I have worked on the relationship between the mentality of city dwellers and urban space. One of the influential theories about the production of urban space is Lefevbre’s theory. The key issue raised by Lefebvre is his three spatial moments: representations of space, spatial practice, and representational spaces. These three are related to perceived space, conceived space, and lived space.
The way that we conceptualize our experiences was the main issue that I concentrate on it, through the perspective of cognitive science, using a wide range of theories of cognitive psychology, linguistics, and sociology, such as the cultural-historical theory of Vygotsky, Bakhtin’s ideas about novels and literature, cognitive schemata of Bartlett, collective memory of Halbwachs, etc.
In contrast to Lefevbre’s idea, I tried to show that the process of conceptualizing urban space in our minds is related to each social group’s cognitive schemata of which we are members. My thesis was based on the dialectical logic of Friedrich Hegel.
I proved by deduction (and test my analytical framework by induction) that:
1) Individual consciousness is influenced by social groups of which one is a member.
2) Suitable tools for studying the change of mentality of urban space are members of groups' narratives.
Consequently, the "mental schemas of social groups" are the unit of analysis of the city's spatial studies. We need to study the mental schemas of the intentionally active socially developed human being, whose consciousness is shaped by semiotic systems as well as other tools. From this perspective, stories, narratives, collective memories, and in a word, "texts", are proper tools that will help to study the urban space.