Space. Urban, Rural, Territorial

Abstract

Starting from a relational concept of space, Martina Löw discusses findings in spatial sociology on the basis of modernity’s foremost spatial types―namely, the city and the territory―and fundamental relational opposites (urban–rural; time– space; territory–fluid space). She gives an overview of current sociological debates in Germany with a special focus on the sociology of knowledge. The article considers research on the intrinsic logic of cities as well as recent concepts dealing with the dynamization of spatial relations. One major hypothesis is that the constitution of space today is characterized by a network of interdependencies formed by processes of translocalization and polycontexturality, overwriting or undermining traditional territorial spatial structures, which remain nonetheless relevant.