DOI: 10.17072/2078-7898/2017-4-604-613

ABSOLUTE, RELATIONAL, AND EPISTEMOLOGICAL CONCEPTIONS
OF SPACE AND THEIR USE FOR THE SOCIOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF A CITY

Prokofyeva Alyona Victorovna
Senior Lecturer of the Department of Sociology

Perm State University,
15, Bukirev str., Perm, 614990, Russia;
e-mail: prokofyeva.alena@gmail.ru
ORCID: 0000-0001-6199-3219

Active development of urban studies is accompanied by the emergence and promotion of the diversity of approaches. Meanwhile, interpretation of one of the key categories — the category of space — still remains controversial. Taking into account the complexity of the phenomenon of urban space, and hence its status of a subject field of multiple disciplines, it is necessary to carry out the analysis of philosophical concepts of space in their respective sociological refraction. The article presents the analysis of the substantial and relational interpretations of space, their comparison, describes the use of each of these intuitions of space in the analysis of urban space. The result of applying the substantial interpretation of space in social sciences is spatial determinism and ignoration of the social actor and social facts. It seems that a synthesis of relational and epistemic (Kantian) interpretations of space appear to be more productive for urban sociology. The first allows one to analyze a city as a topological object that is simultaneously in physical and online spaces, and dependent in its existence on the conservation of the constitutive core of the relationship between the city and other topological objects, as well as relations between its constituent elements. Following Kant’s concept of space, which formed the basis of sociology in understanding of urban space, scholars focus on the use of the arsenal of interpretive sociology in the analysis of the urban space meanings for actors. Combination and use of these approaches, on the one hand, allows for getting away from the problems of spatial fetishism, being the logical consequence of the substantial interpretation, which seems significant for a sociological interpretation of the city (and its space) as a social phenomenon. On the other hand, it allows us not to exclude the space as a category of the subject field of sociology because of its substantial inconsistencies in the interpretation of the criteria of sociology. Both approaches make it possible to establish a harmonious link between the space of the subject, the current intention in relation to the urban space and its contained objects, in accordance with the subjective meanings and social facts that are constructed by individuals in their daily existence and providing a feedback effect.

Keywords: relational conception of space, substantial conception of space, urban space, sociology of space, urban studies.

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The date of the manuscript receipt 03.10.2017

Please cite this article in English as:

Prokofyeva A.V. Absolute, relational, and epistemological conceptions of space and their use for the sociological analysis of a city // Perm University Herald. Series «Philosophy. Psychology. Sociology». 2017. Iss. 4. P. 604–613. DOI: 10.17072/2078-7898/2017-4-604-613