Reconceptualizing Representation: Interconnections of Experience and Space in the Production of Knowledge

Recognizing the centrality of representation in philosophy and social sciences as constitutive of knowledge concerning the interpretation of social reality, this article highlights on the need to engage in a reconceptualization of the notion of representation in order to comprehend the contextual nature of knowledge production in society. Acknowledging the significance of space in the production of discourses of power as well as resistance, it looks at how representation, fundamental to the formation of knowledge, can also be seen as cognitive categories or objects symbolizing hegemonic discourses as well as alternative ideas, challenging the dominant structures of authority. Stressing on the related categories of experience, representation and social space, this article therefore throws light on the complex interaction between representation, human cognition, social structures and counter-hegemonic processes in the continual production of knowledge.