ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces Marxist definitions of social production, through the work of German-born political theorist, Friedrich Engels, and the writings of the French philosopher, social theorist and activist, Henri Lefebvre, to explore the field in relation to the production of space, or architecture. Social production, the Institute proclaims, is beginning to define a form of production that 'draws on contributions from large networks of people, enabled by social technologies, to create new kinds of wealth'. Engels was a German-born political theorist and collaborator with Karl Marx who published extensively on the production of the political economy and the conditions of the working classes. Instead of a capitalistic appropriation of production, Engels demands its social appropriation, whereby the socialised means of production are transformed into public property. Lefebvre, French Marxist sociologist, philosopher and activist, revolutionised not only understandings of 'production' but more importantly of 'space'.
