Abstract. In toric topology, to each simplicial complex K on m vertices one associates two key spaces, the Davis-Januskiewicz space DJ K and the moment-angle complex Z K , which are related by a homotopy fibrationA great deal of work has been done to study properties of DJ K and Z K , their generalisations to polyhedral products, and applications to algebra, combinatorics and geometry.In the first part of this paper we survey some of the main results in the study of the homotopy theory of these spaces. In the second part we break new ground by initiating a study of the map w.We show that, for a certain family of simplicial complexes K, the map w is a sum of higher and iterated Whitehead products.