Reviews for Spatial dimensions of public policy

The average rating for Spatial dimensions of public policy based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2019-07-10 00:00:00 Michael St. John Spaces of Capital is a collection of essays by David Harvey, a geographer whose work has embraced elements of sociology, history, and economics, amongst other fields. Harvey is Marxist, and seeks both to use Marxist methodologies to give the field of geography a more critical, coherent framework, and to inject a greater sense of space/geographical difference into orthodox Marxist thought. I'm a historian, not a geographer, and not someone with a great background in theory, so I was very pleased by the quality of Harvey's prose'it's lucid and clear, and while there are some quite complex ideas presented, on the whole it's done without jargon. In fact, I think it could probably be held up as an exemplar, proof that it's possibly to write theory or other critical works without doing as Mr Darcy does'"studying too much for words of four syllables." Harvey clearly doesn't set out to curry favours with either his fellow geographers or with the broader academic community with his book. I absolutely agreed with him that scholars need to develop a greater sense of awareness of the ethical ramifications of their work, of their own ideological assumptions/convictions which underlie their work, and that the classist/racist/sexist/etc. concepts which still underpin textbooks need to be removed. I also found interesting his emphasis on Marxist methodologies of history'dialectics, processes, relationships'rather than Marxist... I suppose tropes is the word I'm looking for. I find it a much more productive mode of inquiry than structural analyses. That said, while Harvey is most interested in Marxist modes of history, he still views class a being the driving force of historical process. It's one that I find pretty Eurocentric, and unwilling to address women's history, or gender issues'either as a means of understanding societal change/structure or as a key element of capitalism. My notes had a lot of smiley faces in the margins as I began this book; as I progressed through it, they became a lot more sceptical and/or sad faces. (And in one case, angry'referring to 'Orientals'? Seriously? Is it 1925 and I didn't notice?) Still, probably worth reading if this is an area of interest of yours.

Review # 2 was written on 2019-12-28 00:00:00 Jeanmarie Condon Pros and cons. Pros: accessible and clear introduction to Harvey that covers a range of different modes of application (case study, theoretical discussion, self-reflexive analysis of the field) and puts several of his major ideas into play (capitalist geographies, militant particularism). Cons: a bit too introductory, too survey-y -- most readers who want a crack at this, for whatever reason, will probably wish they'd just gone straight for one of Harvey's other volumes.