Henri Lefebvre has considerable claims to be the greatest living philosopher. His work spans some sixty years and includes original work on a diverse range of subjects, from dialectical materialism to architecture, urbanism and the experience of everyday life. The Production of Space is his major philosophical work and its translation has been long awaited by scholars in many different fields. The book is a search for a reconciliation between mental space (the space of the philosophers) and real space (the physical and social spheres in which we all live). In the course of his exploration, Henri Lefebvre moves from metaphysical and ideological considerations of the meaning of space to its experience in the everyday life of home and city. He seeks, in other words, to bridge the gap between the realms of theory and practice, between the mental and the social, and between philosophy and reality. In doing so, he ranges through art, literature, architecture and economics, and further provides a powerful antidote to the sterile and obfuscatory methods and theories characteristic of much recent continental philosophy. This is a work of great vision and incisiveness. It is also characterized by its author's wit and by anecdote, as well as by a deftness of style which Donald Nicholson-Smith's sensitive translation precisely captures.

空間是身體的延伸、自我認同的象徵，更是社會文化與政治權力的角力場。為了保護青少年，就該實施青少年宵禁？我們要讓孩子在什麼樣的校園空間中學習成長？馬路的設計為汽車族而服務，行人理應辛苦的上天橋下地下道？同志的愛情理應隱身於公共舞台之後？家園的意義…許多既久成俗的空間規則，其實值得我們重新審視。 回到個人身體與環境的實踐，其實每個人都有能力創造與改造空間，在我們認識空間的同時應該嘗試去改善空間，讓空間更適合我們的行動與想像。從周圍的環境做起，改善家庭中的個人空間、消除都市中黑暗危險的死角、創造社區中鄰居聚集相互學習的空間角落，每個人都可以成為俗民建築師。改變每日生活空間的行動本身，就是賦予自己界定自我的機會，形塑我們的空間就是在形塑我們的未來。