Architecture, Ordinary Universalism, and the Spatial Subconscious

This paper explores some sociological benefits of fusing cultural sociological theories of architecture and space as developed–inter alia–by Martina Löw with the notion of ‘ordinary universalism’ conceptualized by Michele Lamont. Architectural spaces have qualities and affordances that form ecologies or lifeworlds required for social interactions to take place, literally and figuratively. These lifeworlds, if conceptualized and designed in specific ways, can facilitate types of human contact, exchange and play that are necessary components of open civil society. They comprise what I provisionally call the phenomenological dimension of ‘ordinary universalism’. However, these are precisely the qualities and affordances that are often taken for granted or only subliminally perceived or experienced, both in social life and in social science. I call this condition ‘the spatial subconscious’ and show how bringing it up for view is necessary for more adequate spatial theorizing and more inclusive forms of sociality.