The Urban Roots of the Fiscal Crisis

CASAR co-sponsored with The Masters in Urban Planning and Policy and Urban Design in the Department a lecture by David Harvey on May 29, 2009. David Harvey is a distinguished Professor of Anthropology at the City University of New York (CUNY). A leading social theorist whom Library Journal called "one of the most influential geographers of the later twentieth century," he earned his Ph.D. from Cambridge University, and was formerly professor of geography at Johns Hopkins, a Miliband Fellow at the London School of Economics, and Halford Mackinder Professor of Geography at Oxford. His reflections on the importance of space and place (and more recently "nature") have attracted considerable attention across the humanities and social sciences. His highly influential books include: A
Short History of Neoliberalism (2005); The New Imperialism (2003); Paris, Capital of Modernity (2003); Spaces of Capital: Towards a Critical Geography (2001); Spaces of Hope (2000); Limits to Capital (1999); Justice, Nature,
and the Geography of Difference (1996); The Urbanization of Capital (1985); The Condition of Postmodernity (1989); and Social Justice and the City (1973). Among his numerous awards and honorary degrees, he was elected in
2007 to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
In this lecture, he will address the following questions: How many fiscal disruptions over the last thirty years have been urban/property led? Why does this particular one take the form it does? In what ways does this fit into a Marxist theory of urbanization under capitalism?

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[yuzhimeng6]

@jammoexii

Capitalism is just a way of organizing social production. People are "racist" or "homophobic", not capitalism, however perhaps capitalism creates power relations where values are created which we absolutely detest.

[Itseasyifyoutry]

I feel well informed now.

[exorcistbitch420]

I can't help but love eveyr word that comes out of this guys'mouth. He's like the Eric Wolf of our generation.

[jammoexii]

I very much appreciated some of his comments near the end to the effect that capitalism is not, necessarily, racist or homophobic. I think this is something a lot of leftists have missed the boat on. At the margins, yes, capitalism is homophobic and racist, but it is increasingly less so, and what remains is in large part its reflexive response against challenging discriminatory systems, because they do often connect with left movements. But not always.

[geoffmbell]

Great analysis.  Thanks David.