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Johan Pries

Associate senior lecturer

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Scandia introducerar: David Harvey och det förflutnas geografi

Author

  • Johan Pries

Summary, in English

This article takes the work of David Harvey as an example of the valuable research being done in the space between geography and history. Harvey's influence is described as being significant in the canonical debates within geography that have had a far-reaching impact outside that particular field. His production is summarized from three different perspectives. First, his contribution to the theoretical debates in the 1970s and 1980s on the spatialization of Marxist thought, initially proposed by Henri Lefebvre, is discussed. Through the discussion of capital as a system that defers social instability through spatial production, Harvey has provided a range of concepts that have proved useful in both qualitative and quantitative research. As an empiricist, Harvey's findings illustrate the benefits of an approach informed by the theoretical perspectives that he and other spatially interested social theorists have developed. For instance, his work has opened up new avenues of inquiry through his study of cities and urban space in some of its modern and postmodern variations. Finally, Harvey's role as a public intellectual is analysed. While his position as a prominent and much quoted academic has undoubtedly ensured that the ideas he is associated with have circulated among social movements, it appears that it is his more open essays on the right to the city and the financial crisis, and not his more complex work, that has caught the public's imagination. This observation underscores the important role academics can play in the discussion of social questions, but also the limitations of repackaging complex issues in politically useful terms, and the vigilance needed by those who attempt to navigate these two modes of important knowledge.

Department/s

  • History

Publishing year

2013

Language

Swedish

Pages

137-144

Publication/Series

Scandia

Volume

79

Issue

2

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Stiftelsen Scandia

Topic

  • History

Keywords

  • David Harvey
  • historical geography
  • urban development
  • production of
  • space
  • Henri Lefebvre

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 0036-5483