Author Archives: Teo Ballvé

Soja’s Postmodern Geographies

Posted on April 24, 2011 by Teo Ballvé

Soja, Edward W. 1989. Postmodern Geographies: The Reassertion of Space in Critical Social Theory. London: Verso. [Ch 1-3] I learned a lot from this book. Reading about Marxism and geography feels a bit like peering into a family album. Ed … Continue reading →

Posted in David Harvey, Dialectics, Henri Lefebvre, Historical Materialism, Marxism, Michel Foucault, Spatiality | Comments Off on Soja’s Postmodern Geographies

Spaces of Capital

Posted on April 23, 2011 by Teo Ballvé

Harvey, David. 2001. Spaces of Capital: Towards a Critical Geography. New York: Routledge. [Chapters from Part II]. Geography of Capitalist Accumulation (1975) In this first chapter, we can see Harvey beginning to develop much of what later becomes central aspects … Continue reading →

Posted in David Harvey, GWF Hegel, Historical Materialism, Karl Marx, Marxism, Political Economy, Primitive Accumulation, Spatiality, The State | 3 Comments

The Spatial Fix Revisited

Posted on April 20, 2011 by Teo Ballvé

Harvey defines his notion of the “spatial fix” in terms of the junky that needs a “fix,” but that fix is entirely fleeting and never satiates the junky’s need for smack, or in this case capitalist expansion. The resolution is … Continue reading →

Posted in David Harvey, Historical Materialism, Marxism, Political Economy, Spatiality | 2 Comments

Uneven Development

Posted on April 20, 2011 by Teo Ballvé

Smith, Neil. 1990. Uneven Development: Nature, Capital, and the Production of Space. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press. The basic argument and premise of the book is that “the uneven development of capitalism can be best conceived as resulting from … Continue reading →

Posted in Marxism, Political Economy, Spatiality | 2 Comments

Spaces of Global Capitalism

Posted on April 19, 2011 by Teo Ballvé

Harvey, David. 2006. Spaces of Global Capitalism. London: Verso. Harvey’s book is a collection of two lectures and an essay. The first lecture is mainly about how neoliberalism was constituted as a class project, and how it played out in … Continue reading →

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Spectacle and the Production of Space

Posted on April 19, 2011 by Teo Ballvé

The Society of the Spectacle helps me pick up where I left off with my recent comments about the centrality of “fetishism” and “critique” in Henri Lefebvre’s work. Put simply, Guy Debord’s “spectacle” is Marx’s notion of fetishism writ large. … Continue reading →

Posted in City, Critique, Dialectics, Guy Debord, Henri Lefebvre, Karl Marx, Power, Spatiality, Spectacle | Comments Off on Spectacle and the Production of Space

Lefebvre, Fetish, Critique

Posted on April 19, 2011 by Teo Ballvé

I’d argue that the most important thread running through Henri Lefebvre’s entire work is the notion of fetishism. Almost everything that he worked on can be traced back to Marx’s ideas about the “commodity fetish.” When paired with the concept … Continue reading →

Posted in City, Critique, Everyday Life, Guy Debord, Henri Lefebvre, Karl Marx, Spatiality | 3 Comments

Security, Territory, Population

Posted on March 20, 2011 by Teo Ballvé

Foucault, Michel. 2007. Security, Territory, Population: Lectures at the Collège de France, 1977-1978. Foucault says he’s following the genesis of a political knowledge that put “population” at the center of its concerns. He uses “government” as the guiding thread of … Continue reading →

Posted in City, Governmentality, Michel Foucault, Political Economy, Power, Spatiality, The State, Violence | 5 Comments

Society Must Be Defended

Posted on March 19, 2011 by Teo Ballvé

Foucault, Michel. 1997. Society Must Be Defended: Lectures at the Collège de France, 1975-1976 He starts the lectures defining “subjugated knowledges,” as those that have been both written out of history and submerged in it in a masked form. He … Continue reading →

Posted in Michel Foucault, Power, Race & Ethnicity, Violence | 5 Comments

The Production of Space

Posted on February 19, 2011 by Teo Ballvé

After having just finished Capital (Vol. I), Henri Lefebvre’s The Production of Space makes so much more sense than the first time a read it. (Though hugely insightful, it’s still a total slog to read.) The reasons behind my understanding … Continue reading →

Posted in Dialectics, Hegemony, Henri Lefebvre, Karl Marx, Marxism, Political Economy, Power, Spatiality, The State | 5 Comments