The Spatial Dimension Of David Harvey’s New Imperialism Theory

The essence of imperialism is a process of spatial expansion,which changes and manifests as the need for capital accumulation.New imperialism is a complex era landscape that evolves with capitalist production.It shows that capitalism has the power to reinvigorate itself after many crises.To grasp the essence of the change of the times from the historical scene of historical materialism,it does require the innovation of a theoretical observation tool.Harvey provides a critical and enlightening research perspective.He has taken geography and space factors into considering the process of history,to observe the path and method of contemporary imperialism,and has paid unique attention and understanding to the implicit social relations and political power in space,thus further deepening the understanding of the spatial production of contemporary capitalist globalization.This paper is an interpretation of the spatial dimension of new imperialism,which is composed of Harvey’s spatial dialectics and historical,geographical materialism.The spatial dialectics is derived from Marx and Lefebvre.It takes space practice,spatial representation and reappearance space as longitude,while the absolute space,relative space and relational space are treated as latitude.He then crosses constitute a multi-dialectical spatial epistemology,thus,deepening its understanding of spatial relations.Harvey further advocates the use of historical-geographical materialism as the primary method to analyze and study social space,revealing that new imperialism is plundering on a global scale in its unique way.Then,the main content of Harvey’s new imperialism theory is analyzed in mainly two aspects: space criticism and theoretical exploration.The power of space production in new imperialism comes from territorial logic and capital logic,thereby ensuring control over the field and external expansion so that achieving a strict hierarchy and social division and partition within the world.The policy guidance for the expansion of the new imperialist space is neoliberalism.Through financialization and privatization,the interests of financial groups,privileged classes and ruling elites are maximized,resulting in and continuouslydeepening worldwide inequities and justice.Predatory accumulation is the accumulation of new imperialism,which allows capital to invade any unimaginable areas,such as the human body,mountains,the universe,etc.creating a severe crisis of ethics,culture,resources and ecology.The new imperialism creates a spatial representation of the unbalanced geographical development,that is,the highly prosperous central area of the empire and the dying border areas,through asymmetric exchange and exploitation,they show considerable differences in the spatial landscape.Harvey tried to find a new policy,eager to replace the current capitalist system through the reconstruction of class consciousness and dialectical utopia,thus eliminating space exploitation,and realizing human freedom and liberation.The end of the paper,the author firstly affirms the innovation and significance of the spatial dimension of Harvey’s new imperialism theory and considers the role of the long-term development of human society.Secondly,this paper also reveals the limitations of Harvey’s theory in practical operation.Throughout Harvey’s academic rationale,he strives to combine history-geographical materialism with Marxism,develops a new imperialist theory with both sensible critiques,and expands a new perspective on the study of historical materialism.Although Harvey’s historical-geographical materialism general construction still has limitations: spatial dialectics shows a tendency to compromise the time and space problem in the design process,and the practice of the New Deal is not feasible.However,his trial to propose several alternatives to the new imperialism,and his efforts to strive for an open society still provided us with an inexhaustible ideological wealth.