
3
Knox and Marston, 2004
4
www.historischhuis.nl/Scripties/090202Posmod.html
5
De Pater and Van der Wusten, 1996
6
www.iath.virginia.edu/elab/hfl0242.html

4
 culture for each individual. Difference and diversity are very important to
postmodernists.7
ƒ Creativity, which is important for modernism, won’t be developed with the fixed
patterns and structures modernists are searching for. Postmodernists tend not to use
these fixed patterns and structures.8
ƒ Modernists see novelty and progress as a goal or objective, what must be achieved.
Postmodernists don’t see that as the most important thing to reach.
ƒ The modern way of thinking only consists of binary categories. Postmodernists
don’t think that there are only two ways of thinking (for instance city-village). With
each dichotomy you can add another dimension. This is a dimension of how a
person sees the connection of the dichotomy. The third dimension differs from
person to person. Someone can think that there’s more between the city and the
village.9
ƒ The way of reading and understanding a text isn’t the same as in modernism. In that
way of thinking the interpretation of a text is fixed. Every reader interprets a text
the same. But Derrida came up with the so called ‘deconstruction’ of language,
which means that every single word in a text can have thousand different meanings.
Everyone has his own interpretation of a word. 10

Postmodernism is also focused on consumption which nowadays is related with a

certain lifestyle. This lifestyle is part of one’s identity and distinctiveness. Advertising
strategies have reacted to this changing consumption pattern, by presenting products
not as newer, better, more efficient and more economical (like modernists would do),
but in terms of their association with a certain lifestyle. The utility of a product has
become less important in opposite to the symbolic meanings of product which is very
important in the postmodern way of thinking. Besides material consumption there’s
also visual and experiential consumption. This type of consumption can take the form
of television, sites on the internet, window shopping, watching people or visiting
museums. 11

The next (modern!) table lets us see an overview of what exactly the differences are
between postmodernism and modernism12:

Postmodernism Modernism
(Inter)subjectivity, discourses Objectivity, facts
Identification, experience Rationalisation
Relativism Absolutism
Deconstruction (what becomes) Discover, representation (what is)
Practices, interactions, strategies Structures, systems
Hybrid Categories
Heterotopia Utopia

7
www.users.voicenet.com/~grassie/Fldr.Articles/Postmodernism.html
8
ibid.
9
www.colorado.edu/English/ENGL2012Klages/pomo.html
10
www.historischhuis.nl/Scripties/090202Posmod.html
11
Knox and Marston, 2004
12
Table 1: Postmodernism vs. Modernism : lecture of Arnout Lagendijk, 21-09-2004

5
2.3 Critique on Postmodernism

Of course there is also critique on postmodernism. Critical persons think that

postmodernism is been locked up in it here and now, and that it is a blind mole
existence. They think postmodernism is a typical characteristic of civilizations
weariness. Postmodern thinkers have lost their critical view of the social structure. 13
Another critical point that is often made is that postmodern thinkers make
linkages, but they don’t judge anything. No writer knows where it is all about, is it
about a concept, style, streaming, historical period or an economic phase?
Also a critical point is made by students and other outsiders. They think that the
postmodern world is very complicated and much more difficult than the modern world.
It seems they can’t understand the postmodern world. An example is that there are in
the modern world only a few choices which you can make and in the postmodern world
there are much more choices.

13
www.apologetique.org/nl/artikelen/filosofie/pomo/TWM_CVP_Pomo_vaag_begrip.htm

6
3. Postmodernism in Geography
We have explained that postmodernism as ‘a way of thinking’ came after modernism.
This was also the case in geography. In the post-modern way of thinking Geography is
seen different then in the modern way. The post-modern way of thinking in geography
was also a sort of reaction on the modernistic way. In the extreme form postmodernism
has only convinced a few geographers.
But, and that is very important, postmodernism has taught geographers a lot.
The most important thing geographers learned from it is that observations are steered
and selected, coloured and organized by the ideas and expectations of the observer.
Postmodernism lays the emphasis on ‘the meaning of Geography’, instead of ‘the
material aspects’ of Geography (as modernism does). 14
In correlation with the shift to the ‘meaning of Geography’ is the rise of the
cultural geography. Since the rise of postmodernism, the interest in aspects of the daily
life in the Western culture was rising fast, and thus also Cultural Geography was rising.
Cultural geographers are studying the way how culture influences places.
Through cultural geography, some new themes are introduced in Geography. Some
examples are: race, gender, sexuality, language, subcultures and identity. Cultural
geographers are interested in the different uses of space by different people. In other
words: they are interested in the meaning of the space that is given by their ‘users‘. So
the users are you and me, everyone who is living in space. That also means that
meanings of space can be different for each other. Because everyone looks different to
space, and also everyone use the space on a different way. An easy example is a street.
Some children could find it a place to play, while taxi-drivers see it as a place to drive
their cars.15
The consequences of postmodernism were also visual. The modern space was
characterized through position separation, large-scale (because it looked efficient), a
concise rationality and spatial specialisation and standardization (see the residential
areas from the 60’s and the 70’s). The post-modern space is characterized through
spatial variety over short distances, through feeling for historical and scenic qualities on
the spot, through a local instead of regional architecture, through a renovation of old
business buildings and through the introduction of playful or ironic elements in the
physical surroundings. 16

3.1 Edward Soja

Professor Soja teaches in the Regional and International Development (RID) area of
Urban Planning and also teaches courses in urban political economy and planning
theory. After starting his academic career as a specialist on Africa, Dr. Soja has focused
his research and writing over the past 20 years on urban restructuring in Los Angeles
and more broadly on the critical study of cities and regions. His wide-ranging studies of
Los Angeles brings together traditional political economy approaches and recent trends
in critical cultural studies. Of particular interest to him is the way issues of class, race,

14
De Pater and Van der Wusten, 1996
15
www.geografie.nl/geografie/inhoud_show.php?id=181
16
De Pater and Van der Wusten, 1996

7
gender, and sexuality intersect with what he calls the spatiality of social life, and with
the new cultural politics of difference and identity that this generates. 17

In addition to his work on urban restructuring in Los Angeles, Dr. Soja continues to
write on how social scientists and philosophers think about space and geography,
especially in relation to how they think about time and history. His latest book brings
these various research strands together in a comprehensive look at the geohistory of
cities, from their earliest origins to the more recent development of what he calls the
"postmetropolis." His policy interests are primarily involved with questions of regional
development, planning and governance, and with the local effects of ethnic and cultural
diversity in Los Angeles.18

4. Postmodernism and space

4.1 Soja’s theory on postmodern space

Postmodern geography deconstructs the modernist logic of space in which reality leads
to ideology. This can lead to the consideration of imagined spaces, such as the utopia,
in which imagination leads to reality. But note that postmodern geography never
allows the discourse to remain on the imagination, but instead to return ever to the
material and the spatial. Space consists of “socially constructed worlds that are
simultaneously material and representational”19
Much of the work on critical spatiality is inspired by Foucault’s concept of
heterotopia and Henri Lefebvre’s monumental, ‘Production of Space’, whose views are
extended by geographer Edward W. Soja who we mentioned earlier in the chapter of
postmodernism in geography. Soja introduces his epistemological approach to “space”.
Three main concerns unfold from Soja’s project. First and foremost, Soja makes the
point that space is never given. It is never an “empty box” to be filled, never only a
stage or a mere background. On the contrary, space is always a cultural constructed
entity. It is part of the general cultural web, and like any cultural entity space is formed
and changed, accepted or rejected. This is however a point that is made by many
theorists on space.
The most important contribution of Soja to the postmodernism’s way of
thinking is that he visualized the other way (l´autre) postmodernists look at being and
spatiality. As the title of his 1996 monograph indicates, he introduces the conception of
“Thirdspace”. Soja defines 'spatiality' as 'socially produced space'. Soja is arguing that:

“Spatiality [i.e. socially produced space] is a substantiated and recognizable

social product, part of a 'second nature' [i.e. the transformed and socially
concretised spatiality [[socially produced space]] arising from the application of
purposeful human labour] which incorporates as it [i.e. socially produced space]
socializes and transforms both physical and psychological spaces.
This seems to amount to the notion that social space produces more social
space, which,

17
www.sppsr.ucla.edu/dept.cfm?d=up&s=faculty&f=faculty1.cfm&id=251
18
Ibid.
19
www.cwru.edu/affil/GAIR/papers/2002papers/berquist.html

8
 apart from being circular, is no help whatsoever in understanding the social
processes
involved”

Figure 1: “ The trialectics of being” (Soja: 1996)

For Soja, spatiality is an essential aspect of human life and descriptions of the
world. He considers three modes of spatial thinking: perceived space, conceived space,
and lived space (note that they are not completely distinct, the lines dividing them are
blurred). The modernists divided space only in perceived and conceived space. Edward
Soja further identifies a third aspect to spatiality itself, one beyond more physical form
or mental construct, but an alternative that incorporates and transcends both. Soja uses
the concept of thirdspace to capture a radical new way of thinking that always posits an
alternative to binary conceptions of space. This conference posits that only within
thirdspaces lies the potential to be simultaneously a place of both built and social
hybrids. Thirdspaces are created by the effects of a changing culture, and are spaces of
transition; transition between localities and over time. They elude the reflection of a
single permanent power structure and are places of simultaneity and transience. They
relate to both poles of binary conceptions of cross-cultural space and yet at the same
time entirely transcend them. More than a mental place, thirdspaces hold the
possibility for socio-political transformation.

Figure 2: “ The trialectics of spatiality” (Soja: 1996)

Perceived space, Soja's Firstspace, consists mainly of concrete spatial forms,

things that can be empirically mapped, but are also socially produced, as mediums and

9
outcomes of human activity, behavior, and experience. This materialized, "physical,"
socially produced, empirically measurable space is space that can be directly sensed
and is open to relatively accurate measurement and description. Perceived space is thus
apparent in the concrete and mappable geographies of our lifeworlds, ranging from the
emotional and behavioral space "bubbles" which invisibly surround our bodies, to the
complex spatial organization of the social practices that shape our "action spaces" in
such contexts as households, neighborhoods, villages, cities, regions, and nations.
Conceived space (Soja's Secondspace) is that space that is constructed in mental
or cognitive forms (or, as Lefebvre puts it, it is "imagined"). Conceived space is
expressed in systems of "intellectually worked out" signs and symbols, that is, in the
written and spoken word. For Lefebvre, this is the dominant space in any society.
Located in these "dominating" mental spaces are the representations of power and
ideology.
Lived space (Soja's Thirdspace) consists of actual social and spatial practices,
the immediate material world of experience and realization. Lived space overlays
physical space, making symbolic use of its objects, and tends to be expressed in
systems of nonverbal symbols and signs. For Lefebvre lived space was both distinct
from physical and mental space and an all-encompassing mode of spatial thinking, as
Soja puts it, a "transcending composite of all spaces" Lived space embodies the real and
imagined lifeworld of experiences, emotions, events, and political choices. As Soja
describes it, this space is "directly lived," the space of "inhabitants" and "users,"
containing all other real and imagined spaces simultaneously. Thus, Thirdspace is a
mode of thinking about space that draws upon both the material and the mental spaces
of perceived space and conceived space, but extends well beyond them in scope,
substance, and meaning. It is simultaneously real and imagined and more.20

Perceived Conceived Lived

Spatial Practice Representations of Space Spaces of Representation

First Space Second Space Third Space

Physical Space Mental Space Social Space

Surfaces Transparency Active Experience

Materialism Idealism Imaginative

Visual Geometric Phallic

Drawn from Lefebvre, The Production of Space, and Soja, Thirdspace.

Figure 3: “Perceived, conceived and lived space” (http://www.game-

research.com/art_simcity.asp)

Soja argues that there is no such thing as a purely postmodern city. He writes
more easily of a postmodern “transition” that may lead into something like a
postmodern city or a postmetropolis. All cities, Soja argues, are hybrid forms with
changing realities. This provides a good clue for our own work on ancient space, and
Soja provides practical help in interpreting such hybridities. He suggests six outlines to

20
Soja, 1996

10
this postmetropolitan transition: (1) globalization of capital, labor, culture, and
information flows; (2) postfordist economic restructuring (such as high-technology
manufacturing, craft-based/design-intensive industries, and financial/business services,
all of which participate in very complex patterns of concentration and dispersal); (3)
restructuring of urban form (no centrality, with a methodological focus on multiple
localities instead of the city as a whole); (4) restructuring the social order (older
polarities are replaced with fragmentations and intense rise of inequalities); (5)
“carceral cities” in which regulation is panoptical and pervasive; (6) simcities.21

5. Conclusion
To conclude our paper we can say that postmodernism has some influence on
Geography. The ways of approaching space has changed. In modernism there are two
spaces, the conceived and the perceived space. But Soja puts another dimension to
spatiality. He visualized the other way (l´autre) postmodernists look at being and
spatiality. He defines it as lived space, a thirdspace. This space is an imagined space,
which consists of actual social and spatial practices, the immediate material world of
experience and realization. Lived space overlays physical space, making symbolic use
of its objects, and tends to be expressed in systems of nonverbal symbols and signs. The
most important contribution of postmodernism to today’s Geography is the way of
looking at the other.

21
Soja, 2001

11
References
Knox, P. and S. Marston, Places and regions in global context: Human Geography,
Pearson Eduction Inc., New Jersey, 2004

Pater, B. de, H. van der Wusten, Het geografische huis. De opbouw van een
wetenschap. Coutinho, Muiderberg, 1996

Soja, E., Postmodern Geographies. The Reassertion of Space in Critical Social Theory,
Verso, London, 2001

Soja, E., Thirdspace. Journeys to Los Angeles and other real-and-imagined spaced,
Blackwell Publishers Inc, Malden, 1996

Websites

www.apologetique.org/nl/artikelen/filosofie/pomo/TWM_CVP_Pomo_vaag_begrip.ht
m
www.colorado.edu/English/ENGL2012Klages/pomo.html
www.cwru.edu/affil/GAIR/papers/2002papers/berquist.html
www.geografie.nl/geografie/inhoud_show.php?id=181
www.historischhuis.nl/Scripties/090202Posmod.html
www.iath.virginia.edu/elab/hfl0242.html
www.sppsr.ucla.edu/dept.cfm?d=up&s=faculty&f=faculty1.cfm&id=251
www.users.voicenet.com/~grassie/Fldr.Articles/Postmodernism.html

12