This thesis aims to contribute new knowledge to the debate on corporate urbanism. Generally, it seeks to identify the process and implications of globalization tendencies on the development of industrial and postindustrial cities while exploring the aspects that this specific production of space entails. Specifically it studies the case of the Baťa shoe company, whose model of an „ideal industrial town“, its production and export, has been one of the first examples of enforcement/implementation of corporate urbanism on a global scale. The 1930s model of the Indian enterprise city, Batanagar, is since 2006 being replaced by a new one: the model of a city-venture, in which the actual production of shoes is strictly separated from the new production of lifestyle. This model can today be found on the outskirts of large cities throughout the world, and especially in countries of the global south, where it clearly reflects the socio-economic transformation of the whole society, from a production driven, to a consumption driven society.

This thesis is a study of spatial practice and literary depictions of homes in novels by Elsie Johansson, Kerstin Thorvall and Kristina Sandberg. The theoretical perspective is based on Henri Lefebvre´s view on social space, and on the concept of spatial practice. Research questions are: What homes are depicted? How does spatial practice function in the texts? How does the depictedspatial practice relate to norms and ideals? The novels, published 1993-2014, depict an interesting period in Swedish history (cirka 1920-1970) when politics and society at large was deeply involved in reshaping the homes and lives of Swedish citizens. The aim was to turn the citizens into new, healthy and rational parts of the new and rational society. Housewives where put in a position where the new rational housekeeping clashed with the standards and practices of earlier generations. Class is found to be a crucial factor in performing and experiencing domesticity in the studied novels. Housewive characters in the Thorvall and Sandberg novels, raised in working class families, struggle in adapting the spatial practice of home in their new middle class environments.Part of the thesis is a discussion on domesticity seen as an adaptive pracitce – catering to the needs of husbands and children. The novels show this, but also depict housework being used as a way to escape unpleasant conversations or forget ones unpleasant feelings. Another task with complex connotations and uses is cleaning. Cleaning in these novels have a strong connection to positive feelings like pleasure and pride, but also to negative feelings of shame and a loss of control. Acting normal to achieve a state of normality within the home and family is a common strategy for the housewives. The material is found to support Lefebvres idea on the importance of spatial practice - sense of home, for the studied housewife characters, is found to be more dependent on spatialpractice than on the home itself.

《兩個閒蕩徒弟的懶惰旅行》(The Lazy Tour of Two Idle Apprentices, 1857) 是一本由查理‧狄更斯(Charles Dickens)與威爾基‧柯林斯(Wilkie Collins)根據他們的旅途見聞再加上各自創作的兩篇短篇故事所集結而成的小說。在過去，許多批評家只單論文本中的兩篇短篇故事，而忽略鑲嵌短篇故事的主架構，把文本切割至互不相連的碎片。本論文主要採取昂希‧列斐伏爾(Henri Lefebvre)對於空間三面向的理論概念來剖析《兩個閒蕩徒弟的懶惰旅行》在文本中反覆出現，並且被不同主體所論述的閒蕩(idleness)一詞，試圖藉由呈現閒蕩的多重意義而把《兩個閒蕩徒弟的懶惰旅行》視為一有機的整體。論文第二章借助空間的再現(representation of space)概念論述看似懶散、不事生產的地景是如何被規劃，最終喪失其神性(deity)。論文的第三章則檢視空間使用者與空間的互動。本章從空間實踐(spatial practice)的角度切入，試圖證明文本中的精神病院(lunatic asylum)、火車站(railway station)與賽馬週(race-week)的空間規劃異化(alienate)了生活在其中的空間居民，而居民無所事事的遊蕩正是此異化的展現。第四章援引再現的空間(space of representation)之概念，試圖證明閒蕩也有其積極面向。藉由檢視故事主人翁法蘭西‧古柴爾德(Francis Goodchild)與湯瑪士‧艾朵(Thomas Idle)既合作又競爭的夥伴關係，閒蕩對於湯瑪士‧艾朵而言，是一種在文本中爭取發言權的手段。至於對缺乏官方實證的怪談野史而言，閒蕩也是一種抵抗大論述收編、並且同時揭露資本主義中金錢對於人性腐蝕的路徑。 / The Lazy Tour of Two Idle Apprentices is a travelogue worked in collaboration between Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins. Besides noting down what they observe and encounter during the trip, Dickens and Collins also enclose two gothic tales which is written respectively by them. Nevertheless, when most critics mention The Lazy Tour, they limit their concerns to simply the two interpolated tales, which violates the integrity of The Lazy Tour by dissecting it into disconnected pieces. This thesis proposes to apply Henri Lefebvre’s conceptual triad to analyze the recurring theme, idleness, which is interpreted by different subjects. By presenting the variations of the concept of idleness, this thesis attempts to see The Lazy Tour as an organic whole. Applying the idea of representation of space, Chapter Two explains how the seemingly inoperative landscapes are programmed and designed, which results in the demise of the deity of Nature. With the support of the concept of spatial practice, Chapter Three proposes to demonstrate how the spatial designs of the lunatic asylum, railway station, and the festive occasion, the race-week, respectively alienate the spatial inhabitants. The idleness manifested by these spatial inhabitants is the syndrome of their alienation. Chapter Four analyzes the constructive aspect of the idleness with the assistance of Lefebvre’s idea of space of representation. In terms of Thomas Idle, one of the protagonists, idleness serves as a resistant measure to develop his own narrative. As far as the two interpolated tales are concerned, idleness can be compared to a way to resist the incorporation of the narrative framework of The Lazy Tour, and in the meanwhile discloses the moral corruption brought by Capitalism.

Originating from a disenfranchisement with the contemporary definition and realisation of Westernised architecture as a commodity and product, this thesis seeks to explore alternative examples of positive socio-spatial practice and agency. These alternative spatial practices and methodologies are drawn from participatory and grass-roots development agency in informal settlements and contexts of economic absence, most notably in the global South. This thesis explores whether such examples can be interpreted as practical realisations of key theoretical advocacies for positive social space that have emerged in the context of post-Second World-War capitalism. The principal methodological framework utilises two differing trajectories of spatial discourse. Firstly, Henri Lefebvre and Doreen Massey as formative protagonists of Western spatial critique, and secondly, John F. C. Turner and Nabeel Hamdi as key advocates of participatory development practice in informal settlements. These two research trajectories are notably separated by geographical, economic and political differentiations, as well as conventional disciplinary boundaries. However by undertaking a close textual reading of these discourses this thesis critically re-contextualises the socio-spatial methodologies of participatory development practice, observing multiple theoretical convergences and provocative commonalities. This research proposes that by critically comparing these previously unconnected disciplinary trajectories certain similarities, resonances and equivalences become apparent. These resonances reveal comparable critiques of choice, value, and identity which transcend the gap between such differing theoretical and practical engagements with space. Subsequently, these thematic resonances allow this research to critically engage with further appropriate surrounding discourses, including Marxist theory, orientalism, post- structural pluralism, development anthropology, post-colonial theory and subaltern theory. 5 In summary, this thesis explores aspects of Henri Lefebvre's and Doreen Massey's urban and spatial theory through a close textual reading of key texts from their respective discourses. This methodology provides a layered analysis of post-Marxist urban space, and an exploration of an explicit connection between Lefebvre and Massey in terms of the social production and multiplicity of space. Subsequently, this examination provides a theoretical framework from which to reinterpret and revalue the approaches to participatory development practice found in the writings and projects of John Turner and Nabeel Hamdi. The resulting comparative framework generates interconnected thematic trajectories of enquiry that facilitate the re-reading and critical reflection of Turner and Hamdi's development practices. Thus, selected Western spatial discourse acts as a critical lens through which to re-value the social, political and economical achievements of participatory development. Reciprocally, development practice methodologies are recognised as invaluable and provocative realisations of the socio-spatial qualities that Western spatial discourse has long advocated for, and yet have remained predominantly unrealised in the global North.