Book•
Paris, capital of modernity
01 Jan 2003-
TL;DR: The Myths of Modernity: Balzac's Paris, 1830-1848 as mentioned in this paper, is a collection of modernity as break, including representations and materializations of Paris 1848-1870.
Abstract: Introduction: Modernity as Break Part One: Representations: Paris 1830-1848 1. The Myths of Modernity: Balzac's Paris 2. Dreaming the Body Politic: Revolutionary Politics and Utopian Schemes, 1830-1848 Part Two: Materializations: Paris 1848-1870 Prologue 3. The Production of Space 4. Money, Credit and Finance 5. Rent and the Propertied Interest 6. The State 7. Abstract and Concrete Labor 8. The Buying and Selling of Labor Power 9. The Reproduction of Labor Power 10. Consumerism, Spectacle and Leisure 11. Community and Class 12. National Relations 13. Science and Sentiment, Modernity and Tradition 14. Rhetoric and Representation 15. The Geopolitics of Urban Transformation Coda: The Building of the Basilica of Sacre Coeur Notes Bibliography Illustration Credits and Acknowledgements Index
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Book•
04 Apr 2012
TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue that cities can become the focus for anti-capitalist resistance, and explore how cities might be reorganized in more socially just and ecologically sane ways.
Abstract: Cities have long been the pivotal sites of political revolutions, where deeper currents of social and political change are fleshed out. Consequently, they have been the subject of much utopian thinking about alternatives. But at the same time, they are also the centers of capital accumulation, and therefore the frontline for struggles over who has the right to the city, and who dictates the quality and organization of daily life. Is it the developers and financiers, or the people? Rebel Cities places the city at the heart of both capital and class struggles, looking at locations ranging from Johannesburg to Mumbai, and from New York City to Sao Paulo. By exploring how cities might be reorganized in more socially just and ecologically sane ways, David Harvey argues that cities can become the focus for anti-capitalist resistance.
1,142 citations
TL;DR: The idea of the metropolis in European thought has always been linked to that of "civilization" (a form of existence as well as a structure of time) and capitalist rationalization as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: If there is ever an African form of metropolitan modernity, then Johannesburg will have been its classical location. The idea of the metropolis in European thought has always been linked to that of “civilization” (a form of existence as well as a structure of time) and capitalist rationalization. Indeed, the Western imagination defines the metropolis as the general form assumed by the rationalization of relations of production (the increasing prevalence of the commodity system) and the rationalization of the social sphere (human relations) that follows it. A defining moment of metropolitan modernity is realized when the two spheres rely upon purely functional relations among people and things and subjectivity takes the form of calculation and abstraction. One such moment is epitomized by the instrumentality that labor acquires in
298 citations
TL;DR: In this article, an analysis of the iconography and symbolism of dam constructions at three levels: first, as embodiments of the dialectics between geographical imaginations and material practices in the process of modernization; second, as symbols of modernity's quest to conquer and urbanize nature; and third, as catalysts for reconfiguring the relationship between nature and the city.
Abstract: The article offers an analysis of the iconography and symbolism of dam constructions at three levels: first, as embodiments of the dialectics between geographical imaginations and material practices in the process of modernization; second, as symbols of modernity's quest to conquer and urbanize nature; and third, as the catalysts for reconfiguring the relationship between nature and the city. The article grounds its analysis on the study of the Marathon dam, the first dam project for watering Athens, constructed in the 1920s. Being the biggest dam construction at the time in the Balkans, it became an iconic marker of Athens's modernization and of Greece's modernist project for controlling and taming nature. It also signaled a new era of trade relations between the United States and Greece by introducing American capital and work practices into Greece. However, this decidedly modern project was wrought with heavy neoclassical ornamentation and symbolism, and was veneered with the same marble as that used f...
238 citations
TL;DR: The authors argue that despite the critiques of the past two decades, the temporality of modernity and a belief in its exceptionalism still structure much of anthropological thought, as exemplified in the division of archaeology and ethnography and in the subfield of historical archaeology.
Abstract: This essay identifies the potential of an emerging archaeological turn for anthropology—and for archaeology itself. I argue that despite the critiques of the past two decades, the temporality of modernity and a belief in its exceptionalism still structure much of anthropological thought, as exemplified in the division of archaeology and ethnography and in the subfield of historical archaeology and its dystopic treatment of modern urban ruins. But alternative temporalities and analytical possibilities are also emerging, ones attentive to the folding and recycling of cultural elements that Walter Benjamin described with such philosophical depth. On the ground, Benjamin’s insights can be put to use by paying greater attention to the spatiotemporal dynamics of capitalism’s creative destruction, to the social life of ruins, and to projects that challenge the linear divide between modernity and antiquity. Releasing anthropology from progressive time necessarily entails a reintegration of the subfields and a dir...
218 citations
Book•
15 Oct 2008
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examine an important option for local infrastructure finance: capturing land value gains for public investment, which is needed to meet the demand for a safer and more reliable water supply, higher standards for the removal and treatment of wastewater and solid waste.
Abstract: Urban growth throughout the developing world has created a challenge for financing infrastructure. Investment in infrastructure is needed to provide basic services for newly developed parts of urban areas. It is needed to meet the demand for a safer and more reliable water supply, higher standards for the removal and treatment of wastewater and solid waste, and the transportation requirements of a population whose expectations of mobility rise with household incomes. Infrastructure investment also is essential to the economic productivity of cities. This book examines an important additional option for local infrastructure finance: capturing land value gains for public investment. Land values are highly sensitive to infrastructure investment and urban economic growth. Public works projects such as road construction, water supply, and mass transit investment produce benefits that are immediately capitalized into surrounding land values. Many cities in developing countries have underused public lands that would be more valuable if sold and converted into infrastructure assets. Tapping land values was a large part of the investment strategy of Western countries in financing urban infrastructure during the 19th century, when cities were growing most rapidly. As part of the overall financing mix, using land assets for infrastructure finance has several advantages. Most instruments of this type generate revenues upfront, making it easier to finance lumpy investment projects. Mobilizing finance from land transactions also generates price signals that increase the efficiency of urban land markets and help rationalize the urban development pattern.
150 citations
References
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Book•
01 Jan 1982
TL;DR: The Limits to Capital as mentioned in this paper is a theory of capital that links a general Marxian theory of financial and geographical crises with the incredible turmoil now being experienced in world markets, and provides one of the best theoretical guides to the contradictory forms found in the historical and geographical dynamics of capitalist development.
Abstract: On its first appearance in 1982, David Harvey's "Limits to Capital" was described in "Monthly Review" as 'a unique and insightful theory of capital', and praised in Environment and Planning as 'a magnificent achievement, [one of] the most complete, readable, lucid and least partisan exegesis, critique and extension of Marx's mature political economy available.' This new edition links a general Marxian theory of financial and geographical crises with the incredible turmoil now being experienced in world markets. In his analyses of 'fictitious capital' and 'uneven geographical development, ' Harvey takes the reader step by step through layers of crisis formation, beginning with Marx's controversial argument concerning the falling rate of profit, moving through crises of credit and finance, and closing with a timely analysis of geo-political and geographical considerations. Recently referred to by Fredric Jameson in "New Left Review" as a 'magisterial work, ' "The Limits to Capital" provides one of the best theoretical guides to the contradictory forms found in the historical and geographical dynamics of capitalist development.
2,764 citations
12 Nov 2012
TL;DR: The claim of the individual to preserve the autonomy and individuality of his existence in the face of overwhelming social forces, of historical heritage, of external culture, and of the technique of life is the deepest problems of modern life as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: The deepest problems of modern life derive from
the claim of the individual to preserve the autonomy and individuality of his existence in the face
of overwhelming social forces, of historical heritage,
of external culture, and of the technique of life. The
fight with nature which primitive man has to wage
for his bodily existence attains in this modern
form its latest transformation. The eighteenth century called upon man to free him of all the historical bonds in the state and in religion, in morals and
in economics. Man’s nature, originally good and
common to all, should develop unhampered. In
addition to more liberty, the nineteenth century
demanded the functional specialization of man
and his work; this specialization makes one
individual incomparable to another, and each of
them indispensable to the highest possible extent.
However, this specialization makes each man themetropolitan phenomena is shifted to that organ
which is least sensitive and quite remote from
the depth of the personality. Intellectuality is thus
seen to preserve subjective life against the overwhelming power of metropolitan life, and intellectuality branches out in many directions and
is integrated with numerous discrete phenomena.
2,013 citations
Book•
01 Jan 1988
TL;DR: The Thirtieth Anniversary edition as discussed by the authors presents a survey of women's history with a focus on gender, gender and class analysis, including women workers in the Discourse of French Political Economy, 1840-1860.
Abstract: Preface to the Thirtieth Anniversary Edition Acknowledgments Introduction Part I: Toward a Feminist History 1. Women's History 2. Gender: A Useful Category of Historical Analysis Part II: Gender and Class 3. On Language, Gender, and Working-Class History 4. Women in The Making of the English Working Class Part III: Gender in History 5. Work Identities for Men and Women: The Politics of Work and Family in the Parisian Garment Trades in 1848 6. A Statistical Representation of Work: La Statistique de l'industrie a Paris, 1847-1848 7. "L'ouvriere! Mot impie, sordide . . .": Women Workers in the Discourse of French Political Economy, 1840-1860 Part IV: Equality and Difference 8. The Sears Case 9. American Women Historians, 1884-1984 10. The Conundrum of Equality Notes Index
1,639 citations