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David Harvey

David Harvey

David William Harvey FBA (born 31 October 1935) is a figure of considerable academic weight, a British-American scholar whose intellectual currency lies in the intricate analyses of urban geography and the broader economic landscape, viewed through the lens of Marxist theory. He currently holds the prestigious title of Distinguished Professor at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York (CUNY), where he presides over departments of anthropology and geography. Harvey’s extensive body of work, comprising numerous books and essays, has been instrumental in shaping the trajectory of modern geography as a discipline. He is also a vocal advocate for the concept of the right to the city, a notion that resonates deeply within his critical examinations of urban life and its inherent political and economic structures.

In recognition of his profound influence, Harvey was identified in 2007 as the 18th most-cited author across the humanities and social sciences, a distinction derived from an analysis of citations within academic journals cataloged by the Thomson Reuters ISI database. This metric, while stark, only hints at the pervasive impact of his ideas.

Early Life and Education

Born in Gillingham, Kent, England, in 1935, David W. Harvey’s formative years were spent within the British educational system. He attended Gillingham Grammar School for Boys before embarking on his academic journey at St John's College, Cambridge, where he pursued both his undergraduate and postgraduate studies. Harvey's initial scholarly endeavors, including his doctoral research which delved into the specifics of hop production in 19th-century Kent, were deeply rooted in historical inquiry. This approach was characteristic of the regional-historical tradition prevalent at Cambridge and within British academia at the time. The echoes of this early focus on historical context can be observed in his later works, notably in his examination of Paris.

Career

By the mid-1960s, Harvey’s intellectual trajectory began to align with broader trends in the social sciences, leading him to incorporate quantitative methods into his research. This shift positioned him at the forefront of the burgeoning field of spatial science and positivist theory. Early indications of this methodological evolution were already apparent during his time at Cambridge, where he shared intellectual space with figures like Richard Chorley and [Peter Haggett] in the Department of Geography. His 1969 publication, Explanation in Geography, emerged as a seminal text, offering a rigorous application of principles from the philosophy of science to the domain of geographical knowledge. However, Harvey’s intellectual restlessness soon propelled him beyond these frameworks. Following the publication of Explanation, he became increasingly preoccupied with issues of social injustice and the fundamental nature of the capitalist system. While he has not revisited the specific arguments presented in Explanation, his earlier engagement with regional-historical traditions, particularly his critique of absolute space and exceptionalism, remained a subtle undercurrent, a consequence of his engagement with Kantian synthetic a priori knowledge.

1970s: The Rise of Marxist Geography and Urban Geography

A pivotal moment in Harvey's career occurred when he transitioned from Bristol University to Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, United States. This move placed him at the epicenter of the nascent field of radical and Marxist geography. The palpable realities of injustice, racism, and exploitation in Baltimore, coupled with the vibrant activist scene on the US East Coast in the early 1970s, provided fertile ground for his evolving critical perspective. The establishment of the journal Antipode at Clark University further solidified this intellectual milieu, with Harvey being among its earliest contributors. A significant event was the 1971 meeting of the Boston Association of American Geographers, where Harvey and his contemporaries challenged the established norms of geographical discourse. In 1972, his essay on ghetto formation articulated a call for "revolutionary theory," a theory, he argued, that must be "validated through revolutionary practice."

Social Justice and the City (1973)

The burgeoning field of urban geography was profoundly shaped by the ascendancy of Marxist geography, and Harvey emerged as a leading figure with his influential 1973 book, Social Justice and the City. In this work, Harvey contended that geography could no longer maintain a stance of detached 'objectivity' when confronted with the stark realities of urban poverty and its attendant social ills. The book makes a significant contribution to Marxist theory by positing that capitalism, in its relentless drive for reproduction, actively annihilates space, reshaping it to serve its own imperatives.

1980s: Consolidating Marxist Geography and a Materialist Critique of Postmodernism

Dialectical materialism has served as a consistent guiding principle throughout Harvey's subsequent academic career. This philosophical framework underpinned his seminal work The Limits to Capital (1982), a text that significantly advanced the radical geographical analysis of capitalism. This was followed by a series of influential books exploring urban processes and urban life. In The Limits to Capital, Harvey expanded and innovated upon Marxist theory, particularly concerning the intricate functioning of money and finance, and the critical role of the 'spatial moment' in the genesis of capitalist crises.

His 1989 book, The Condition of Postmodernity, penned during his tenure as a professor at Oxford, achieved widespread acclaim, even being recognized by The Independent as one of the fifty most significant works of non-fiction published since 1945, with citations exceeding 50,000 by 2023. This work presents a materialist critique of postmodern thought, arguing that its tenets are, in fact, symptomatic of the inherent contradictions within capitalism itself.

Justice, Nature and the Geography of Difference (1996) shifted the focus to issues of social and environmental justice, though its dialectical perspective occasionally drew criticism from environmentalist circles. [citation needed]. Spaces of Hope (2000) explored utopian themes, engaging in speculative thought about the possibilities of alternative societal structures.

His detailed historical-geographical study of Second Empire Paris and the events surrounding the Paris Commune culminated in the publication of Paris, Capital of Modernity. The period of increased US military intervention since 2001 prompted Harvey to offer a critique in The New Imperialism (2003), where he argued that the war in Iraq served as a strategic maneuver by US neo-conservatives to deflect attention from domestic capitalist failures. His subsequent work, A Brief History of Neoliberalism (2005), offered a historical examination of the theory and diverse practices of neoliberalism since the mid-1970s. This book conceptualizes the neoliberalized global political economy as a system that disproportionately benefits a select few at the expense of the many, leading to the (re)creation of class distinctions through what Harvey terms "accumulation by dispossession".

The Enigma of Capital (2010) provided a long-term perspective on the contemporary economic crisis, with Harvey elucidating the historical mechanisms by which capitalism achieved global dominance and the underlying reasons for the 2008 financial crisis. He asserted that the fundamental nature of capitalism is inherently amoral and lawless, and that any notion of a truly regulated or ethical capitalism is a profound misapprehension. The book's accompanying lecture series held in London academic institutions, such as the LSE, garnered significant attention and revitalized interest in Harvey's work. [citation needed].

Harvey returned to Johns Hopkins University from Oxford in 1993, though his increasing engagement as a global speaker and visiting scholar led him to spend more time elsewhere. Notably, he was a Miliband Fellow at the London School of Economics in the late 1990s. In 1996, he delivered the Ellen Churchill Semple lecture at the Department of Geography, University of Kentucky. In 2001, he joined the City University of New York as a Distinguished Professor, now affiliated with its Department of Anthropology. While his academic career has been primarily situated in Anglo-America, he has also held visiting positions in France and various international institutions, currently serving as an Advisory Professor at Tongji University in Shanghai. He has mentored a considerable number of PhD students, many of whom, including prominent scholars like Neil Smith, Richard Walker, Erik Swyngedouw, Michael Johns, Maarten Hajer, Patrick Bond, Melissa Wright, and Greg Ruiters, have themselves achieved significant academic positions. [citation needed]. In 2013, the Republic of Ecuador invited Harvey to assist in the establishment of the National Strategic Center for the Right to the Territory (CENEDET), an institution he co-directed with urbanist Miguel Robles-Durán until its reported closure in 2017.

Critical reception of Harvey's work has been consistent and robust. In his earlier career, he engaged in intellectual debates with proponents of quantitative and non-politicized geography, such as Brian Berry. A more recent critical examination by Castree & Gregory (2006) delves deeply into various critiques of Harvey's contributions.

Reading Marx's Capital

Two enduring constants in Harvey's academic life have been his commitment to teaching a course on Marx's Capital [14] and his unwavering support for student activism and labor movements, particularly evident in his involvement in Baltimore. His lectures on Capital were compiled into a popular YouTube series [15] [16], which subsequently inspired two companion books that systematically explore the three volumes of Marx's magnum opus. [17]

Recognition

David Harvey is universally acknowledged as a foundational scholar in the field of urban geography. [18] His books have been translated into numerous languages, attesting to their global reach and impact. He has been awarded honorary doctorates from prestigious institutions worldwide, including Roskilde (Denmark), Buenos Aires (Argentina), the Faculty of Social Sciences at Uppsala University [19] (Sweden), Ohio State University (USA), Lund University (Sweden), the University of the Republic [20] (Uruguay), and the University of Kent (UK). Among his many accolades are the Anders Retzius Gold Medal from the Swedish Society for Anthropology and Geography, the Patron's Medal from the Royal Geographical Society, and the Vautrin Lud International Prize in Geography (France). He was elected a fellow of the British Academy in 1998 and became a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2007. He is also associated with the Interim Committee for the emerging International Organization for a Participatory Society. [21]

Personal Life

Harvey currently resides in New York City. He is the father of Delfina, born in January 1990. [22]

Institutional Affiliations

Selected Bibliography

  • Explanation in Geography (1969)
  • Social Justice and the City (1973)
  • The Limits to Capital (1982; updated editions: 1999 and 2006)
  • The Urbanization of Capital (1985)
  • Consciousness and the Urban Experience (1985)
  • The Condition of Postmodernity: An Enquiry into the Origins of Cultural Change (1989)
  • The Urban Experience (1989)
  • (edited, with Teresa Hayter) The Factory and the City: The Story of the Cowley Automobile Workers in Oxford (1994)
  • Justice, Nature and the Geography of Difference (1996)
  • Megacities Lecture 4 (2000)
  • Spaces of Hope (2000)
  • Spaces of Capital: Towards a Critical Geography (2001)
  • The New Imperialism (2003) [23]
  • Paris, Capital of Modernity (2003)
  • A Brief History of Neoliberalism (2005) [24]
  • Spaces of Global Capitalism: Towards a Theory of Uneven Geographical Development (2006)
  • Introduction to Marx and Engels, The Communist Manifesto (2008)
  • Cosmopolitanism and the Geographies of Freedom (2009)
  • Social Justice and the City: Revised Edition (2009)
  • A Companion to Marx's Capital (2010)
  • The Enigma of Capital and the Crises of Capitalism (2010)
  • Rebel Cities: From the Right to the City to the Urban Revolution (2012)
  • A Companion to Marx's Capital, Volume 2 (2013)
  • Seventeen Contradictions and the End of Capitalism (2014)
  • The Ways of the World (2016)
  • Marx, Capital and the Madness of Economic Reason (2017)
  • The Anti-Capitalist Chronicles (2020)
  • A Companion to Marx's Grundrisse (2023)

Articles, Lectures, and Interviews

  • Harvey, D. 2000. Possible Urban Worlds. The Fourth Megacities Lecture. The Hague.
  • Merrifield, A. 2002. David Harvey: The Geopolitics of Urbanization. In Metromarxism: A Marxist Tale of the City. New York: Routledge.
  • Harvey, D. 2002. Chapter in Geographical Voices: Fourteen Autobiographical Essays. Ed. P. Gould and F.R. Pitts. Syracuse University Press.
  • Harvey, D. and Kreisler, H. 2004. A Geographer's Perspective on the New American Imperialism. Conversations with History. Institute of International Studies, UC Berkeley. audio [dead link] video
  • Castree, N. 2004. David Harvey. In Key Thinkers on Space and Place, eds. Hubbard, Kitchin, Valentine. Sage Pubs.
  • Castree, N., Essletzbichler, J., Brenner, N. 2004. "Symposium: David Harvey's 'The Limits to Capital': Two Decades On." Antipode 36(3):400–549.
  • Harvey, D. 2005. A Brief History of Neoliberalism. University of Chicago Center for International Studies Beyond the Headlines Series. 26 October 2005. audio
  • Harvey, D. and Choonara, J. 2006. "A War Waged by the Wealthy" Archived 25 May 2009 at the [Wayback Machine], an interview in SR magazine covering Harvey's account of neoliberalism and class.
  • Jones, J.P. III, T. Mangieri, M. McCourt, S. Moore, K. Park, M. Pryce-Jones, K. Woodward. 2006. David Harvey Live. New York: Continuum.
  • Castree, N. and Gregory, D. 2006. David Harvey: a Critical Reader. Oxford: Blackwell. Trevor Barnes chapter
  • Harvey, D. 2006. Neoliberalism and the City [permanent dead link]. Middlebury College, Rohatyn Center for International Affairs Symposium, "Urban Landscapes: The Politics of Expression". 29 September 2006. audio [permanent dead link] video [permanent dead link]
  • Ashman, S. 2006. "Symposium: On David Harvey's 'The New Imperialism'." Historical Materialism 14(4): 3–166.
  • Lilley, S. 2006 On Neoliberalism: An Interview with David Harvey MR Zine 19 June 2006.
  • Harvey, D. 2006. Neoliberalism and the City. 22nd Annual University of Pennsylvania Urban Studies Public Lecture. 2 November 2006. audio
  • Harvey, D. 2007. The Neoliberal City [permanent dead link]. Lecture at Dickinson College, sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues. 1 Feb 2007. audio video
  • Harvey, D., Arrighi, G., Andreas, J., 2008. Symposium on Giovanni Arrighi's Adam Smith in Beijing. 5 March 2008. Red Emma's of Baltimore. video
  • A Conversation With David Harvey Archived 4 May 2009 at the [Wayback Machine]
  • Harvey, D. 2008 Reading Marx's Capital An open course consisting of a close reading of the text of Marx's Capital Volume I in 13 video lectures by David Harvey.
  • Escobar, P., 2008 The State of Empire: Pepe Escobar talks to David Harvey The Real News Network 19 August 2008.
  • Schouten, P., 2008 Theory Talk #20: David Harvey on the Geography of Capitalism, Understanding Cities as Polities and Shifting Imperialisms Theory Talks 9 October 2008.
  • Harvey, D. 2008. The Right to the City, 'New Left Review', October 2008
  • Harvey, D. 2008. The Enigma of Capital. A lecture at City University of New York Graduate Center on 14 November 2008 audio
  • Harvey, D. 2008. A Financial Katrina – Remarks on the Crisis. A lecture at City University of New York Graduate Center on 29 October 2008 audio
  • Harvey, D. 2009. Why the U.S. Stimulus Package is Bound To Fail. 12 January 2009.
  • Harvey, David (2009). "Reshaping Economic Geography: The World Development Report 2009". Development and Change. 40 (6 "Forum 2009"). The Hague: Institute of Social Studies, via (Wiley-)Blackwell: 1269–1277. doi:10.1111/j.1467-7660.2009.01602.x. ISSN 0012-155X. EBSCO host 46767205.
  • Harvey, D. 2009. Organizing for the Anti-Capitalist Transition. Draws heavily on his forthcoming [April 2010] book, The Enigma of Capital. 16 December 2009.
  • Harvey, D. 2010. The Crises of Capitalism Lecture given at the RSA, London. Provides a concise overview of the argument presented in The Enigma of Capital and the Crises of Capitalism. Includes question and answer session after lecture. 26 April 2010.
  • Harvey, D. 2010. The Crises of Capitalism (abridged and animated) Archived 8 January 2015 at the [Wayback Machine] Animated (and abridged) version of 2010 RSA Lecture above. Concise and humorous introduction to Harvey's thought on the 2007–08 economic crisis. 28 June 2010.
  • Harvey, D. et al. 2011. Territorial Justice, Human Flourishing and Geographical Strategies of Liberation, Justice spatiale | Spatial Justice.
  • Oudenampsen, Robles-Durán, Miguel. 2011 Mobility, Crisis, Utopia An Interview with David Harvey. [1]
  • Harvey, D. 2013. Focaal Interview Interviewed by Zoltan Gluck for Focaal: Journal of Global and Historical Anthropology. 12 December 2013.
  • Harvey, D. 2014. The 17 Contradictions of Capitalism, London School of Economics and Political Science.
  • Harvey, D and Panitch, Leo. Beyond Impossible Reform and Improbable Revolution. Jacobin. 1 January 2015.
  • Harvey, D. 2018. White Mirror Interviewed by Jeremy Scahill on Intercepted podcast. The Intercept. 17 January 2018. Segment begins at 1:16:00.