Henri Lefebvre
Henri Lefebvre was a French philosopher born in 1901, whose early life was marked by a strict religious upbringing that shaped his later rejection of imposed beliefs. He studied philosophy at the University of Paris and became deeply influenced by the works of Hegel, Marx, and Nietzsche. Throughout his life, Lefebvre evolved into a Marxist thinker, advocating for a more democratic form of socialism and critiquing both fascism and Stalinism. His experiences during World War II and his involvement in the French Communist Party, from which he was eventually expelled, solidified his commitment to anti-fascism and social justice.
In the 1960s, Lefebvre shifted his focus to urban life, developing ideas about social space and the rights of urban residents, famously coining the phrase "the right to the city." His work emphasized the need for people to be active participants in shaping their urban environments, free from consumerist constraints. While Lefebvre's writings were not widely translated into English during his lifetime, his contributions to Marxist thought and urban studies have gained recognition in Europe posthumously. His influential theories continue to resonate with contemporary scholars, particularly in the fields of sociology and urban philosophy.
Henri Lefebvre
Philosopher
- Born: June 16, 1901
- Birthplace: Hagetmau, France
- Died: June 29, 1991
- Place of death: Pau, France
Education: University of Paris
Significance: Lefebvre was a French philosopher and Marxist. He was well known for his ideas about socialism and urban spaces. Lefebvre recognized the failure of Stalinist socialism, but he did not believe that failure should make people abandon the socialist ideology altogether. Lefebvre published more than seventy books during his career, and he is remembered as a unique academic who was both a socialist and a humanist.
Background
Henri Lefebvre was born in southwestern France in 1901. He was born into an extremely religious family. He was educated in Catholic schools, and his mother burned his poetry books because they were secular. Lefebvre’s life was greatly influenced by this experience with religion. He became determined as a young man that he would no longer believe something because he felt forced into believing it. This resolve would influence the rest of his life.
Lefebvre became interested in philosophy, and he studied the subject at the University of Paris. After graduating in 1920, Lefebvre began teaching the topic. He developed humanist ideas after studying the teachings of German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer in the early 1920s. Lefebvre was living in Paris in the 1920s, and he became involved with a group of philosophers who were influenced by surrealists and dadaists. Because of the influence of these schools of thought, Lefebvre and his cohorts became less interested in the theory of philosophy and more interested in the concrete results of taking action based on one’s beliefs.
Life’s Work
Lefebvre took interest in the teachings of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel and Karl Marx. He became a Marxist, which would shape the rest of his career and life. His interpretation of the ideas of German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche encouraged him to have anti-fascist beliefs. He also critiqued National Socialism and nationalism when the Nazi Party came to power. Lefebvre, who lived in France during World War II (1939–1945), actively resisted the Nazis when they overtook his country. During the war, Lefebvre continued to write and study.
Lefebvre and like-minded Marxists watched hopefully when socialism took hold in Russia. However, Lefebvre became an outspoken critic of the principles and policies put forth by Stalinism in the Soviet Union. Most of the Communist Party disliked Lefebvre because he believed in a more “democratic” form of government than had developed in the Soviet Union. He believed that communism in the Soviet Union had promised to transform people’s lives, but it had actually just changed superficial elements of life there. Lefebvre was a member of the French Communist Party, called the PCF, starting in 1928. After World War II, Lefebvre began clashing with party leaders. He was expelled from the party in 1958 because of his differing beliefs. He taught at a university in Strasbourg in the mid-1950s, even though he was considered an outsider because of his philosophical and political beliefs.
In the 1960s Lefebvre became more focused on urban life and social space. The 1960s were a turbulent time throughout much of the Western world. Urban areas were becoming larger, but Lefebvre believed that many people living in cities in the world’s democracies were still being mistreated. Lefebvre began to focus on the rights of people living in urban areas. His ideas about urbanization and social space helped shape philosophy regarding urban populations for years to come.
His work with Marxism and socialism was important for the way it shaped Marxist thought. However, it was also important because it helped Marxists realize that socialism was not just a failed experiment. Since Lefebvre had been an anti-Stalinist, he realized that the failure of the Soviet Union was not the failure of socialism as an ideology. His work helped spread that idea to other Marxists.
Impact
Lefebvre first made an impact on the field of philosophy when he helped spread the ideas of Hegel and Marx in the 1920s. Lefebvre’s theories about Marxism also made important developments in socialist thought throughout the early twentieth century, even though he was eventually expelled from the Communist Party. Lefebvre’s anti-fascism and anti-globalism views helped define his work during and immediately after World War II. After Soviet-style communism failed during the 1980s and 1990s, many people claimed that socialism was a failed social experiment. However, Lefebvre had denounced Stalinist-style socialism since its inception, and he believed that he and others could create a different, fairer form of socialism that fundamentally changed people’s lives. Some critics of Lefebvre believed that he had utopian ideas that were not realistic.
Lefebvre’s impact was further defined when he developed his ideas about social space in the 1960s. His idea of the “right to the city” stated that people should be creators of the cities and have access to that space free of consumerism. Sociologists and philosophers continue to cite his work on urbanization and the rights of people living in cities. At the end of his life, Lefebvre was also seen as a scholar who was trying to bring together the older leftists of his generation, who were steeped in philosophy and political thought, with a younger generation who focused on anti-imperialism and anti-racism.
Lefebvre was a prolific writer, but few of his books have been translated into English. Because his works were not widely published in English, some of his ideas are less well known than those of his contemporaries. Lefebvre’s work has become more recognized in Europe since his death in 1991, and some of his ideas continue to be used and developed by modern scholars.
Personal Life
Lefebvre was married to Catherine Regulier.
Principal Works
Le droit à la ville, 1968
La revolution urbaine, 1970
La pensée Marxiste et la Ville, 1972
La production de l’espace, 1974
Bibliography
Davidson, Alastair. “Henri Lefebvre.” Thesis Eleven: Critical Theory and Historical Sociology, no. 33, 1992, pp. 152–53.
Goonewardena, Kanishka, et al., editors. Space, Difference, Everyday Life: Reading Henri Lefebvre. Routledge, 2008.
Gunderson, Jaimie. “Henri Lefebvre.” The University of Texas at Austin, 13 Dec. 2014, sites.utexas.edu/religion-theory/bibliographical-resources/spatial-theory/movers-and-shakers-in-spatial-theory/henri-lefebvre/. Accessed 11 Sept. 2018.
“An Interview with Henri Lefebvre.” Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, vol. 5, 1987, pp. 27–28.
Merrifield, Andy. Henri Lefebvre: A Critical Introduction. Routledge, 2006.
Merrifield, Andy. “Henri Lefebvre’s Youthfulness of Heart.” The Brooklyn Rail, 1 Nov. 2004, brooklynrail.org/2004/11/express/henri-lefebvres-youthfulness-of-heart. Accessed 11 Sept. 2018.
Shields, Rob. “Henri Lefebvre: Philosopher of Everyday Life.” Profiles in Contemporary Social Theory, edited by A. Elliott and B. Turner, Sage, 2001.