Spatial Divisions Of Labor And Place

This paper is the study about Doreen Massey(1944.1.3-2016.3.11),a famous female British geographer of the Left,who constructs a space theory by researching the geography of industry-employment and politics.The study of space in a broad sense as a academic theory for the Left raised by Lenin,Luxembourg and Bukharin begins with the theories of the principles,features and political possibilities of the imperialism as a new stage of capitalism.Before Lefebvre,Harvey and so on who develop the theories of the universality and production of space,the Left's ideas were confined in respect to international relations and their history about globalization.But Massey is so different.From the 1970s to the 1980s,she focused on the changes of the industrial deployment in the UK.Taking neo-liberalism as the object of her criticism,Massey has a new way to the space theory by explaining the social structure of employment through economic,political,cultural and gender dimensions.The"micro" perspective of the employment situation across the country has given Massey the theory possibility of breaking down the empirical imagination of geography to reinterpret and recognize the subjects of economic and politics.From the late 1980s,Massey has turned to the meta-theory of space:she corries forward Lefebvre's space thoughts in a different way from Harvey.Massey absorbs Laclau's ontology of post-Marxist revolution and takes politics as the core logic of the concept of space that is exactly why she is different from Harvey whose space theory is on the basis of critique of political economy about capitalist globalization.Place is the breakthrough point for Massey to introduce politics to her spatial theory and the key point distinguishing her from Harvey and Laclau.After the world economic crisis in 2007,Massey applies her theory to constructing the main battlefield against neo-liberalism and finally locates it in the "world city".The first chapter of my paper "the Geography of Industry-Employment and the Spatial Division of Labor:Massey's Study of the Political Economy under the Theory of Imperialism",is an account of Massey's research on the industries and employments during the 1970s and 1980s in UK.This chapter takes the classic studies of imperialism and late capitalism by Luxembourg,Bukharin,Lenin and Mandel as references to examine how Massey uses historical materialist upon her research and how she relates to the previous studies of globalization on the concept of space in common.For Massey,employment is the key link between economy and other social fields.She has formed most of her basic concepts and the completed terminology system of space in this research.The second chapter "Space and Politics:Massey's Further Study of Space around Place" expounds the internal logical relationship of her spatial theory.This chapter about how she succeeds in actively carrying on Lefebvre and critically introducing Laclau centers on the disagreements between Massey and Harvey,which integrate politics with her space ideas.Massey connects not only space with relationship,but also with subjectivity,so that geography has a universal and radical significance.As the theory matured,Massey is also revealed her post-Marxist position.The third chapter "The Extension and Shortcomings of Massey's SpatialPolitics" pays attention to the two branches of feminism and world cities in her theory.They are her main focuses of the real politics and also the bridges between Massey's own abstract space theory and the reality.Regrettably,neither of the both aspects has played a core logical role in her theory,and has also shown the utopian essence behind her radical theory.