The aim of this work is to question the notion of space that underlies the claimed `spatial turn' inudgeographical and social theory. Section 1 examines this theoretical literature, drawing heavily onudSoja as the self declared taxonomist of the genre, and also seeks parallels with more populist textsudon cities and space, to suggest, following Williams, that there is a new `structure of feeling'udtowards space. Section 1 introduces two foundational concepts. The first, derived from Soja'sudmisunderstanding of Borges' story The Aleph, argues for an `alephic vision', an imposition of audde-materialized and revelatory understanding of space. This is related to the second, an `ecstaticudvision', which describes the tendency, illustrated through the work of Koolhaas and recentudexhibitions on the experience of cities, to treat spatial and material experience in hyperbolic andudhallucinatory terms.udSection 2 offers a series of theoretical reconstructions which seek to draw out parallels betweenudthe work of key theorists of what I term the `respatialization' literature (Harvey, Giddens,udFoucault and Lefebvre) and the work of Hillier et al in the Space Syntax school. A series ofudempirical studies demonstrate that the approach to the material realm offered by Space Syntax isudnot only theoretically compatible but can also help to explain `real world' phenomena. However,udthe elision with wider theoretical positions points to the need for a reworking of elements ofudSpace Syntax, and steps towards this goal are offered in section 3.udIn the final `speculative epilogue' I reopen the philosophical debates about the nature of space,uddeliberately suppressed from the beginning, and suggest that perhaps the apparent theoretical andudempirical versatility of Space Syntax, based upon a configurational approach to space as audcomplex relational system, may offer an alternative approach to these enduring metaphysicaluddebates.
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