‘My corner of the world’: Bachelard and Bondi Beach

Bachelard’s concept of lived space makes a significant contribution to an understanding of the connections between emotion and space. We argue that it provides a relational alternative to the common understanding of space as Euclidean, as an empty, inert distance that gains life only through the projections of human subjects. Bachelard gives primacy to a living space that is simultaneously inside and outside, insisting that the life of this space is in a non-locatable relation. In doing so, Bachelard also gives primacy to deep or archetypal emotions that come not from the subject but from living space. We develop our understanding of lived space through an analysis of people’s experiences of Bondi Beach in Sydney. Drawing out the implications of our interviewees’ experiences of connectedness, we show that the inhabitation of a corner or particular place opens to the whole.