Harvey, David

Harvey, David (1935- ), British geographer, a leading academic representative of the radical left in geography, a movement that developed in the 1970s in the search for a socially relevant and appropriate role for the subject. Born in Gillingham, Kent, Harvey began to develop his philosophy while he was a research student at Cambridge University in the early 1960s. His first book, Explanation in Geography, was published in 1969 and was acclaimed as the most authoritative statement on the development of the subject since the 1930s. It sought new approaches to geographical analysis through which geographers could be active participants in the process of social change and contribute to securing a more even distribution of wealth within society.

Harvey’s second work, Social Justice and the City (1973), was a major contribution to the case for a Marxist-inspired approach to geography. It examined the relationship between social processes and spatial distribution, and emphasized the notion of social justice. Since its publication Harvey has regularly applied Marxist methodology to the study of urbanization in developed countries and has produced a series of influential books, including The Limits to Capital (1982), The Urbanisation of Capital (1985), and The Urban Experience (1989). In these works he combined Marxist economics with spatial analysis and instigated research into social issues, especially housing and the impact of large companies on quality of life.

Harvey has held a variety of research and academic posts. Between 1987 and 1993 he was the Halford Mackinder Professor of Geography at the University of Oxford, and between 1993 and 2001 he worked as Professor of Geography and Environmental Engineering at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, in the United States. In 2001 he was appointed professor at the Anthropology Department in the Graduate Center, City University of New York. His recent studies include The Condition of Postmodernity (1991), where he deals with the origins of cultural change; Justice, Nature and the Geography of Difference (1996), which considers environmental problems and issues of social justice in the context of globalization; and Spaces of Hope (2000), discussing various forms of socio-geographical organizations.