State, Space, World

Selected Essays

2009
Author:

Henri Lefebvre
Translated by Gerald Moore, Neil Brenner, and Stuart Elden
Edited by Neil Brenner and Stuart Elden

Leading intellectual Henri Lefebvre on political and state theory

State, Space, World collects a series of Lefebvre’s key writings on the state. Making available in English for the first time the as-yet-unexplored political aspect of Henri Lefebvre’s work, it contains essays on philosophy, political theory, state formation, spatial planning, and globalization, as well as provocative reflections on the possibilities and limits of grassroots democracy under advanced capitalism.

In its pioneering commitment to autogestion, State, Space, World challenges us to re-imagine radical politics. Lefebvre enthusiasts will also find here a rich introduction to his wide-ranging thinking.

International Journal of Urban and Regional Research

One of the most influential Marxist theorists of the twentieth century, Henri Lefebvre pioneered the study of the modern state in an age of accelerating global economic integration and fragmentation. Shortly after the 1974 publication of his landmark book The Production of Space, Lefebvre embarked on one of the most ambitious projects of his career: a consideration of the history and geographies of the modern state through a monumental study that linked several disciplines, including political science, sociology, geography, and history.

State, Space, World collects a series of Lefebvre’s key writings on the state from this period. Making available in English for the first time the as-yet-unexplored political aspect of Lefebvre’s work, it contains essays on philosophy, political theory, state formation, spatial planning, and globalization, as well as provocative reflections on the possibilities and limits of grassroots democracy under advanced capitalism.

State, Space, World is an essential complement to The Production of Space, The Urban Revolution, and The Critique of Everyday Life. Lefebvre’s original and prescient analyses that emerge in this volume are urgently relevant to contemporary debates on globalization and neoliberal capitalism.

Henri Lefebvre (1901–1991) was a French sociologist, intellectual, and philosopher. His many books include The Critique of Everyday Life, The Production of Space, The Survival of Capitalism, and The Urban Revolution (available from Minnesota, 2003).

Neil Brenner is professor of urban theory at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design.

Stuart Elden is professor of political geography at Durham University.

Gerald Moore is a lecturer in languages in the Faculty of Science and Technology at the Université Paris XII (Val de Marne).

In its pioneering commitment to autogestion, State, Space, World challenges us to re-imagine radical politics. Lefebvre enthusiasts will also find here a rich introduction to his wide-ranging thinking.

International Journal of Urban and Regional Research

In State, Space, World, Brenner and Elden have assembled a highly suggestive intervention which deepens our understanding of both the fragility and the durability of state forms

Antipode

Required reading for anyone interested in Lefebvre.

Social and Cultural Geography