Capitalist Urbanization And Spatial Criticism

David Harvey’s theory of Uneven Geographical Development is the interpretation and supplement of contemporary New Marxism to Classical Marxism.David Harvey who has established HistoricalGeographical Materialism,on the basis of the first generation of spatial theorists such as Lefebvre and Foucault,has opened up the theoretical dimension of Spatial Geography within the framework of Marxist materialism,and has found a powerful introduction for the interpretation of the urbanization of Capital studies.Through the interpretation of David Harvey’s theory of Uneven Geographical Development,it can be seen that the problems of Uneven geographical development are concentrated in cities.The thesis consists of several parts following this:Chapter one discusses the theoretical background of Uneven Geographical Development theory.From positivist geography to Marxist geography,Harvey had begun to conduct in-depth research on the spatial problems since the development of modernity from the perspectives of Marxist political economy.Among them,he had taken Uneven Development as his research focus.The establishment of the theory of Uneven Geographical Development had opened a new field for Marxist geography and a new field for the criticism of Western Marxist spatial political economy.The second chapter explores the Uneven Geographical Development theory as the basis of capital urbanization.Through the interpretation of currency and power,Harvey has put forward that Uneven Geographical development is the ways and manifestations of capitalism to temporarily solve the problem of excessive accumulation.In the era of Neoliberalism and the era of New Imperialism,urbanization is the concentrated process of Uneven Geographical Development.On the basis of his theory of Uneven Geographical Development,Harvey has promoted the study of Uneven space.Besides that,Harvey has constructed a series of related discussions such as New Imperialism,Neoliberalism,Time-space Compression and Space Fix.The third chapter analyzes David Harvey’s solutions to Uneven Geographical Development and the shortcomings of Harvey’s theories.First of all,David Harvey thought that the current cities are unjust.He thinks that the justice must be recognized in the process of social production,and justice will change with the changes of time,space and personal situation.He criticized the previous "Spatial Form Utopia" and put forward the "Spatial-temporal Dialectical Utopia" as a possible world,Harvey has regarded this anti-capital struggle as a long-term process of exploration.Nevertheless,as Harvey himself said,his study of space was a process,not an answer.Harvey’s theory still has a lot of space for supplements,such as his arguments on Class are not comprehensive,and he has not only overestimating the importance of "space" to the whole Marxism,but his argument on "place" as well.David Harvey is a brilliant Marxist with no doubts.He has opened up some new ways and methods for the interpretation of Capitalism through Marxism,and has played an important leading role in the academic field.Chinese development path is the socialist development path with Chinese characteristics,which to some extent avoids the direct impact of Uneven Geographical Development and economic crisis within the capital world.However,today,in the present,is the globalization era of the cities.Chinese urban problems are still outstanding since Economic Reform and open up.Chinese principal contradiction by "the growing material and cultural demand with the backward social production" has changed to "the good life of people’s increasing need and the uneven development situation ".Thus,we can learn from David Harvey’s theory of Uneven Geographical Development and provide the theoretical reference for the urbanization and space production in Chinese characteristics.Harvey’s theory has also provided an exploration direction for China to building a community with a shared future for mankind within the direction of space justice.