Making the political aspect of Lefebvre's work available in English for the first time, this book contains essays on philosophy, political theory, state formation, spatial planning, and globalization, as well as provocative reflections on the possibilities and limits of grassroots democracy under advanced capitalism.

With increasing availability of computation power, digital signal analysis algorithms have the potential of evolving from the common framewise operational method to samplewise operations which offer more precision in time. This thesis discusses a set of methods with samplewise operations: local signal approximation via Recursive Least Squares (RLS) where a mathematical model is fit to the signal within a sliding window at each sample. Thereby both the signal models and cost windows are generated by Autonomous Linear State Space Models (ALSSMs). The modeling capability of ALSSMs is vast, as they can model exponentials, polynomials and sinusoidal functions as well as any linear and multiplicative combination thereof. The fitting method offers efficient recursions, subsample precision by way of the signal model and additional goodness of fit measures based on the recursively computed fitting cost. Classical methods such as standard Savitzky-Golay (SG) smoothing filters and the Short-Time Fourier Transform (STFT) are united under a common framework. First, we complete the existing framework. The ALSSM parameterization and RLS recursions are provided for a general function. The solution of the fit parameters for different constraint problems are reviewed. Moreover, feature extraction from both the fit parameters and the cost is detailed as well as examples of their use. In particular, we introduce terminology to analyze the fitting problem from the perspective of projection to a local Hilbert space and as a linear filter. Analytical rules are given for computation of the equivalent filter response and the steady-state precision matrix of the cost. After establishing the local approximation framework, we further discuss two classes of signal models in particular, namely polynomial and sinusoidal functions. The signal models are complementary, as by nature, polynomials are suited for time-domain description of signals while sinusoids are suited for the frequency-domain. For local approximation of polynomials, we derive analytical expressions for the steady-state covariance matrix and the linear filter of the coefficients based on the theory of orthogonal polynomial bases. We then discuss the fundamental application of smoothing filters based on local polynomial approximation. We generalize standard SG filters to any ALSSM window and introduce a novel class of smoothing filters based on polynomial fitting to running sums.

Shows how Lefebvre's theory of space developed out of direct engagement with architecture, urbanism, and urban sociology.

During his lifetime Henri Lefebvre (1901-1991) was renowned in France as a philosopher, sociologist and activist. Although he published more than 70 books, few were available in English until The Production of Space was translated in 1991. While this work - often associated with geography - has influenced educational theory’s ‘spatial turn,’ educationalists have yet to consider Lefebvre’s work more broadly. This book engages in an educational reading of the selection of Lefebvre’s work that is available in English translation. After introducing Lefebvre’s life and works, the book experiments with his concepts and methods in a series of five ‘spatial histories’ of educational theories. In addition to The Production of Space, these studies develop themes from Lefebvre’s other translated works: Rhythmanalysis, The Explosion, the three volumes of Critique of Everyday Life and a range of his writings on cities, Marxism, technology and the bureaucratic state. In the course of these inquiries, Lefebvre’s own passionate interest in education is uncovered: his critiques of bureaucratised schooling and universities, the analytic concepts he devised to study educational phenomena, and his educational methods. Throughout the book Middleton demonstrates how Lefebvre’s conceptual and methodological tools can enhance the understanding of the spatiotemporal location of educational philosophy and theory. Bridging disciplinary divides, it will be key reading for researchers and academics studying the philosophy, sociology and history of education, as well as those working in fields beyond education including geography, history, cultural studies and sociology.

Through a series of interdisciplinary case studies, this topical collection is the first to focus on protest camps as unique organisational forms that transcend particular social movements' contexts. The book offers a critical understanding of current protest events and will help to better understand new global forms of democracy in action.

RESCALING URBAN POVERTY “In this path-breaking book, Mahito Hayashi explores the rescaled geographies of homelessness that have been produced in contemporary Japanese cities. Through an original synthesis of regulationist political economy and immersive place-based research, Hayashi situates urban homelessness in Japan in comparative-international contexts. The book offers new theoretical perspectives from which to decipher emergent forms of urban marginality and their contestation.” —Neil Brenner, Lucy Flower Professor of Urban Sociology, University of Chicago “Mahito Hayashi traces the shifting spatial strategies of unhoused people as they create spaces of emancipation within Japanese cities. Attending to the complexities of contentious class politics and livelihoods barely sustained by the survival economies, Rescaling Urban Poverty is a unique and valuable contribution to the study of the geographies of urban social movements.” —Nik Theodore, Head of the Department of Urban Planning and Policy, University of Illinois Chicago Rescaling Urban Poverty discloses the hidden dynamics of state rescaling that ensnares homeless people at the fringes of mainstream society and its housing regimes/classes. Explains the oppressive effects of rescaling and its limits in the interplay of the state, domiciled society, public space, urban class relations, social movements, and capitalism Uses ethnography as a re-ontologising medium of critical theorisation in Lefebvrian, Gramscian, Harveyan, and other Marxian strands Develops rich context-based and field-based arguments about social movements, poverty and housing policy, and public space formation in Japan Uncovers the radical geographies of placemaking, commoning, and translation that can create prohomeless urban environments under rescaling Refines the method of abstraction to broaden the international scope of critical literatures and links different scholarly standpoints without obscuring disagreements By advancing a broad research program for homelessness and poverty, Rescaling Urban Poverty provides the essential understanding of how state rescaling ensnares homeless and impoverished people in the interplay of the state, domiciled society, public space, urban class relations, social movements, and capitalism. Its three angles – national states, public and private spaces, and urban social movements – uncover the hidden dynamics of rescaling that emerge, and are resisted, at the fringes of mainstream society and its housing regimes/classes. Evidence is drawn from Japanese cities where the author has conducted long-term fieldwork and develops robust urban narratives by mobilising spatial regulation theory, metabolism theory, state theory, and critical housing theory. The book cross-fertilises these Lefebvrian, Gramscian, Harveyan, and other Marxian strands through meticulous efforts to reinterpret both old and new texts. By building bridges between classical and contemporary interests, and between the theories and Japanese cities, this book attracts various audiences in geography, sociology, urban studies, and political economy.

Influenced most notably by Émile Durkheim and Zygmunt Bauman, Dawson outlines how this long neglected stream of socialist theory can help us more fully understand, and possibly move beyond, the problems of neoliberalism and our conceptions of political individualism.