City. Myths, Nature and Violence

Abstract

Urban construction is historically linked to sacrifice, hence to violence. This article makes a connection between the mechanisms for violence and the process of urban planning, construction, and development within the conceptual framework Henri Lefebvre, a French philosopher and sociologist, presented in his book The Production of Space. By means of Lefebvre’s conceptual triad: representations of space, spatial practice and representational spaces, the author discovers a direct correlation between violence and the myths that secure and legitimize it. One of the core mythological scenarios breeding violence in the city is the pursuit to conquer the Other and capture its treasures, which is embodied, among other things, in the desire to conquer nature and make it safe and predictable. Thus, nature itself replaces the Other, becoming its monstrous double, whose existence is both essential and hazardous for urban development. The digital turn in the city brings on still another double—the digital space. Not only social interactions but urban space production is going digital. Yet digital space is unable and unwilling to subject analog space to its rule. As a result, the city’s physical dimension and its digital double merge, creating a hyper-object, which cannot be fully conceived even by those who design it. By contrasting representations of space (i.e., space development perceptions) and spatial practice (i.e., city daily usage), the author reflects on the old and the new, the way they coexist in the hybrid digital-analog space, affecting myths and the attitude to nature and violence.