An Intensive Study Of David Harvey’s Urban Space Theory In The Capitalist Society

David Harvey is a famous Western Marxist geographer of present times, whohas written studies of the historical geography of capitalism in various ways.Harvey’s early training was in historical geography. However, with the publication ofSocial Justice and the City, his thought underwent a dramatic shift. In this book, heclaimed that problems of urban inequality could only be understood and solved withthe tools of Marxist historical materialism.Under the influence of Henri Lefebvre, Michael Foucault, David Harvey turnedto watch space questions. He commits to understand “uneven development” which isthe social and spatial inequalities produced by capitalism. In the movement of“Spatial Turn”, David Harvey put up forward two famous theories which are“time-space compression” and “time-space fix”. This thesis tries to research DavidHarvey’s urban space theory in the capitalist society. The thesis statement is thaturban spatiality is city’s social feature. In another word, it is the accumulation ofrelations and meanings. Therefore, David Harvey points out that spatial justice is thepolitic promise and moral demand of the city’s development.The main body of this thesis contains three chapters. The first chapter expoundsthe origins of spatial questions and the theoretic resources of David Harvey’s spatialtheory. The second chapter organizes and analyzes the main contents of DavidHarvey’s spatial theory, including “time-space compression”, “time-space fix” and“spatial justice”, etc. The third chapter points out the significance of David Harvey’surban space theory in the capitalist society.