Ethics, Space, and Place
(sorry for the caps but this is my jam and I'm passionate)
There is something about space and place. I don’t mean space like outer space, I mean space and place as the backdrop for all of our social interactions. There is this rather human compulsion to see place and space as the stages upon which social interaction happen, and there are a lot of sociologists and other philosophers who have made a living critiquing this idea. There are two philosophers that come to mind— Lefebvre and Baudrillard. Baudrillard wrote Simulacra and Simulation and Lefebvre wrote The Poetics of Space, in case you’re interested.
For context, Baudrillard has come to be known as a “postmodernist,” a term he vehemently protested. And Lefebvre was part of the Frankfurt School; let’s talk about Baudrillard and The Frankfurt School for a minute.
The Frankfurt School was a group of intellectuals in the 1920s and 30s who studied Marx and Hegel. You will know Marx, of course, from all the right-wing talking heads in America right now who call everyone they don’t like a “Marxists.” Hegel is not as well known, but he inspired all of Marx’s work and his major theory was the dialectic. In a strictly Hegelian philosophy, the dialectic consists of a thesis, antithesis, and synthesis. Hegel argued that social change actually has a pattern to it— there’s a social idea, there’s push back, and then eventually there’s a synthesis of the two opposing ideas.
That might not seem revolutionary to you, but it’s actually kind of mind blowing because if something has a pattern to it, it can be predicted and understood in the same way that we, for example, understand atoms. So, of course this raises a lot of philosophical questions about the nature of agency and choice and the nature of the universe more broadly… like, is everything pee-determined? That’s an essay for another time!
Suffice it to say, The Frankfurt School was intimately concerned with social change, especially with regards to how and why groups of people fight against their own oppression.
Now, if Marx argued that the root of all human suffering is wealth discrepancy, which I don’t necessarily disagree with, The Frankfurt School turned Marx’s theory on its head and argued that the root of all human suffering is culture.
In fact, The Frankfurt School was so committed to this idea that they advocated for a complete takeover of private property. Obviously, there are glimmers of Marx’s theory here, particularly his argument that private property always leads to inequity. But The Frankfurt School was a little more ornery and a little more grassroots… that’s probably why I love them so much!
In order to reclaim private and public spaces, The School believed that it was imperative to do ornery shit! They would go out in the night and cut locks off of private property, as one example. They would occupy public spaces (while often boisterously walking ferrets on leashes, by the way). Indeed, they believed the revolution that Marx so desperately sought would not be found in economic STRUCTURAL change but in the reclaiming of social spaces for the people.
Let’s take this one step deeper! And… you guessed it… a story!
I used to live in the old communist barracks of the Czech Republic and let me tell ya… not my fave architecture! Alternatively, in Prague, the castles that still exist (because thank goodness the Nazis only destroyed the city of Pilsner… yes, like the beer) are gothic and gorgeous. You absolutely have a different *feeling* while in the harshly lit, piss-colored barracks than you do whilst walking around a gorgeous gothic cathedral. This is why Lefebvre thought that space and place were really important things to study! Why do we, as humans, FEEL differently in different spaces?? And how do we use that FEELING toward revolutionary purposes?
We seem glimmers of Lefebvre’s questions and arguments in many of the pro Palestine movements on campuses wherein students set up camp on the grounds of universities. We also saw this during Occupy Wall Street, which, second to the BLM movement, I experienced as having immense radical potential. The ethos back then, after the economic crash, was that we, the people, were going to occupy these public and private spaces as a form of protest, as a form of returning power to the people.
Regardless of what Fox News might say, these kind of actions are rooted, whether consciously or not, in the belief that space and place DO impact our psyches; ensuring that the masses get to collectively decide TOGETHER what these spaces make us FEEL is indeed an act of rebellion.
Stated another way, think about all of the hostile architecture in which we all engage daily. Park benches with boundaries so that people can’t lie down, highways built in the middle of Black communities, laws about how close strip clubs can be to schools…these are spaces and places not only dictating human behavior but also creating a subtle, social idea of what constitutes morality.
So let’s bring Baudrillard into the conversation. Baudrillard’s most famous work is Simulacrum and Simulation, which is what the movie The Matrix is based on. Fun fact—his book is in the original Matrix!
Baudrillard was neither a Marxist nor Neo-Marxist, but his ideas about space and place are relevant here. His conception of simulacrum is simply this—that images in society come to have more meaning than the thing itself.
It reminds me of Magritte’s painting, Ceci n'est pas une pipe. This is not a pipe. It’s also called “The Treachery of Images.” Magritte wanted to show how fucking horrible it is that our language can never acutely capture what we’re trying to say. He wanted to show that the representation of things never adequately encompasses the thing itself.
I truly believe this is why Americans have agreed to turn our government into reality television.
But I digress.
Let’s take this conception of Neo-Marxism and simulacrum and apply it to contemporary events.
Let’s look at Palestine and the genocide happening in Gaza. Most obviously, the belief in borders between countries is completely fabricated, completely a social construct. And as many of you know, when I say social construct, I don’t mean, “not real.” I mean, simply, that “a thing” is socially and historically situated. Palestine is a great example of this. The boundaries around what constitute Palestinian land is fluid; it changes based on all manner of things, particularly politics. Let us not forget that Israel was literally created in 1948. That is a physical boundary between peoples rooted in nothing other than politics. And if we’re being historically accurate, it was a boundary created by the US in order to have a military presence in the Middle East.
If we’re using theories of space and place to understand this contemporary conflict, we can understand this completely human-made construct as nothing more than a kind of simulacrum.
I know that’s really heavy. But let’s think for a moment about how the social construction of space and place impact our daily lives. And I don’t want to suggest that the conflict in Gaza doesn’t impact our daily lives, but let’s take it to a more micro level to examine our own selves and our own motivations because of course liberation starts with us! And self awareness!
So. Lemme tell yall a little story… you know I love telling stories.
While writing this lecture, I started thinking about my time in the sewers of Las Vegas. And I know that’s a hilarious statement BUT lemme tell ya what I was up to. In Vegas, there is an intricate sewer system underneath the entire city. There are also about 2,000 people living there, which is like, larger than some Western Nebraska towns. And these folks are all obviously suffering in one way or another. I met a vet, for example, who’d fought in the Iraq war and had half his face blown off and was so devoid of any social safety net, he decided to make a little home deep in the bowels of Vegas’ sewer.
Because we’re talking about space and place, I feel it is apt to give you a thick description of what this world is like.
First of all, one of the main entrances to the tunnels, as we call them, is across the street from the famous Welcome to Las Vegas sign. So while newlyweds and drunk tourists take photos in front of this iconic sign, unhoused folks move silently in and out of their sewer home.
When you enter the mouth of the sewer, the concrete space is large and accommodating to someone my size. Usually, right at the entrance, there are folks who are new to the tunnels, typically people who are newly unhoused. As you make your way through said folks’ camp, however, and deeper into the sewer system, the walls become narrower and sometimes you have to crawl.
There is graffiti on the walls, mostly warnings. There are lines spray painted onto the concrete saying stuff like, “If the water gets this high, RUN.” Because when it rains in Vegas, the sewers flood. And because casinos don’t want the “look” of unhoused or transient folks popping out of the manholes for air or, ya know, LIFE, they’ve soldered them all down.
So when you’re in the bowels of this labyrinth, you truly do have to take the advice of the graffiti and run if you see water up to a certain point because you certainly can’t escape through the manholes.
Some folks in the tunnels found a way to get electricity in their camps, smartly placing their belongings atop cinder blocks in order to avoid electrocution should water make its way down.
This discrepancy in the experience of place and space is truly illuminating to me—that is, you have all these humans in the same place, Vegas, but their experience of that space is obviously so different.
That discrepancy is probably obvious. But the profound thing here is that much like we, as a society, don’t often unpack and analyze language, we also often fail to adequately understand space and place as important analytics. And we often behave unethically because of it.
So let me give you an even more simplistic example.
Did you know that most businesses set their temperature based on the metabolic rate of cis men, a temp that tends to be several degrees cooler than is comfortable for women? In these situations, women are literally experiencing that space in an entirely different way than their male counterparts, which can lead to all manner of problems, including decreased focus and productivity. This is a clear example of how space and place and the cultural norms we have around them can actually fuel sexism.
But now I want to take us deeper. Again. Because we’ve already established how social constructions of space and place can lead to genocide, a lack of empathy, and chilly ladies.
But let’s think about how conceptions of space and place might actually be contributing to the political divide we see in our country and, honestly, all across the world.
As a sociologist, when I look at said conflict, whether its in our own country or countries like Hungary where I had some of the best nights of my life (read: way too much absinthe), I see a fissure between narrative and policy. I also see this fissure amongst young radicals here in Omaha, fighting the good fight, who become bogged down with (and burnt out) by infighting. And I often think this is because of a lack of understanding of the role that space and place play in our lives.
So, let me tell you another story!
My very first Pride parade was in LA at the age of 10-ish? My first full-on protest was in DC in 1998, and I was protesting circumcision, of all things. Now, as I’m about to turn 41, I attend as many progressive protests as possible BUT lemme tell ya, if there’s not a porter potty, I’m not going.
I have aged, my body has different needs than it did in the 90s, and I cannot physically occupy spaces that don’t have a bathroom unless I wear a diaper, I guess??? And sometimes, my lack of participation is read as apathy by others.
Of course, many disabled people have written more eloquently about this. But again, space and place are not neutral stages upon which shit happens. They are real, tangible actors in the play of humanity.
Let’s go back to this distinction between policy and narrative. The former, policy, is often rooted in tangible space. It is about engaging with the physical structure of law, of enforcement, and of who is deemed unworthy of existing in society. That is, it contributes to the physical structure we have created that many of us wouldn’t wish upon our pets, aka prisons.
Narrative, on the other hand, is about the stories we tell. Not only the stories we tell ourselves about our own selves, but the stories we tell each other. For example, the claim that anyone advocating against genocide is “anti-Semitic” is a narrative. It has no physical or spatial rooting, but the IMPACT of that narrative, as we have all seen, absolutely has tangible effects, whether they be unethical deportation, detainment, alienation, or, of course, tacit or vocal support for genocide.
Despite not being tangible, per se, these narratives do impact space and place. IE, the narrative of who is deserving of land, the narrative of who is righteous, and, might I add, the narrative of capitalism wherein we’ve all been gaslit into believing that some must die so that we may have, like, cheaper fucking bananas and, ya know, “freedom….” This narrative has real, material impacts on people.
Indeed, narratives shape not only our own experiences with the self, but our understanding of the word more broadly. Narratives shape policy and structure. And despite being intangible, I argue that they are indeed intimately entwined with space and place.
So let’s bring it back to Baudrillard and Lefebvre.
Baudrillard said that, eventually, images would become more impactful than reality. He foresaw a reality in which “hyperreality,” or the *symbols* of things would become more meaningful than the thing itself. If he wasn’t dead, I would love to hear his thoughts on this second Trump presidency.
Lefebvre talked about how capitalism diminishes the revolutionary potential of public spaces, namely because artists and poets and performers are beholden to capitalistic values. That is, even when we’re creating art that challenges the system, we can only survive if our art makes money. This is why he advocated for the people, writ large, to occupy public and private spaces. Sadly, living in Germany in the 30s led to his ultimate demise, in much the same way we are seeing similarly minded folks being snuffed out by Neo-Nazis, whether at the hands of ICE agents or just politicians in general.
I want to end with a few observations.
First, leftists and other progressives have always been great at creating new narratives. Reclaiming the words “queer” and demanding the cultural acknowledgement of pronouns are two examples of this. We are really great at understanding how narrative impacts the reality of the spaces and places we occupy.
And while we vehemently fight against oppressive policy, we are less great at understanding the classic, Marxist concern with material realities. Whether it’s giving the side eye to folks who can’t attend a protest because of our age/ bladder issues or the shitty ass spaces and places that many working class MAGA folks occupy, I do believe, humbly, that movements towards justice will be best served by an understanding of space and place as analytics and the way said analytics influence both policy and narrative in society.
Second and finally, if we are to take both Lefebvre and Baudrillard seriously, the optimist take here is that we are all actively producing space and place, we are all actively creating images—whether through language or art or even cartography— and we have an ethical obligation to ensure that the spaces and places we create together are fundamentally rooted in self-liberation and the liberation of all of humanity.