Reconstruction Of Space Theory From The Perspective Of Spatial Division Of Labor

British marxism geologist Doreen Massey's critical theory of social space has great influence in the academic world,especially in recent years,western scholars began to widely discussed and summarized Massey's theoretical contribution in geography,politics,economics,feminism and so on.In the meantime,of course,also comes with a lot of debate.Massey's critical theory of social space takes the spatial division of labor as the central clue,criticizes and reflects on the spatial views of modernism,essentialism,neoliberalism and male supremacy,to form a set of postmodern style space of feminist theory,and put forward a kind of changing "social relationship" to understand the city with the local way of research.In the process of constructing her social space theory,she combined the relations among space,place,gender and power,and formed influential theoretical views such as global sense of place,power geometry and feminist space view based on gender division of labor.Doreen Massey's critical theory of social space has strong political and economic color,and her whole space theory is firmly rooted in the spatial division of labor.In Massey's theory of spatial division of labor,there are several important issues including: the spatial form of division of labor;The relationship between spatial division of labor and unbalanced development;The spatial differentiation of social structure caused by the spatial division of labor;Spatial structure imbalance of social relations and power geometry.These topics not only explain the basic connotation of the theory of division of labor in space,but also lead the topic to a point that is often debated in the academic circle,that is,how to define the issue of space and place.Massey has always insisted that space is the product of social relations,which are reflected in economic relations.Instead of being a metaphysical mode of argument,it should be the foundation of space philosophy from the perspective of the economic field.It can be said that the division of labor is an important fulcrum for the formation of the spatial theory of social relations.The problem of unequal power relations and the space justice is one of the core issue of space theory.The unequal power relationship is reflected in the imbalance of the spatial structure of social relations,which is actually the result of the interaction between the unequal development of geography and the spatial division of labor.There are both active factors of the subject and restrictive factors of space structure.By repeatedly demonstrating the interaction between economic relations and space structure,Massey has sufficient reasons to declare the common aspiration of the left-wing geographer: ‘Geography Matters' ! In the development of the theory of social space,there are various views and opinions,however,many of them are very different from the real social space,these biased views can be summarized as the spatial hypothesis of diachronic and synchronic,such as modernism and colonialism,‘Roosevelt corollary',Laclau's space theory and so on.By criticizing the above views,Massey theoretically sets up the dynamic and developing space theory,based on above,she calls on people to embrace an open mind and inclusive ‘global sense of place' in the process of integration of globalization.As a feminism Marxist,Massey emphasized one of the nature of space which is called gender.The gender perspective can be seen in the classic Marxist works,which Massey continues,and again intersects with Engels.Massey's spatial feminism mainly criticized the binary opposite of spatial gender cognition,and reflected on the question about women and men who was ‘in place' and who was‘out of place' at home or work place.Finally,she criticized the elitism and the lack of gender perspective in the space view of modernity.Massey mainly criticized and reflected on the viewpoints of Harvey and Soja,and emphasized that their space theory would be a lame theory if it lacked the concern for women or ‘the others'.In the above analysis,the point of view of Massey's unique spatial feminism is demonstrated,and the reconstruction of space theory is realized to some extent.Actually,Massey's theory of space is also defective.Her post-modern theoretical analysis style makes her tend to criticize the meta-narrative and determinism,and ignore the necessity in the development of things in the process of highlighting the contingency and particularity.Her "eclecticism" position has also made some of her views widely controversial in the academic circle.Some of her theories have strong particularity and pertinence,but they are not universally applicable.However,the contribution of her theoretical system to the western marxist geography is still recognized by the academic circle.