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Abstraction Beyond a ‘Law of Thought’: On Space, Appropriation and Concrete Abstraction

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Abstract

Given that one of the defining elements of capitalist society is the ubiquity of forms of abstraction through which social relations are mediated, it is not surprising that a generalised ‘reproach of abstraction’ has taken on a critical orthodoxy within social theory and the humanities. Many of these attacks against a pervasive culture of abstraction have an obvious resonance with longstanding critiques of the abstractions inherent in law. This article explores the critique of the power of abstraction that is a central theme in Henri Lefebvre’s depiction of the ‘abstract space’ of contemporary capitalism. In doing so, it will be emphasised that Lefebvre’s work is not primarily concerned with the rejection of abstraction per se, but with understanding the relationships between dominant forms of abstraction and concrete social practices. Of particular interest here is Lefebvre’s reformulation of the concept of concrete abstraction which extends his work beyond a polemical dismissal of the violence of abstraction into broader theoretical debates about the role of the abstract in the reproduction of social relations. Building on this aspect of Lefebvre’s work, I will argue that the concept of concrete abstraction can provide a means of understanding the relationships between the concrete and the abstract in existing juridico-political relations.

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Notes

  1. As Andrew Sayer makes clear: [K]nowledge must grasp the differentiations of the world; we need a way of individuating objects, and of characterizing their attributes and relationships. To be adequate for a specific purpose, it must ‘abstract’ from particular conditions, excluding those which have no significant effect in order to focus on those which do (Sayer 1992, p. 86). For a more recent elaboration of this point see Wachsmuth et al. 2011, p. 747.

  2. See also Sohn-Rethel 1973, p. 33; Toscano 2008b, pp. 279–282; Cunningham 2005, pp. 18–19; Osborne 2004, p. 27. I will return to Lefebvre’s use of the concept of concrete abstraction in the concluding sections of this article.

  3. The metaphor of physical force and masculine aggression associated with the phallic formant extends beyond the realm of the imaginary and is also expressed whenever abstract space ‘subsumes and unites scattered fragments … by force’ (Lefebvre 1991b, p. 308).

  4. Rob Shields has also criticised Lefebvre for reproducing the Eurocentrism that has afflicted much marxist social theory (p .170). For Virginia Blum and Heidi Nast the gendered distinctions that Lefebvre adopts, which equate paternal power with agency and force in history and the maternal sphere with passivity and subjection to historical change, are also problematic. They link this aspect of Lefebvre’s account to a number of unacknowledged heterosexist assumptions that are implicit in his critique of patriarchal social relations (Blum and Nast 1996, p. 577).

  5. William Lucy has recently provided a qualified, liberal defence of these tendencies towards law’s abstract forms of judgment, as exemplified by the rule of law (Lucy 2009b, p. 482; Lucy 2009a).

  6. For an introductory survey of the concept of ‘planetary urbanisation’ see Brenner and Schmid 2011.

  7. Osborne formulates this question in terms of the search for a ‘new conception of appropriation within abstraction’ (Osborne 2004, p. 27).

  8. They also resonate with Jacques Rancière’s account of the intrinsically aesthetic dependence of politics on a certain ‘distribution of the sensible’ (Rancière 2013, p. 9).

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Acknowledgments

I would like to express my thanks to two anonymous reviewers, whose constructive suggestions assisted me in numerous ways in the completion of this article. Of course any errors or omissions which remain are my own.

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    Chris Butler

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Butler, C. Abstraction Beyond a ‘Law of Thought’: On Space, Appropriation and Concrete Abstraction. Law Critique 27, 247–268 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10978-016-9186-z

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