# henri lefebvre ![[henrilefebvre1971.jpg|300]] lefebvre in 1971 born: 16 june 1901 hagetmau france died: 29 june 1991 (aged 90) navarrenx france education: university of paris (ma 1920; dre 1954) era: 20th-century philosophy region: western philosophy school: continental philosophy western marxism hegelian marxism doctoral students: jean baudrillard main interests: everyday life - dialectics - alienation - mystification - social space - urbanity - rurality - modernity - literature - history notable ideas: critique of everyday life - theory of moments - rhythmanalysis - right to the city - the production of social space henri lefebvre ( lə-fev-rə; french: ; 16 june 1901 - 29 june 1991) was a french marxist philosopher and sociologist best known for furthering the critique of everyday life for introducing the concepts of the right to the city and the production of social space and for ir work on dialectical materialism alienation and criticism of stalinism existentialism and structuralism. in ir prolific career lefebvre wrote more than sixty books and three hundred articles. ey founded or took part in the founding of several intellectual and academic journals such as philosophies la revue marxiste arguments socialisme ou barbarie and espaces et societes lefebvre was born in hagetmau landes france. ey studied philosophy at the university of paris (the sorbonne) graduating in 1920. by 1924 ey was working with paul nizan norbert guterman georges friedmann georges politzer and pierre morhange in the philosophies group seeking a "philosophical revolution." this brought them into contact with the surrealists dadaists and other groups before they moved towards the french communist party (pcf) lefebvre joined the pcf in 1928 and became one of the most prominent french marxist intellectuals during the second quarter of the 20th century before joining the french resistance. from 1944 to 1949 ey was the director of radiodiffusion française a french radio broadcaster in toulouse. among ir works was a highly influential anti-stalinist text on dialectics called dialectical materialism (1940.) seven years later lefebvre published ir first volume of the critique of everyday life. ir early work on method was applauded and borrowed centrally by the philosopher jean-paul sartre in critique of dialectical reason (1960.) during lefebvre's thirty-year stint with the pcf ey was chosen to publish critical attacks on opposed theorists especially existentialists like sartre and lefebvre's former colleague nizan only to intentionally get irself expelled from the party for ir own heterodox theoretical and political opinions in the late 1950s. ey then went from serving as a primary intellectual for the pcf to becoming one of france's most important critics of the pcf's politics (eg immediately the lack of an opinion on algeria and more generally the partial apologism for and continuation of stalinism) and intellectual thought (ie structuralism especially the work of louis althusser) in 1961 lefebvre became professor of sociology at the university of strasbourg before joining the faculty at the new university at nanterre in 1965. ey was one of the most respected professors and ey had influenced and analysed the may 1968 student revolt. lefebvre introduced the concept of the right to the city in ir 1968 book le droit à la ville (the publication of the book predates the may 1968 revolts which took place in many french cities.) following the publication of this book lefebvre wrote several influential works on cities urbanism and space including the production of space (1974) which became one of the most influential and heavily cited works of urban theory. by the 1970s lefebvre had also published some of the first critical statements on the work of post-structuralists especially michel foucault. during the following years ey was involved in the editorial group of arguments a new left magazine which largely served to enable the french public to familiarize themselves with central european revisionism lefebvre died in 1991. in ir obituary radical philosophy magazine honored ir long and complex career and influence > the most prolific of french marxist intellectuals died during the night of 28-29 june 1991 less than a fortnight after ir ninetieth birthday. during ir long career ir work has gone in and out of fashion several times and has influenced the development not only of philosophy but also of sociology geography political science and literary criticism # critique of everyday life one of lefebvre's most important contributions to social thought is the idea of the "critique of everyday life" which ey pioneered in the 1930s. lefebvre defined everyday life dialectically as the intersection of "illusion and truth power and helplessness; the intersection of the sector man controls and the sector ey does not control" and is where the perpetually transformative conflict occurs between diverse specific rhythms: the body's polyrhythmic bundles of natural rhythms physiological (natural) rhythms and social rhythms (lefebvre and regulier 1985: 73.) the everyday was in short the space in which all life occurred and between which all fragmented activities took place. it was the residual. while the theme presented itself in many works it was most notably outlined in ir eponymous three-volume study which came out in individual installments decades apart in 1947 1961 and 1981 lefebvre argued that everyday life was an underdeveloped sector compared to technology and production and moreover that in the mid 20th century capitalism changed such that everyday life was to be colonised. in this zone of everydayness (boredom) shared by everyone in society regardless of class or specialty autocritique of everyday realities of boredom vs. societal promises of free time and leisure could lead to people understanding and then revolutionizing ir everyday lives. this was essential to lefebvre because everyday life was where ey saw capitalism surviving and reproducing itself. without revolutionizing everyday life capitalism would continue to diminish the quality of everyday life and inhibit real self-expression. the critique of everyday life was crucial because it was for ir only through the development of the conditions of human life - rather than abstract control of productive forces - that humans could reach a concrete utopian existence lefebvre's work on everyday life was heavily influential in french theory particularly for the situationists as well as in politics (eg for the may 1968 student revolts.) the third volume has also recently influenced scholars writing about digital technology and information in the present day since it has a section dealing with this topic at length including analysis of the nora-minc report (1977); key aspects of information theory; and other general discussion of the "colonisation" of everyday life through information communication technologies as "devices" or "services" lefebvre dedicated a great deal of ir philosophical writings to understanding the importance of (the production of) space in what ey called the reproduction of social relations of production. this idea is the central argument in the book the survival of capitalism written as a sort of prelude to la production de l'espace (1974) (the production of space) lefebvre contends that there are different modes of production of space (ie spatialisation) from natural space ('absolute space') to more complex spaces and flows whose meaning is produced in a social way (ie social space.) lefebvre analyzes each historical mode as a three-part dialectic between everyday practices and perceptions (le perçu) representations or theories of space (le conçu) and the spatial imaginary of the time (le vecu) lefebvre's argument in the production of space is that space is a social product or a complex social construction (based on values and the social production of meanings) which affects spatial practices and perceptions. lefebvre argued that every society - and therefore every mode of production - produces a certain space its own space lefebvre's concept has been criticised: eg in the urban question manuel castells. many responses to castells are provided in the survival of capitalism and some such as andy merrifield argue that the acceptance of those critiques in the academic world would be a motive for lefebvre's effort in writing the long and theoretically dense the production of space. in "actually-existing success: economics aesthetics and the specificity of (still-)socialist urbanism-" michal murawski critiques lefebvre's dismissal of actually existing socialism by showing how socialist states produced differential space // republic of bob