Social Spatial Borders Delimiting Difference in Berlin

Dissertation

zur Erlangung des akademischen Grades
doktor philosophiae
(Dr. phil.)

eingereicht an
der Philosophischen Fakultät III
der Humboldt - Universität zu Berlin

von
Constance   Carr B.Sc., M.E.S.

Prof. Dr. Christoph Markschies
Präsident der Humboldt – Universität zu Berlin

Prof. Dr. Bernd Wegener 
Dekan der Philosophischen Fakultät III

Gutachter:
1. Prof. Dr. Hartmut Häußermann
2. Prof. Dr. Roger Keil

Tag der mündlichen Prüfung: 18. Juni 2009

Abstract 

This ideational dissertation delves into the philosophy and theory of social space, and arrives at a theoretical vision of social space which can help explain social processes in Berlin. Drawing on Lefebvre, theories of difference and multiplicity are spatialised. Conversely, drawing on theories of difference and multiplicity from transnational urbanism and feminist geography, the limits of Lefebvre’s theory of social difference are exposed. While the theories of Lefebvre are heavily based on Marx, the feminist poststructural theories of difference are based in the discourse on infinite flexibility, fragmentation, and radical multiplicity. There is thus a gaping cleft between the two theoretical perspectives. To illustrate the limitations and possibilities of these perspectives, two social phenomena are described. The first involves the post-Wall squatter scene in Berlin. The second involves experiences of newcomers in Berlin. By examining the theory of produced space from Lefebvre, the theories of coeval and flexible multiplicity from Doreen Massey, the theories transnational feminist geographies of Geraldine Pratt, and the imagery of flexible everything from Zygmunt Bauman, some theoretical borders of squatters and newcomers come into focus. The geographies of squatter movements and newcomers’ history reveal not only a profound lack of centrality, rather an extensive trans-territorial network. They also show that difference is deeply spatialised and material. A bridge between Lefebvre and poststructuralist difference might be found in the rethinking Lefebvre’s necessary centrality of social space, as the economic reductionism his Marxism requires. At the same time, the discourse on difference might benefit from a deeper analysis of the materiality of space. This dissertation is therefore an entry point into the general rethinking of social space.

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