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Research Of Neo-Marxism Urban Schools

Posted on:2013-09-24Degree:DoctorType:Dissertation
Country:ChinaCandidate:X Y HeFull Text:PDF
GTID:1225330395459078Subject:Foreign Marxism
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Traditional Marxism considered urban as a ‘container’ rather than a motive for thedevelopment of capitalism, and always held an onlooker’s cold contempt for theurban issues. With the crisis of capitalist urban and the development of globalization,western Marxists rediscovered the importance of urban, and proposed theNeo-Marxist urban theory system. Henry Lefebvre, Manuel Castells and DavidHarvey are the principle exponents of this theory. They advocated to investigate thedevelopment of urban under the theoretical framework of capitalist productionmethod and to interpret the roots of urban class struggle and social movements fromvarious angles including space manufacture, collective consumption and theaggregation of capital, with all of which they tried to explain the law of developmentin urbanization and regulate the fundamental contradiction of the capitalism. TheNeo-Marxist urban theory system is another important innovation in thedevelopment progress of western Marxism, which has built a bridge for blending theurban and Marxism and opened a new chapter for the development of contemporaryMarxism.This thesis, for the propose of providing the development of urban of our countrywith useful reference, studied the Neo-Marxism urban theory, in which it focusedremarks on Marx and Engels’ ideas about the urban, and found the similarities anddifferences of the Neo-Marxism urban theory of those exponents by linking everypart of the study, and therefore, combed the characteristic and universality of thetheories of the Neo-Marxism urban schools. Meanwhile, by introducing the theory ofthe Neo-Marxism urban schools into the reality of Chinese urbanization issues, thethesis analyzed the existed problems in the development of contemporary urbansocial space in China, and then gave relative countermeasures.The thesis can be categorized into the studies of theory and social space of case.The previous five chapters compose the theoretical part. The first chapter, theintroduction, switched on the research start. After interpreting the time backgroundand historic necessity of the appearance of Neo-Marxism, it analyzed emphaticallythe differences and relations among the Neo-Marxism, Marxism and westernMarxism, and then expounded the basic position and development stages of theNeo-Marxism. Based on the clarified connotation and denotation of theNeo-Marxism, the author analyzed the rise and development of the Neo-Marxism,and reviewed the main thoughts of the exponents, and successively analyzed thestudy methods and scholarly characteristics of the Neo-Marxism urban schools.Finally, the author reaffirmed the theory and practical value of the research. Thesecond chapter, Marx and Engels’ urban thoughts, reaffirmed the study approachesof Marxism in this research. Via reviewing Marx and Engel’s discussions on urbanorigin, urban and private ownership, urban and capitalism, urban and class relations,and urban and housing problems, the chapter set the tone for the research in theoryand reaffirmed the importance and urgency of the urban issues, which provided important theory foundation for successive study. From the chapter three to five, thethesis intensively presented the thoughts of three exponents of the Neo-Marxismurban shools, and interpreted how they, based on the understanding of Marxistsociety theory, depicted the social relationships between the urban and space, and themotive and characteristic of urban development, and the role of urban classstructures as well as nations in the urban life, which is the core of the research. In thestyle arrangement, the thesis is based on time sequence, which introduced with longhistory view and by sequence Henry Lefebvre, David Harvey and Manuel Castells’urban thoughts, and with combined history, urbanology, and sociology, revealed thestudy region and scholar characteristic of the Neo-Marxism urban schools. Urbanstudy with Marxism point of view is not only a new issue, but also has importantpractical value. It is specialized with a low starting point in study and complicatedmultidisciplinary. It is a creative act but also has difficulty to introduce basic Marxistpoint of view into the field of urban study and analyze the real urban problems, andmeanwhile, update and compensate Marxism according to the time development.The main goal of the research is to clarify the thread in the thoughts of theNeo-Marxism urban schools, and analyze the new change of western capitalist urbanwith combined surplus value doctrine, class relationship analysis and nation theory.According the interpretation of chapter three to five, the thesis summarized thescholar characteristic and study method of the Neo-Marxism urban schools andpresented the internal relationships with the Marxism.Chapter six is case studies, in which the thesis analyzed in detail the historicallyevolutionary process of urban social space in China as well as the existed problemsand their countermeasures. As an important dimension in the analysis of the issues ofcontemporary China, urban has been always considered as a part in the study fieldsof economics and sociology, in which few studies relating to the urban issue analysiswith Marxism theory have been reported. At present, a series of works have beenemerged in foreign Marxism scholars, of analyzing the capitalist society and itsproduction relationships by criticizing the capitalist urban space, which realized thetransformation of epistemology from the ‘space’ to ‘social relationships’, andtherefore, provide a new tool for the study of urban reality problems. Studying thehistoric evolution of urban society in a way of investigating the urban space of China,and then, analyzing the social contradictions of urban by revealing the contradictionof space, are not only the starting point of theory cognition but also the biggestinnovation of this research.
Keywords/Search Tags:Neo-Marxism, Urban schools, Urban social space
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