Edward W. Soja's Radical Spatial Perspective

Bibliographic Data

ID12979175
AuthorsBloch (0000-0002-4021-4391, University of Arizona, corresponding author), Thomas Brasdefer (0000-0003-0269-9081, University of Vermont)
Year2023
Volume16
Issue3
Pages233-243
Publication date2023-05-17
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueHuman Geography (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1942-7786 • E-ISSN: 2633-674X
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/19427786231175849
OpenAlexW4377027779
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited32

Edward W. Soja saw early in his career that “it is now space more than time, geography more than history, that hides consequences from us.” His life-long scholarly project centered around this contention, inspiring his advocacy of a socio-spatial dialectic, his contribution to the so-called “spatial turn,” and his fervent belief that all matters of justice are matters of geography, necessitating the “reassertion of space in critical social theory.” In his decidedly interdisciplinary and agenda-setting work, he became associated with several schools of thought, from Marxism and cultural studies, to postmodernism and critical theory. But his defining feature remained his radical approach to the study of cities and regions vis-à-vis an investigation of Los Angeles informed by the work of Henri Lefebvre. In doing his decades of investigation of urbanization, restructuring, and political struggle writ large, he developed a lexicon that helped identify, problematize, and speak to an array of otherwise aspatial ontological, epistemological, and phenomenological scholarly positions, always placing space at the center. This paper discusses Soja's personal and intellectual advocacy of a radical spatial perspective, arguing that his neat categorization as a “postmodern geographer” is one that is both real and imagined—as limiting as it is liberating

Aesthetics · Cartography · Critical theory · Dialectic · Epistemology · Geographer · Geography · Political science · Politics · Postmodernism · Social science · Sociology · Urban theory · Writ · Environmental Justice and Health Disparities · Law · Philosophy · Urban Planning and Governance · Urbanization and City Planning

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