Space, Spatiality, and Archaeology

Blake, Emma

doi:10.1002/9780470693605.ch10

Cited by 10 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 38 publications

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“…Although Latour has not been commonly cited, the ideas of Bourdieu, Anthony Giddens, Michel Foucault, Henri Lefebvre, and other prominent social theoreticians are regularly invoked in studies of ancient cities and urbanism (e.g., Ashmore 2002;Blake 2004;Fisher 2009;Joyce 2000;Joyce 2009;Smith 2003a, c). High-level theoretical schemes describe how the social world works on a very abstract, philosophical level, and as a result their utility in the analysis of particular empirical cases is rather limited (Ellen 2010).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Empirical Urban Theory for Archaeologists

Smith

2010

J Archaeol Method Theory

156

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I review several bodies of empirical urban theory relevant to the archaeological analysis of ancient cities. Empirical theory is a type of "middlerange theory" (following Robert Merton): sets of concepts and methods that are less abstract, and have greater empirical content, than high-level social theory. The categories of theory reviewed here include environment-behavior theory, architectural communication theory, space syntax, urban morphology, reception theory, generative planning theory, normative theory, and city size theory. Most of these approaches originated in the fields of architecture, planning, and geography, and they directly link the urban-built environment to the actions of people within cities.Keywords Urbanism . Theory . Planning . Middle-range theory . Built environment Archaeological research on ancient cities and urbanism exhibits a wide range of perspectives on the use of theory. Some archaeologists pursue descriptive research with little explicit use of theory, while others embrace high-level social theory. Still others chart a course between these poles by using lower-level concepts. Work in this latter category is more abstract than empirical description but more grounded and less abstract than high-level social theory. I call this body of work "empirical urban theory," and in this paper I argue that this is an especially productive explanatory approach for understanding ancient cities and urban life. In defining "theory" I follow anthropologist Roy Ellen, who states that theories, provide us with a framework through which we can explain and interpret data, and they should do so parsimoniously. So, we might define theory as 'A supposition or body of suppositions designed to explain phenomena or data' (Ellen 2010: 390).

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mentioning

confidence: 99%

Empirical Urban Theory for Archaeologists

Smith

2010

J Archaeol Method Theory

156

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“…Space syntax research recognises that humans divide, or “configure,” their space into discrete units, such as rooms in a building, and that the relationship between space and humans is dynamic, with societies as much modified by the spaces they create as they themselves are modifiers of space: “Spatial configuration,” argues Sonit Bafna, “not only reproduces existing hierarchical relationships, but it also helps produce particular patterns of social relationships” (2003, p. 20). While space syntax can on its own produce sterile and positivist results, the potential risk of reducing human activity to over‐generalised trends is here mitigated through the integration of documentary evidence (Blake, 2004, p. 232).…”

Section: Analysing Spacementioning

confidence: 99%

The Globalization of Penal Space in Nineteenth‐Century Malta

Palmer¹

2021

J Historical Sociology

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In the second half of the nineteenth century an unprecedented number of prisons were built across the Western‐influenced world. However, many more developed from repurposed and modified buildings. By applying space syntax analysis to examples from the then British colony of Malta, this article investigates the commonalities of penal space across a series of purpose‐built and refashioned prisons, taking into consideration key architectural phases resulting from remodelling. Rejecting the notion that Maltese developments are merely symptomatic of British colonialism, the spread of Western prisons is cast in terms of wider trends and the global spread of a particular type of penal space.

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“…But if we do not accommodate these spatial dimensions into our analyses, it becomes very difficult to look at these topics. Indeed, as one of the main arenas in which people and things exist, space is not only inseparable from our conceptions of time and the environment (both ours and past peoples'); it is also a very important (some would say the most important) framework in which we can usefully consider, measure and analyze them (Lefebvre 1991;Blake 2004).…”

Section: Other Missing Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

Back to basics: returning to the evidence and mapping knowledge in south Asian archaeology

Hawkes

Casile

2020

asian archaeol

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In this article we advocate a return to the consideration and examination of the basic building blocks of archaeological enquiry: the evidence. Reacting to a widely held perception that archaeology now understands various commonalities of human experience, we suggest that such concepts and the inevitable oscillation towards "big picture" approaches that stems from them are problematic. They engender a type of scholarship that does not always engage fully with the evidentiary bases of interpretation and that risks assuming a great deal about large parts of the world that have not been studied in as much detail as others. We explore this by looking at the South Asian context, where archaeologists are forced to contend with a number of constraints, chief among which is a relative absence of archaeological evidence. Focusing on one particular sub-region, we piece together exactly what evidence exists and consider what can (and cannot) be said from it. On one level this serves as a useful comparator for those working in other parts of the world who may not appreciate the evidentiary constraints that exist elsewhere. Yet beyond this and simple questions of analogy, we suggest that detailed consideration of an area such as the one presented here forces us to return to even more fundamental questions relating to when archaeological research becomes "interesting", "ground-breaking", and "new"; and who decides this.

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Space, Spatiality, and Archaeology

Cited by 10 publications

References 38 publications

Empirical Urban Theory for Archaeologists

Empirical Urban Theory for Archaeologists

The Globalization of Penal Space in Nineteenth‐Century Malta

Back to basics: returning to the evidence and mapping knowledge in south Asian archaeology

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