Observing The City Through The Lefebvrian Lens In Social Work Education

Felipe Saravia Cortés

Space is a central dimension of reality and plays a significant role in the construction of social relations.[1] For that reason, space and place have been considered by some social work scholars as relevant issues.[2] Actually, the spatial dimension has been central in social work since the beginning of the profession,[3] even if it has not been theorised using knowledge from other scientific fields like geography, urbanism, or rural and urban sociology. 

Despite the above, during the last decades, several works have been produced that establish bridges between social work and other spatial-focused scientific disciplines. These works use spatial concepts such as environment, place, territory, and rural, urban, global or glocalised social work, among other concepts. Saravia and Panez show geographical patterns in their use and propose that it is necessary to understand them as a geographical constellation of concepts in which space is the main category.[4]

The use of space as a main category would allow us to understand the diverse spatial phenomena that social work addresses in a comprehensive way, highlighting the interconnections of dimensions, scales, and spatial issues. Nevertheless, there are few scientific works in the social work field that elaborate proposals to use the concept of space as a guide to analysing reality to develop social interventions. Some of them are the work of Spatscheck and Wolf-Ostermann from a systemic theoretical framework and Saravia which refers to Lefebvre's work.[5] This paper concentrates on this last point of view. 

Lefebvre’s work has not commonly been used by social work scholars. Some have used it to understand issues related to social work with children[6] and others to community issues.[7] Saravia develops a general theoretical framework for social work based on Lefebvre’s work and elaborates a methodological proposal for social-spatial analysis for social work.[8] This paper aims to analyse its application in social work education through an urban walking observation methodology. It intends to solve the gap between the theoretical-methodological proposals and its application in social work education.  

According to Saravia,[9] some of the central arguments of Lefebvre's work are that space is not neutral but a significant part (and a result) of political and class struggles and that it is not only physical but multi-dimensional. Lefebvre elaborated a trialectical model of space that includes spatial practice, representations of space and spaces of representation.[10] They have specific definitions and operationalisations, explained by Jeyasingham.[11] Saravia uses a simpler trialectical model that considers material, subjective and social aspects.[12] Even though they are interconnected, it is helpful to consider each separately in the first analytical moment:

• Material dimension refers to physical elements that it is possible to observe and measure, such as buildings, objects, geographical environments, etcetera;

• Subjective dimension refers to mental and emotional elements, such as thoughts or feelings,

• and social dimension refers to human interactions in space.

All these dimensions operate in a scaled gradient, considering micro scales like body, houses or streets, mezzo scales like neighbourhoods, cities and regions, and macro scales like countries and global fluxes. Saravia argues that this perspective enables social workers to show broader inequalities in the experience of space.[13] In that context, this work aims to inquire whether social work students can use this analytical framework in urban social diagnosis, what advantages it could incorporate, and what difficulties its application implies.

The pedagogical experience

The theoretical-methodological proposal was applied in April 2022 in Concepción, the second largest metropolitan area in Chile, which has a population of around one million people. It was developed as part of the “territorial and community social intervention” course in the social work degree at Universidad del Bío-Bío, the state university of the Bío Bío and Ñuble regions. Twenty-one students and two professors participated.

The activity consisted in a walk observation of the city through the route that figure 1 shows. The course group met at the first point indicated in figure 1 and illustrated in figure 2. This spot has the most important regional public services, such as the regional government building, the regional office of the housing and urbanism ministry, and the regional office of the public construction ministry. 

The students were required to observe and write their observations in a mezzo spatial scale setting, considering the material, subjective and social dimensions, making not only descriptions of what they saw but also interpreting it, using the Lefebvrian lens. After the instructions, students observed point 1 and walked to point 2, observing and taking notes while walking. Point 2 was the central square of the city (figure 3), which also had relevant public buildings such as the main Catholic cathedral of the city, banks and cafes. This place was an opportunity to talk about some of the elements observed and their interpretations of them. After that, the group walked to point three, indicated in figure 1, which is the main court of justice of the region (figure 4). In that place, a little conversation took place and a short speech by one of the professors about the theoretical implications for social work of critical perspectives about the city.

Data and analysis

The data analysed in this work are the notes taken by the twenty-one students who participated in this experience, transcribed in an Excel spreadsheet. The analysis applied was qualitative and had a comprehensive emphasis. The analysis sought to determine the most common elements identified and interpretations made by the students, to know whether the trialectical perspective used was understood in general, if there were differences in the understanding of the three dimensions, and if students were able to make connections between them. The categorization used emerged from the review of the students’ responses, using an open codification process.

The results are presented, illustrating them with quotations from the notes, using figures 2, 3 and 4 as a context.

Results

Regarding the material dimension, more than half of the references were about buildings like public services, malls, churches, and social housing blocks. The second more critical category identified was transport, in which was observed the presence of the train and its connection with buses, bikes, and cars. The third more relevant observation was the presence of public and green areas, like squares. Students incorporated descriptions about it that emphasised its connection with state buildings, as it is possible to note in the case of the first point in figure 1, illustrated by the picture in figure 2. The fourth more relevant observation was the streets. These were described as clean, well-connected, and in a good state. The fifth more frequent mention was made referring to monuments or statues that, in all the cases, were observed as part of state interventions in the city. Less frequent mentions were made referring to noise, sounds and graffiti.

Regarding subjective elements, the most common element mentioned is the presence of humans in urban space. The students described them in terms of a flux continuum, in some cases scarce and in others very crowded. Some students refer to persons in front of state buildings, protesting or waiting for state assistance. The second most frequent elements were graffiti and art murals with political and ideological messages and emotions. Regarding the first type, students described messages like “you should study, not be a cop”, “ACAB” (All Cops Are Bastards) or “God hates you”, among other messages criticising the government. Regarding emotions, students described what they perceived in people's faces, using two opposite poles: calm and stress. In some parts of the city, like point 1 of figure 1, students described calm feelings, and in points 2 and 3, they tended to refer to stressful feelings. The third more common element identified was the presence of monuments and memorials. Students highlighted the 2010 earthquake victims’ memorial located by the Biobío River and the diverse symbolic shields representing the communes that integrate the Biobío region. Other elements mentioned were the presence of public and green areas and descriptions of the city structure. Less frequent were the mentions about sounds or noise, odours and aromas, and transport. A substantial proportion of the mentions refers to abstract elements as power or consumerism without a clear connection with objectifiable elements.

Regarding social elements, the most frequent observation was the state's presence and role in the urban infrastructure, considering national, regional and local government buildings. Students observed how these buildings connected with people around the city. In that context, the second most crucial element was the urban flux of people. The urban centre is described as a place of encounter, for services, work, and people, so public transport, streets and sidewalks are highlighted. The third most important aspects observed were the culture and art expressions, including monuments, memorials and religious elements. The 2010 earthquake victims are mentioned again, and bohemian spaces are also included. The centrality of the religious power was observed, and in front of the Catholic cathedral, students highlighted a special memorial for Sebastian Acevedo, a worker who burned himself in a protest during Pinochet's dictatorship period, after which the secret police of the dictatorship regime arrested his sons. Another element observed was the presence of formal and informal commerce. Malls are described as commerce centres and entertainment spaces, and street traders as part of the urban landscape. Other elements mentioned were the city's relevance as a work centre, the begging, the police presence, and migrant people.

After the observation walk, the course group sat on the ground in front of the court of justice (figure 4) and, after a group discussion, made a short analysis of the notes. Those analyses focused on the city's role as a space that concentrates diverse kinds of power: political, economic, and cultural. One student wrote, "there is a concentration of power: economic, religious and political. Every day a great number of people come to the Concepción centre, where there are more police, social services, commercial shops, and restaurants, among other services".

Additionally, students perceived a more diverse cultural context than in other territories. This situation appears associated with the strong police presence that protects the continuity of the urban role as a centrality. Finally, some students concluded with the statement: “the state is not possible without territory”.

Discussion

A multi-dimensional approach was tested in this experience, considering the material, subjective and social elements. It is necessary to answer whether it was possible to identify each one of them correctly and if the final analysis could integrate them in a comprehensive way. The material dimension included references to buildings, transport, public and green areas, streets, and monuments or statues. Few students were able to note noises and sounds. These elements could be considered as part of the soundscape and they are material indeed, but students were not required to pay attention to them. 

In the subjective dimension, most students identified human presence in urban space. This is not coherent with the subjective dimension understood as emotions, feelings or thoughts. Even when the students notice a person protesting, they did not emphasise the subjective elements of that. Neither were appropriate other elements like the presence of public and green areas and descriptions of the city structure. In some way, these elements could be interpreted as an architecture or urbanism language that implies a specific worldview or an ideological project,[14] but these analyses weren't developed. Despite the above, students were able to identify some coherent elements, like graffiti with political and ideological messages. Those were the result of the protesting movement in Chile in October 2019, which questioned the state and most significant companies about the high level of inequalities in the country, motivated by a profound injustice feeling. Another element correctly identified were the monuments and memorials. Material aspects capture these two elements but express thoughts about what justice is and how the city should be transformed. Regarding social dimension, students identified several elements that were coherent with the social category understood as the human interactions in space, including the role of the state in the city, the relevance of buildings and how people move in the urban context, among other elements.

In summary, material and social dimensions were easily captured by students, but there were some difficulties in capturing subjective elements through an urban walk observation methodology. Additionally, it was challenging to integrate each dimension comprehensively after describing them separately. Notwithstanding, students were able to show how political issues are associated with the production and reproduction of space, which is a relevant Lefebvrian argument. This is a relevant improving of this approach for the social work understanding of social diagnosis. Social issues are intimately connected to political struggles and that has a strong spatial dimension. Finally, from a Marxist point of view, it would be necessary to consider how the mezzo scale analysed is connected with reality at macro levels and how the present situation results from a historic social-spatial trajectory. That did not happen in this experience because this was an exploratory activity to test a specific theoretical framework that is necessary to profound.

Conclusion

This experience shows that it is possible to apply the Lefebvrian lens in spatial analysis in social work education, which contributes to a critical understanding of space in social work in general. Nevertheless, it is necessary to address some of this experience's difficulties. This experience's main problem is the difficulty of capturing the subjective dimension of the space through a single-method approach. Despite an urban walk observation being a good way to capture material elements, it is necessary to add complementary techniques to generate more complex qualitative data. In this context, it is necessary to broaden the range of senses used, considering sight, hearing and smell. Additionally, it is necessary to amplify the scale range of the analysis. The social problems that social work addresses generally are placed in local and mezzo scales, but it is necessary to understand them in connection with macro scales. Future experiences should make progress on it.   

Despite the additional work required this experience shows that critical spatial analysis in social work education enables students to understand how space is connected to political issues, and how social actors such as state, churches and companies spatialized their actions. There exists different options regarding the theoretical basis for this kind of activity (post-structuralist, systemic, and others), and the outputs will vary depending on them. For that reason, pedagogical experiences should be considered as intimately linked with theoretical options. In this sense, as it was argued, a trialectical and multi-scalar approach is a theoretical framework that enables students to be aware about certain things that another theoretical framework does not emphasize enough. It is an assumption that needs to be corroborated, and there is a need for more research that compares different ways of analysing space in social work. 

Finally, this work shows that walking observation is a good methodological approach to analyse space, as Gutiérrez-Ujaque and Jesyasingham argued.[15] This could be a good way to understand how trialectics operate, but it is necessary to consider it together with additional techniques that enable students to capture the subjective dimension accurately.

Author

Felipe Saravia Cortés (Universidad del Bío-Bío, Chile) Social worker, master in local and regional human development, and doctor in social sciences in territorial studies. Researcher at the centre of interdisciplinary territorial studies (CETI-UBB) and at the Nursery, Midwifery and Social Work Division at The University of Manchester. Email: fsaravia@ubiobio.cl

Acknowledgments

The author is grateful for the comments of Dharman Jeyasingham about this manuscript, and for the collaboration of Alexander Panez on guiding the pedagogical experience.

This work is part of the products of the postdoctoral research of the author (“Latin American and anglophone approaches to the spatial dimension of social work practice”) at the University of Manchester, financed by the National Agency of Research and Development of Chile.

Notes

[1] Harvey, David. 2013. “O espaço Como Palavra-Chave”. GEOgraphia 14 (28):8-39. https://doi.org/10.22409/GEOgraphia2012.v14i28.a13641.

Lefebvre, Henri. La producción del espacio. Madrid, Capitan Swing, 2013.

[2] Bryant, Lia and Charlotte Williams. “Place and space in social work”. Qualitative Social Work 19, no.3 (May 2020):321-336. https://doi.org/10.1177/1473325020918794; Spatscheck, Christian, and Karin Wolf-Ostermann. “The Socio-Spatial Paradigm in Social Work - social space analyses as method for practitioners and researchers”. sozialraum.de 1. (2009). http://www.sozialraum.de/the-socio-spatial-paradigm-in-social-work.php

[3] Addams, Jane. Hull-House Maps and Papers. Boston: Thomas Crowell & Co, 1895.

[4] Saravia, Felipe, and Alexander Panez. “Constelación espacial de conceptos para Trabajo Social: ambiente, lugar, territorio y paisaje”. Revista Trabajo Social 24, no.2 (July 2022): 241–266. https://doi.org/10.15446/ts.v24n2.97954

[5] Spatscheck, Christian, and Karin Wolf-Ostermann. 2009; Saravia, Felipe. “Análisis socioespacial en trabajo social”. Eleuthera 23, no.1 (2021): 340-356. http://doi.org/10.17151/eleu.2021.23.1.18

[6] Reyes-Bahamondes, Julián, and Diana Cornejo-Díaz. “Prácticas espaciales de infancias en edificio de gran altura y densidad habitacional”. Revista Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales, Niñez y Juventud 20, no.1 (January-April 2022):1-31. https://doi.org/10.11600/rlcsnj.20.1.4809; Jeyasingham, Dharman. “The Production of Space in Children's Social Work: Insights from Henri Lefebvre's Spatial Dialectics”. British Journal of Social Work 44, no.7 (October 2014): 1879-1894. https://doi.org/10.1093/bjsw/bct053

[7] Choi, Myung Min, Hyang Kyung Park, and Hyun Ju Lee. “Exploring the possibility of ‘Space-based Social Work Practice’ based on Lefebvre’s space theory- A Case Study on the Production of Differential Space in Permanent Rental Housing.” Korean Journal of Social Welfare 69, no.4 (November 2017): 99-125.

[8] Saravia, Felipe. “Espacio e intervención en trabajo social a partir de Lefebvre”. Cinta de Moebio, no.66, (March 2019): 281-294. https://doi.org/10.4067/S0717-554X2019000300281; Saravia, Felipe. 2021.

[9] Saravia, Felipe. 2021.

[10] Lefebvre, Henri. 2013

[11] Jeyasingham, Dharman. 2014

[12] Saravia, Felipe. 2021.

[13] Saravia, Felipe. 2021.

[14] Jacobs, Jane. Muerte y Vida de las Grandes Ciudades. Madrid: Capitan Swing, 2011.

[15] Gutiérrez-Ujaque, Daniel, and Jeyasingham, Dharman. “Towards a Critical Pedagogy of Atmosphere in Social Work Education: Using Counter-Mapping to Examine the Emplaced Power Relations of Practice”. The British Journal of Social Work 52, no.2 (March 2022): 738–758. https://doi.org/10.1093/bjsw/bcab031