71 Rivista di Storia delle Idee 2:1 (2013) pp. 71-80 ISSN.2281-1532 http://www.intrasformazione.com DOI 10.4474/DPS/02/01/LSS76/10 Patrocinata dall’Università degli Studi di Palermo Daniel Neep State, Space, and the Sources of Social Power: Reflections on Michael Mann and Henri Lefebvre In many respects, Michael Mann and Henri Lefebvre make an odd couple. Mann is a well-established British historical sociologist who has been based at the University of California, Los Angeles since 1987. Mann’s work focuses on the historical emergence of macro-level societal phenomenon, such as state power, 1 war, 2 empire, 3 globalization 4 and ethnic cleansing; 5 the four volumes of his magisterial Sources of Social Power 6 (ambitiously attempt to explain the history of global social order from the Neolithic era to the present day. Given his appetite for analysis on the grandest of scales, Mann’s intellectual project sits more comfortably alongside the work of classical rather than contemporary sociologists. The scale of his vision has even led one scholar to describe Mann as ‘our generation’s Max Weber’. 7 Like Weber, Mann has pioneered new typologies and approaches for understanding the social world. Most notably, his distinction between infrastructural and despotic state power, as well as his version of multi-causal relationalism, have been widely adopted in empirical work by Anglophone historical sociologists 8 and, more recently, political scientists. 9 Lefebvre, in contrast, occupies a liminal position in these two disciplines. Between the late 1940s and the 1980s, he worked prolifically on the edges of numerous debates: philosophy, 10 urban planning, 11 Marxism, 12 structuralism, 13 social routines and rhythms, 14 and the critique of everyday lif 15 Although largely overlooked by Anglo- American sociology and political science, Lefebvre’s novel insights into the socio- 1 M. MANN, The Autonomous Power of the State: its Origins, Mechanisms and Results, in “European Journal of Sociology/Archives Européennes de Sociologie” 25(02/1984), pp. 185–213. 2 M. MANN, States, War and Capitalism: Studies in Political Sociology, Basil Blackwell 1988. 3 M. MANN, Incoherent empire. Verso 2005. 4 M. MANN, Has globalization ended the rise and rise of the nation-state?, in “Review of International Political Economy” 4(3/1997), pp. 472–96. 5 M. MANN, The Dark Side of Democracy: Explaining Ethnic Cleansing, Cambridge University Press 2005. 6 M. MANN, The Sources of Social Power: Volume 1, A History of Power from the Beginning to AD 1760: History of Power from the Beginning to AD.1760 v. 1, Cambridge University Press 1986; M. MANN, The Sources of Social Power: Volume 2, The Rise of Classes and Nation States 1760-1914: Rise of Classes and Nation States, 1760-1914 v. 2. Cambridge University Press1986; M. MANN, The Sources of Social Power: Volume 2, The Rise of Classes and Nation States 1760-1914: Rise of Classes and Nation States, 1760-1914 v. 2, Cambridge University Press 1993; M. MANN, The Sources of Social Power: Volume 3, Global Empires and Revolution, 1890-1945, Cambridge University Press 2012; M. MANN, The Sources of Social Power: Volume 4, Globalizations, 1945-2011, Cambridge University Press 2012. 7 J. A. HALL, Introduction in Power in the 21st Century: Conversations with John Hall, edited by Michael Man, Polity 2011, p. 1. 8 T. DODGE, Inventing Iraq: The Failure of Nation-Building and a History Denied, C. Hurst & Co. Publishers 2003; J. M. HOBSON, The Wealth of States: A Comparative Sociology of International Economic and Political Change, Cambridge University Press 1997; T. JACOBY, Social Power and the Turkish State, Routledge 2004. 9 H. D. Soifer, State Power and the Economic Origins of Democracy, in “Studies in Comparative International Development” 48(1/2012), pp.1–22; H. D. SOIFER- M. VOM HAU, Unpacking the Strength of the State: The Utility of State Infrastructural Power, in “Studies in Comparative International Development” 43(3-4/2008), pp. 219–30. 10 H. LEFEBVRE, Hegel, marx, nietzsche, Siglo XXI 1976. 11 H. LEFEBVRE, The urban revolution, U of Minnesota Press 2003. 12 H. LEFEBVRE, The Sociology of Marx, Columbia University Press 1982. 13 H. LEFEBVRE, Au-delà du structuralisme, Édit. Anthropos 1971. 14 H. LEFEBVRE, Rhythmanalysis: Space, Time and Everyday Life. Continuum International Publishing Group 2004. 15 H. LEFEBVRE, Critique of Everyday Life, vol. I, Verso 1991.