Editing Space (section)

== In the social sciences ==
Space has been studied in the social sciences from the perspectives of [[Marxism]], [[feminism]], [[postmodernism]], [[postcolonialism]], [[urban theory]] and [[critical geography]]. These theories account for the effect of the history of colonialism, transatlantic slavery and globalization on our understanding and experience of space and place. The topic has garnered attention since the 1980s, after the publication of [[Henri Lefebvre]]'s ''The Production of Space .'' In this book, Lefebvre applies Marxist ideas about the production of commodities and accumulation of capital to discuss space as a social product. His focus is on the multiple and overlapping social processes that produce space.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Henri Lefebvre on Space: Architecture, Urban Research, and the Production of Theory.|last=Stanek|first=Lukasz|publisher=Univ of Minnesota Press|year=2011|pages=ix}}</ref>

In his book ''The Condition of Postmodernity,'' [[David Harvey]] describes what he terms the "[[time-space compression]]." This is the effect of technological advances and capitalism on our perception of time, space and distance.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780199874002/obo-9780199874002-0025.xml|title=Time-Space Compression – Geography – Oxford Bibliographies – obo|access-date=28 August 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180920011023/http://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780199874002/obo-9780199874002-0025.xml|archive-date=20 September 2018|url-status=live}}</ref> Changes in the modes of production and consumption of capital affect and are affected by developments in transportation and technology. These advances create relationships across time and space, new markets and groups of wealthy elites in urban centers, all of which annihilate distances and affect our perception of linearity and distance.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Spaces of Capital: Towards a Critical Geography|last=Harvey|first=David|publisher=Edinburgh University Press|year=2001|pages=244–246}}</ref>

In his book ''Thirdspace,'' [[Edward Soja]] describes space and spatiality as an integral and neglected aspect of what he calls the "[[trialectics of being]]," the three modes that determine how we inhabit, experience and understand the world. He argues that critical theories in the Humanities and Social Sciences study the historical and social dimensions of our lived experience, neglecting the spatial dimension.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Thirdspace: journeys to Los Angeles and other real-and-imagined places|last=W.|first=Soja, Edward|date=1996|publisher=Blackwell|isbn=978-1-55786-674-5|location=Cambridge, Mass.|oclc=33863376}}</ref> He builds on Henri Lefebvre's work to address the dualistic way in which humans understand space—as either material/physical or as represented/imagined. Lefebvre's "lived space"<ref>{{Cite book|title=The production of space|last=Lefebvre |first=Henri |date=1991|publisher=Blackwell|isbn=978-0-631-14048-1|location=Oxford, OX, UK|oclc=22624721}}</ref> and Soja's "thirdspace" are terms that account for the complex ways in which humans understand and navigate place, which "firstspace" and "Secondspace" (Soja's terms for material and imagined spaces respectively) do not fully encompass.

[[Postcolonialism|Postcolonial]] theorist [[Homi K. Bhabha|Homi Bhabha]]'s concept of [[Third Space Theory|Third Space]] is different from Soja's Thirdspace, even though both terms offer a way to think outside the terms of a [[Binary opposition|binary]] logic. Bhabha's Third Space is the space in which hybrid cultural forms and identities exist. In his theories, the term [[Hybridity|hybrid]] describes new cultural forms that emerge through the interaction between colonizer and colonized.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Postcolonial studies: the key concepts|author=Ashcroft Bill |author2=Griffiths, Gareth |author3=Tiffin, Helen |isbn=978-0-415-66190-4|edition= Third|location=London|oclc=824119565|year = 2013}}</ref>