Living in space
A phenomenological account
pp. 3-52
in: Edwige Pissaloux (ed), Mobility of visually impaired people, Berlin, Springer, 2018Abstract
The aim of this chapter is to highlight the main phenomenological features of lived space , that is, space as it is experienced by the subject through various intentional modes , first of all perception, but also non-perceptual modes, such as trying to remember where something is or how a room is arranged, or thinking about the way to go from A to B (itinerary planning). A general overview of the most important phenomenological accounts made in the literature is proposed, with a focus on the following topics: the relation between bodily skills, and more generally motricity (i.e. the capacity to move), and lived space; the impact of one's body materiality on one's experience of space: how possessing a physical body with material properties such as impenetrability and heaviness affects one's experience of space; the role of the anticipation of possibilities in the enacting and organization of lived space; the role of sociality and the impact of one's body "visibility', i.e. the fact that one can be perceived by others, in one's experience of space. The objective of this overview in the context of this book is to get a better understanding of the experience of space in visually impaired people. Based on this phenomenological account, this chapter will, as a result, offer a series of reflections about the peculiarities of the space blind people live in.