The Right to Space: Countervisuality and Lived Space of the city Chandigarh

The paper explores the spatial turn as it occurred in cultural studies and literary studies. Space is no longer considered just as an abstract category. In fact, the relationship between space, time, geography and body is being refigured. The present paper calls for the Right to space. The Right to Space combines the concept of Right to Look as proposed by Nicholas Mirzoeff with those of trialectics of space offered by Lefebvre. Right to Space argues for the right to lived space. Right to Space is not just about the city spaces but also the lived rural spaces as well as virtual spaces. Furthermore, Right to Space should not be understood only in visual terms. It extends from a geographical context to literary representations and other marginal spaces including race, gender, and class. Right to Space will be explored in this paper through the example of Chandigarh by offering a countervisuality to the social space of the city.