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EPFLx: SpaceX Exploring Humans' Space: An Introduction to Geographicity

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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Recommended Readings

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    • Lévy, Jacques, 2014. ‘Inhabiting’, in Roger Lee et al., The Sage Handbook of Human Geography, London: Sage, pp. 45-68.

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Recommended Readings

  • Lévy, Jacques (ed.), 2001. From Geopolitics to Global Politics, London: Frank Cass. 
  •  Wallerstein, Immanuel,1974. The Modern World System: Capitalist Agriculture and the Origins of the European World Economy in the Sixteenth Century, New York: Academic Press. 

Other references

    • Huntington Samuel, 1996. The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order, New York: Simon and Schuster.
    • Lévy Jacques (dir.), 2008 L’Invention du Monde: Une géographie de la mondialisation [in French], Paris: Presses de Sciences Po.

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Recommended Readings

    • Hall, Edward T, 1966. The Hidden Dimension, New York: Doubleday. 
    • Heidegger, Martin, 1976. What is Called Thinking?, New York: Harper & Row.
    • Kertész, Imre, 1975. Fatelessness, New York: Vintage International.
    • Nobert Elias, 1991. The Society of Individuals, Oxford: Basil Blackwell. 
    • Pierre Bourdieu, 1984. Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste, Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
    • Ricoeur Paul, 1992. Oneself as Another, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
    • Sloterdijk, Peter, 2011 [1998]. Bubbles: Spheres Volume I: Microspherology, London: Semiotext(e).
    • Tönnies Ferdinand, 1988 [1887]. Community and Society, New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers, (1st edition: Leipzig,). 

Other References

    • Lodge, David, 1984. Small World: an Academic Romance, New York: Macmillan Pub. Co.

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Recommended Readings

    • Beaude, Boris, 2012. Internet, changer l’espace, changer la société [in French], Limoges: Fyp.
    • Beaude, Boris, 2014. Les fins d’Internet [in French], Limoges: Fyp. 

Other References 

    • Benkler, Yochai, 2006. The Wealth of Networks - How social production transforms markets and freedom - a moment of opportunity and challenge, New Haven: Yale University Press.
    • Castel, Manuel, 2001. The Internet Galaxy, Reflections on the Internet, Business and Society, Oxford: Oxford University Press. 
    • Cass, R. Sunstein, 2009. Republic.com 2.0, Princeton: Princeton University Press.
    • Kitchin, Rob & Martin Dodge, 2011. Code/Space: Software and Everyday Life, Cambridge (USA): MIT Press. 
    • Lessig, Lawrence, 1999. Code and other laws of cyberspace, New York: Basic Books. 
    • William, J. Mitchel, 1995. City of bits. Space, Place, and the Infobahn, Cambridge (USA): MIT Press.
    • Wiener, Norbert, 1952 [1950]. Cybernétique et société, L’usage humain des être humain [in French], Paris: Deux-Rives.

S5.

Recommended Readings

    • Calvino, Italo, 1974. The Invisible Cities, New York: Harcourt/Harvest-HBJ.
    • Lévy Jacques, 2011.‘The Unconsidered Passer-By’, EspacesTemps.net, <http://www.espacestemps.net/articles/the-unconsidered-passer-by/>.
    • Lévy, Jacques (ed.), 2008. The City, Farnham: Ashgate.
    •  Lefebvre, Henri 2003 [1970]. The Urban Revolution, Minneapolis: The University of Minnesota Press.
    • Lofland Lynn H., 1998. The public realm: Exploring the City’s Quntessential Social Territory, New York: Aldine de Gruyter,.
    • Wirth, Louis, 1938. ‘Urbanism as a Way of Life’, The American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 44, No. 1:1-24.

Other References 

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    • Andrieu, D., Kaiser, C., Ourednik, A. and Lévy, J., 2007. Advanced cartogram construction using a constraint based framework [in French], Geocomputation 2007, National University of Ireland, Maynooth, 3-5 September 2007.
    • Bocher, B., et  Lévy, J., 2010. La ville bien animée: identities urbaines émergentes [in French], MARCHAND B. et Salomon-Cavin J. (dir.), Anti-urbain, Lausanne, PPUR, pp.269-286. 
    • Chavinier, Elsa, et Lévy, J., 2009. Minarets : Malaise dans l’Alteridentité [in French], Pouvoirs locaux, vol. 83, no4, pp. 5-7, Décembre 2009.
    • Etienne, Tassin, 1991. Europe, une Communauté Politique [in French], Esprit 176, pp.63-79, November 1991.
    • Fainstein, Susan S., 2010. The Just City, Cornell: Cornell University Press.
    • Ford, Henry, and Samuel, Crowther, 1922. My Life and Work, New York: Garden City Publishing Company.
    • Ford, Henry, 1926. The Modern City: A Pestiferous Growth, Dearborn Independent, Dearborn: The Dearborn Publishing Company, pp.156-158.
    • Lévy, Jacques, 1999. Communauté/Société dans la mondialisaiton [in French], GEMDEV, Mondialisation. Les mots et les choses, Paris: Karthala, pp.266-269.  
    • Lévy, J., Ourednik, A., 2011. La ville qu'ils veulent, la ville qu'ils font [in French], Urbanisme n° 378, Mai-Juin 2011.
    • Lofland, L.H., 1985. A World of Strangers: Order and Action in Urban Public Space, New York: Waveland Press.
    • Marchant Bernard, 1993. Paris, histoire d’une ville: XIXe-XXe siècle [in French], Paris: Points-Seuil.
    • Rousseau, Jean-Jacques, 1960[1761]. Julie ou La nouvelle Héloïse [in French], Paris: Garnier.
    • Webber et al., 1964. The Urban Place and the Non-Place Urban Realm, Explorations into Urban Structure, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.

S6.

Recommended Readings

    • Andrieu, Dominique, Kaiser, Christian, Ourednik, André & Lévy, Jacques, 2007. ‘Advanced cartogram construction using a constraint based framework’, Geocomputation 2007, Maynooth National University of Ireland, 3-5 September, 2007.
    • Lévy, Jacques (ed.), 2015 [on press]. A Cartographic Turn, Lausanne: EPFLPress/Routledge.
    • Lévy, Jacques, 2012. ‘A Cartographic Turn ? Bridging the Gap between Sciences and Technologies of the Inhabited Space’, EspacesTemps.net, <http://www.espacestemps.net/articles/a-cartographic-turn/>.

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Recommended Readings

    • Meadows, Donella H, et al., 1972. Limits to Growth, New York: Universe Books.
    • Roger A., Pielke Jr , 2007. The Honest Broker: Making Sense of Science in Policy and Politics, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
    • World Commission on Environment and Development, 1987. Our Common Future, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

S8.

Recommended Readings

Other References

    • Bernard Gauthiez, 1999. Approche morphologique des plans de villes, archéologie et sources écrites ? [in French], Amiens: Revue archéologique de Picardie. Numéro special 16, pp. 17-25.
    • Sandrine Robert, 2003. Comment les formes du passé se transmettent-elles ? [in French], Paris: Études rurales, 3/2003 (n° 167-168), pp. 115-131.

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Recommended Readings

    • Brooks, David, 2000. Bobos in Paradise : the New Upper Class and How They Got There, New York: Simon & Schuster.
    • Fainstein, Susan S., 2010. The Just City, Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
    • Nye, Joseph S., 1990.  Bound to Lead, New York: Basic Books.
    • Rawls, John, 1971. A Theory of Justice, Cambridge (US): Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.
    • Sen, Amartya, 2009. The Idea of Justice, Cambrige (US): Harvard University Press. 

Other References  

    • Tönnies Ferdinand, 1988 [1887]. Community and Society, New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers, (1st edition: Leipzig).

GLOSSARY - GEOGRAPHY IN 25 WORDS

ACTOR

A human operator endowed with an extended strategic intentionality and cognitive competence, which allow him/her to make, her goals and the outcome of his actions coincide, at least partially. Actors can be individuals, collectives, or organisations.

AREA

A set of places separated by effective distances. The place/area switch depends upon the observer’s point of view: if internal distances are taken in account, then this is an area; If not, it is a place. An area can be a territory or a network.

CO-PRESENCE

One of the three major modalities used in the social management of distances. It is characterised by the gathering of distinct social realities in the same place, which allow them to interact in contact. 

COSPATIALITY

One of the three major families of interspatialities (see below). It is characterised by ‘vertical’ interaction between spaces occupying the same spaces.

DISTANCE

A set of attributes characterising a social reality in relation to the level of contact or separation between this reality and other social realities. Distance represents a hurdle to social interactions, which are a condition for the production and reproduction of a society. Social management of distance and interaction may be classified into three fundamental modalities: co-presence, mobility, and tele-communication.

ENVIRONMENT

An encompassing social reality that contains other social realities. An environment contributes to influence these contained realities while it is, simultaneously, affected by them. Space is an environment. ‘Natural environment’ and bodies are environments. A society is a ‘comprehensive’ environment, which includes many ‘thematic’ environments.

EXTENT

A referential space, used to spot and locate a space and connect it to other spaces. An extension is always a selection among the innumerable data that constitute the spatial heritage of an area. It is a sort of abstract, a memory of all other spaces that represent the context of a given space. For instance, the extent of a national state may be its topography and topology, its natural environment as a set of constraints and resources, its population distribution, and so on. The claim to define extensions on the base of a supposedly absolute background (like a territorial surface or some geomorphological information) is vain. A base-map is a typical extension in relation to the thematic layers of the map.

GEOGRAPHICITY

The spatial dimension of the social world, or societies insofar as they are spatial realities. Social worlds are not reduced to their spatial dimension. Economics, social relationships, history are, for instance, other dimensions of the social world. Geographicity encompasses the overall distance relationships that exist between social realities. It consists of two domains: space and spatiality.

INHABITING

A particular interactive relation between spatial actors and spatial environment, that is to say between spatiality and space. Inhabiting consists of a dynamic balance between acting (inhabiting) and becoming (being inhabited). If the rationale of inhabiting works, space and spatialities may be considered as public goods: they are coproduced and co-consumed by both direct actors, that is components of a society, and a society as a whole and not only as a container or a sum of components.

INTERFACE

One of the three major families of interspatialities. It is characterised by the ‘horizontal’ juxtaposition of two or more spaces.

INTERSPATIALITY

An interaction between spaces. Beyond interface, two other families of interspatialities should be taken seriously: nesting and co-spatiality.

METRICS

Ways of measuring and managing distance. Euclidean geometry provides one among an infinity of possible metrics. Topographical metrics (territories, fuzzy limits) are based on continuity and contiguity. Topological metrics (networks, borders) are based on discontinuity and present lacunae in its arrangements. Metrics are one of the three basic attributes of any space.

MOBILITY

One of the three major modalities used in the social management of distances. It is based on the movement of material objects, including bodies, from one place to another, in order to create contact.

NESTING

One of the three major families of interspatialities. It is characterised by the inclusion of spaces in each other.

OBJECT

Non-human operator. An object is active but not endowed with an extended strategic intentionality and cognitive competence. It is an active reality for which action is either embedded in its very design or defined in the interactions it has with actors, environments, and other objects.

PLACE

A space where distance is not considered relevant. The concept of place does not include scalar information A bench on a square or the World can both be approached as places.

PUBLIC SPACE

A part of a larger space which offers a level of diversity comparable to that of this larger space, considered as referential in this regard. In a supposedly ‘perfect’ public space, all the aspects of the social and functional otherness that is present in the whole urban area would be found A third scale may involve the potentially world-wide connections between public spaces of various cities. Public spaces may be fixed or mobile, accessible (no technical, regulatory, or financial barriers) and inclusive. All characteristics are required in making a space public. In public spaces privacy is, by definition, impossible but intimacy is protected and valued.

SCALE

A threshold that switches a space from a place to an area. The relevance of scale comes from the impact of size on the non-spatial characteristics of a social reality. Each spatial process, layout, or rationale defines a series of scalar thresholds. Local is, by construction, the smallest spatial level where a society as a ‘comprehensive’, consistent and autonomous set of social relations can exist in a particular context. Scale is one of the three basic attributes of any space.

SPACE

Geographicity as environment. Any space is characterised by at least three attributes: scale, metrics, substance.

SPATIAL CAPITAL

A ‘species’ of social capital, non reducible to other species. When used in spatial practice, it provides social value by offering competence in negotiating spaces and spatialities. This competence is obtained through both heritage (the experience of places and geographical practices) and capacity (aptitude for managing new spatial situations). Spatial capital is a significant component of an actor’s social capital and can be exchanged with other capitals. A space may have spatial capital, too, in terms of stock and flows. For example, a city can take advantage of its location and develop its relations with other spaces; it can also foster its attractiveness towards various spatial actors.

SPATIALITY

Geographicity as agency. The spatial relationships carried out by operators. The massive emergence of multiple, individual actors is changing the bases of spatiality and, as a result, the conditions of inhabiting the world. 

SUBSTANCE

The non-spatial features of spatial realities. Postivist, cartesian geographies have tended to neglect substance, just as a-spatial social sciences have ignored scale and metrics. In a Leibnizian perspective, a relative and relational approach to space requires an integrated encompassing of spatial and non-spatial dimensions of social realities. Substance is one of the three basic attributes of any space.

TELE-COMMUNICATION

One of the three major modalities used in the social management of distances. It is based on the movement of immaterial objects, reduced as much as possible to information. The contemporary technologies of telecommunication are not the first ones. Asynchronous tele-communication systems appeared at the Neolithic age, with mail, along with writing, farming, currency, and the state. Synchronous systems (telegraph, telephone) were implemented back in the 19th century.

URBANITY

What makes a city a city. This term tends to unify the field of urban sciences and urban agency, as other words (‘urbanism’, ‘urbanness’ ‘cityness’, ‘urbaneness’, …), encompassed only a part of the urban phenomenon. Urbanity is an arrangement of density and diversity within a societal substance. Urbanity cannot be reduced to a size-effect (absolute urbanity), which increases the potential of diversity but does not guarantee the quality of the density-diversity combination. Urbanity can be found outside the city, potentially everywhere in a fully urbanised world. However cities are the urban configurations that, more than others, take on the logics of urbanity.

 WORLD

The most encompassing humanity-inhabited space. In this meaning, the word has a capital W. Its extension is currently the planet Earth, an environment with which co-spatiality is less and less optional.