Between Space and Time: Reflections on the Geographical Imagination Author(s): David Harvey Reviewed work(s): Source: Annals

of the Association of American Geographers, Vol. 80, No. 3 (Sep., 1990), pp. 418-434 Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. on behalf of the Association of American Geographers Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2563621 . Accessed: 23/05/2012 12:08
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

Taylor & Francis, Ltd. and Association of American Geographers are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Annals of the Association of American Geographers.

http://www.jstor.org

BetweenSpace and Time: Reflections the on Geographical Imagination1

David Harvey Halford Mackinder of Professor Geography, School of Geography, of University Oxford, Mansfield Road,OxfordOX1 3TB,England

Abstract. Althoughconcepts of space and timearesocially constructed, operatewith they the fullforceof objectivefactand playa key rolein processesofsocial reproduction. Conceptions of space and time are inevitably, as and parcelofprotherefore, contested part cesses of social change, no matter whether thatchangeis superimposed from without (as in imperialist domination) generatedfrom or within(as in the conflictbetween environmentalist economicstandards decision and of making).A study the historical of geography of concepts of space and time suggeststhat of the rootsof the social construction these and concepts lie in the mode of production In itscharacteristic social relations. particular, the revolutionary qualities of a capitalistic mode of production, markedby strong curof rents technological changeand rapideconomic growth and development,have been associated with powerfulrevolutions the in social conceptions space and time.The imof plications theserevolutions, of implying they as of do the "annihilation space by time" and the general speed-up and acceleration of in time are turnover ofcapital, traced thefields of cultureand politics,aesthetictheory and, of home within discipline the finally, brought as geography both a problemand a stimulus the for rethinking role of the geographical in social life. imagination contemporary KeyWords: aesthetics, capitalism, geography, historical geopolitics, materialism, place, social socialspace, social change,socialreproduction, social time. theory, HE question I wish to consideris the construction a historical of geography ofspace andtime. Sincethat soundsand indeed is a double play on the concepts of space and time,the idea requiressome initial
of Annals theAssociation American of Geographers, 80(3),1990,pp. 418-434 ? Copyright of 1990 by Association American Geographers

I elaboration. shallthen explore the implicato tionsof the idea in relation the historical life of geography everyday and thesocialpracgeographers. ticesofthosewhocallthemselves

The Spaces and Times of Social Life

Durkheimpointed out in The Elementary Life of Forms theReligious (1915)thatspace and of The timeare socialconstructs. writings ansuch as Hallowell(1955), Levithropologists Strauss (1963),Hall (1966) and, more recently this (1977)and Moore (1986)confirm Bourdieu societiesproduce qualitatively view:different conceptionsof space and time(see different this also Tuan 1977). In interpreting anthrotwo evidence,I wantto highlight feapological tures. of the First, socialdefinitions space and time to forceofobjectivefacts the operatewith full necessarily and all which individuals institutions we in societies, respond.Forexample, modern even thoughsuchtimeis a accept clock time, as social construct, an objectivefactof daily outheldstandard, a life; provides commonly it to side of any one person'sinfluence, which we turnagainand againto organizeour lives of and in terms whichwe assessand judge all feeland manner socialbehaviors subjective of to ings.Evenwhen we do not conform it,we wellwhatitis thatwe are notconknowvery to. forming the of Secondly, definitions objectivespace in and timeare deeplyimplicated processesof for socialreproduction. Bourdieu (1977)shows, African how in thecase ofthe North example, (the and spatialorganization temporal Kabyle, within house,etc.) the calendar, partitions the the serveto constitute socialorderthrough the

BetweenSpace and Time to of assignment people and activities distincits The tiveplacesand times. grouporders hierof its archies, genderrolesand divisions labor, in accordancewitha specificmode of spatial The organization. roleofwoman and temporal in Kabylesocietyis, forexample,definedin times. of terms thespaces occupied at specific spaceandtime way A particular ofrepresenting whichin practices and temporal guidesspatial turn securethe socialorder. to of Practices thissortare not foreign adspace To societies. beginwith, vancedcapitalist meansof both a and timeare always primary The and social differentiation. individuation legal of units administrative, as definition spatial definesfieldsof social or accounting entities impacts the on havewide-ranging actionwhich act of organization sociallife.Indeed,thevery a implies powentities of naming geographical over er over them,mostparticularly the way soand inhabitants their inwhichplaces,their Said As get cialfunctions represented. Edward in of demonstrates hisstudy (1978)so brilliantly peoples of Orientalism, identity variegated the can be collapsed, shaped, and manipulated imand the through connotations associations Ideological posed upon a name by outsiders. of and over struggles themeaning manner such abound. of representations place and identity But over and beyondthe mere act of identia the of fication, assignment placewithin sociostructure indicates distinctive roles,caspatial and access to powerwithin for pacities action, the social order.The when and whereof difand ferent kindsof social activity of different of manners relating conveyclear social mesfor children, example, sages. We stillinstruct in the idea thatthereis "a timeand a place for and everything" allofus,atsomelevelofmeanwhether ing,knowwhatour place is (though withit is another or not we feel comfortable what question).We all know,furthermore, it meansto be "put in one's place" and thatto be, challengewhatthatplace might physically is as well as socially, to challengesomething street in fundamental the socialorder.Sit-ins, or of the demonstrations, storming the Bastille in the the gatesof the U.S. embassy Teheran, down of the Berlin Wall,and the ocstriking or of cupation a factory a collegeadministration an are of against estabbuilding all signs attack lishedsocialorder. exist of accounts thesephenomena Sufficient suto renderfurther generality proofof their

419

in thoughthe exact manner which perfluous, conceptsof space and timeoperate in social is reproduction so subtleand nuanced as to the most require,if we are to read it right, we of apparatus enquiry can mussophisticated ter.Buttheevidenceissolidenoughto support each proposition: socialformation thefollowing of conceptions spaceandtime constructs objective unto sufficient its own needs and purposesof its and and material socialreproduction organizes with thoseconin material practices accordance ceptions. But societies change and grow, they are and from transformed within adaptto pressures Objective confrom without. and influences changeto acceptionsofspace and timemust newmaterial of practices socialrecommodate in How are such shifts the public production. and objectiveconceptionsof timeand space the instances, answer In accomplished? certain Newconcepts spaceandtime of issimply given. conforce through by havebeen imposed main domor expansion neocolonial quest,imperial of ination.The European settlement North Americaimposed quite alien conceptionsof for timeand space upon the PlainsIndians exthe ample,and in so doingalteredforever sowithin whichthereproduction cialframework ofthesepeoples could,ifat all,takeplace. The spatial rational of imposition a mathematically the orderin the house,the classroom, village, and the barracks even acrossthe cityof Cairo werecenterpieces (1988)shows, Mitchell itself, projectto bring of a late nineteenth-century frameworks the into Egypt linewith disciplinary are Such impositions of Europeancapitalism. well received.The spread of not necessarily has social relations oftenentaileda capitalist peoples into fierce battleto socializedifferent in implicit the commonnet of timediscipline and into a respectfor industrial organization specified of and partitions territorial landrights terms Sack1986). inmathematically (see rigorous actionsagainstsuch imposiWhile rearguard true tions abound,itis nevertheless thatpublic much of and space throughout definitions time worldhavebeen imposed ofthecontemporary in the courseof capitalist development. arisewhen Evenmore interesting problems thepublicsenseoftimeand space iscontested in Such contestation contempowithin. from and in society partarisesout of individual rary of to subjectiveresistance the authority the of clock and the tyranny the cadastralmap.

420

Harvey The struggle, thiscase, is to challengethe in traditional worldofmyth, iconography ritand ual inwhichmaledominion overtimeparallels dominion overnature overwomenas "natand uralbeings." WhenBlake, example, for insisted that"Timeand Space are Real Beings. Timeis a Man, Space is a Woman,and her masculine Portion Death" (quoted in Forman, 4), he is p. was articulating widespreadallegorical a prethathas echoes even untothe pressumption entday.The inability relate timeofbirthto the ing(and all thatthisimplies) the masculine to preoccupation with deathand history inForis, man'sview,one of the deeper psychological betweenmenand women. battlegrounds The third examplederives from conversaa tionbetween economist a geologist an over and the timehorizonforoptimal of exploitation a mineral resource.The former holds thatthe appropriate timehorizonis set bythe interest rateand market price,butthegeologist, holdingto a very different conceptionof time, arit of guesthat istheobligation every generation to leavebehind aliquot an shareofanyresource to the next.Thereis no logicalwayto resolve that argument. too,isresolved main It, by force. The dominantmarketinstitutions prevailing undercapitalism time horizonsby way of fix the interest rate and, in almostall arenas of economic calculation the (including purchase ofa house witha mortgage), is the end of that the story. We here identify potentiality social the for conflict from timehorizon the deriving entirely over whichthe effect a decisionis held to of operate. While economistsoftenaccept the maxim that"in the longrunwe are Keynesian all dead" and thatthe short-run the only is reasonabletimehorizonover whichto operationalize economicand political endecisions, vironmentalists thatresponsibilities insist must be judgedoveran infinite horizon time within which forms life all of (including ofhumans) that must preserved. opposition thesense be The in of timeis obvious.Evenwhen,as in Pigouvian economics, longer time horizonsare introduced intoeconomiccalculation, effective the meansis through discountratewhichis set a thanecological,religious by economic rather or social calculation the re(see, forexample, portby Pearce,Markandya Barbier and [1989] thatall environmental can be moneimpacts tized and thatthe discountrateis a perfectly
on a Blueprint a GreenEconomy, for which insists

Modernistand postmodernist literature and painting full signs revolt are of of against simple mathematical material and measuresof space and time,whilepsychologists sociologists and have revealed,throughtheirexplorations, a highly complicated and oftenconfused world of personaland social representations which departs significantly from dominantpublic practices. Personal space and timedo notautomatically accord withthe dominant public sense of eitherand, as TamaraHareven(1982) in shows, there intricate are ways which "family time"can be integrated and usedto offset with the pressing powerof the "industrial time"of of deskilling reskilling laborforces the and and cyclical patterns employment. of More significantly, class, the gender, cultural, religious and in political differentiationconceptions time of and space frequently become arenasof social conflict. New definitions whatis thecorrect of timeand place foreverything wellas ofthe as properobjectivequalitiesof space and time can ariseout of such struggles. A fewexamples suchconflict perhaps are of in order.The first comes from chapterin the on Capital "The Working Day,"in whichMarx (1967,233-35)sets up a fictitious conversation inThe former betweencapitalist worker. and in is sists a fair that day'swork measured relation to how much timea workerneeds to recuto to peratesufficient strength return workthe nextdayand thata fair day'swage is givenby the moneyrequiredto cover dailyreproductioncosts.The worker repliesthatsuch a calwhich the of culation ignores shortening hislife toil the results from unremitting and that measureofa fair and day'swork wagelooksentirely life. when calculatedover a working different the are from Bothsides,Marxargues, correct but of standpoint thelawsofmarket exchange, dictate different class perspectives different Between time horizonsforsocial calculation. Marxargues, forcedecides. such equal rights, Time"yields seca of The gendering "Father ond example.Itis notonlythattimegetsconstruedquite differently accordingto gender roles throughthe curious habit of defining timeas onlythattakenup in selling working laborpowerdirectly others. to But,as Forman of (1989)pointsout, the reduction a woman's timesof naturehas had worldto the cyclical the the effect excluding of womenfrom linear timeof patriarchal women history, rendering in time." "strangers theworldofmale-defined

Between Space and Time

421

adequate meansby whichto takeaccountof long-term environmental impacts). whole The political-economic trajectory development of andchangedependsuponwhich objective definition adopt in socialpractice. the pracIf we ticesarecapitalistic, thetimehorizon then cannotbe thatto whichenvironmentalists cleave. Spatialusagesand definitions likewise are a contestedterrain both practical in and conceptual realms.Here, too, environmentalists tendto operatewith muchbroaderconcepa tion of the spatial domain of social action, pointing the spillover to effects local activof ities into patternsof use that affectglobal warming, rain acid formation globaldespoand liation theresource of base. Sucha spatial conceptionconflicts withdecisions takenwith the objective maximizing rent a particular of land at siteover a timehorizonset by land priceand the interest rate.Whatseparates environthe mental movement (and whatin many respects makesit so special and so interesting) preis the cisely conceptionoftimeand space which it brings bear on questionsof social reproto ductionand organization. Such deep struggles over the meaning and social definition space and timeare rarely of arrived directly. at Theyusually emergeout of muchsimpler conflicts overthe appropriation and domination particular of spacesand times. Ittook me many for years, example, underto standwhyitwas thatthe Parisian communards so readily aside theirpressing put tasksof orfor ganizing the defenseof revolutionary Paris in 1871,in orderto tear down the Vend6me column.The columnwas a hatedsymbol an of alien powerthathad long ruledover them;it wasa symbol thatspatial of organization the of thathad putso many of city segments thepopulation"in theirplace," by the buildingof Haussmann's of boulevards and the expulsion the working classfrom central the city.Haussmanninserted entirely an new conceptionof of a space intothe fabric the city, conception to appropriate a newsocialorderbasedon capitalistic (particularly values.The transfinancial) formation social relations of and dailylifeenor visagedin the 1871 revolution entailed, so thecommunards thereconstruction the of felt, interior non-hispaces of Parisin a different erarchical was that urge image. So powerful thatthe publicspectacleof toppling Venthe d6me columnbecame a catalytic momentin the assertion communard of power over the

tried city's spaces(Ross1988).Thecommunards socialordernotonlyby to buildan alternative the reoccupying space fromwhichtheyhad expelled bytrying but beenso unceremoniously of to reshapethe objectivesocialqualities urin and ban space itself a nonhierarchical comimage.The subsequentrebuilding munitarian of ofthecolumnwas as mucha signal reaction of of as wasthebuilding theBasilica Sacr6Coeur in for on the heights Montmartre expiation of the Commune's supposed sins (see Harvey 1985). of The 1989 annualconvention the Associin ation of American Geographers Baltimore tookplace inwhatisforme,a resident likewise alienterfor of thatcity some eighteenyears, The maskof the inner ritory. presentcarnival concealsa longhistory harbor redevelopment ofstruggle overthisspace. The urbanrenewal thatbegan in the early1960swas led by the institutions property developersand financial as theysoughtto recolonizewhattheysaw as central a strategic declining citycore. But but was stymied the unrestof the the effort by 1960s thathad the downtowndominatedby counter-cultural anti-wardemonstrations, of eventsand,mostdevastating all forinvestor on street mainly thepart uprisings confidence, The African-Americans. inner ofimpoverished and citywas a space of disaffection social disBut ruption. in the wake of the violencethat Martin Luther King'sasrockedthe cityafter in to sprang lifeto sassination 1968,a coalition a and and restore sense of unity belonging try The coalition broad;itincluded was to thecity. Alliancein the churches (the BlackMinisterial acleadersof all kinds, community particular), ademics and downtownlawyers, politicians, tradeunionists, up bureaucrats, and, bringing the businesscomthe rear in this instance, whichwas plainly a loss as to what at munity, The struggle on to was to do or whereto turn. againas a tryand put the cityback together as and living cohesivesocial entity, a working alertto racialand social injustice. community was One idea thatemergedfrom thateffort fair a that to createa city in the inner city, fair by wouldcelebrate "otherness" difference and religious, beingbased on the city'sdistinctive would ethnic and racial but composition which within also celebratethe themeof civicunity In fair thatdiversity. 1970 the first took place, a people over a bringing quarterof a million of all weekend,from neighborhoods the city,

422

Harvey

intotheinner spaceofdisaffection. 1973, city By nearly two million came and the innerharbor was reoccupied by the commonpopulace in wayswhichithad been impossible envisage to in the 1960s.Itbecame a siteof communal affirmation unity of within difference. Duringthe 1970s,in spite of considerable popularopposition, forces commercialthe of ismand property development recaptured the space. It became the site of a public-private in partnership whichvastamountsof public moneys wereabsorbedforpurposesofprivate rather thancivicgain.The Hyatt-Regency Hotel, headquarters the AAG meetings, for was builtwith$5 million private of a money, $10 million UrbanDevelopment ActionGrant, and a complicated deal of cityinvestment infrain structures shellwhichtook some $20 miland lion of a citybond issue.The innercityspace became a space of conspicuousconsumption, celebrating commodities rather thancivicvalues. Itbecame thesiteof"spectacle"inwhich people are reducedfrom activeparticipants in theappropriation space to passive of spectators (Debord 1983).Thisspectaclediverts attention from awfulpoverty the restof the city the of and projectsan imageof successful dynamism whenthe reality thatof seriousimpoverishis ment disempowerment and (Levine 1987). While all thatmoneywas pouring intothe innercity redevelopment, rest thecity the of gainedlittle and in some instances lost much,creating an islandof downtown in affluence a sea ofdecay (Szanton1986).The glitter the innerharbor of diverts gaze from gathering the the of tragedy injustice that in otherBaltimore, safely now (or so itseems)tuckedawayintheinvisible neighborhoodsof despair. The pointof these examplesis to illustrate how social space, when it is contestedwithin theorbitofa givensocialformation, begin can to take on new definitions meanings. and In both Parisand Baltimore, see the struggle we forcommand overstrategic central spaces city as partofa broaderstruggle replacea landto scape of hierarchy of pure moneypower and with socialspace constructed the imageof a in equality justice. and Whilebothstruggles were unsuccessful, do illustrate dominant they how and hegemonic definitions socialspace (and of time)are perpetually underchallengeand alwaysopen to modification.

Materialist on Perspectives the Historical Geographyof Space and Time

Ifspace and timeare bothsocialand objective,then it followsthatsocial processes(including socialconflicts thesortalready of outlined)havea roleto playintheir objectification. How then, wouldwe set out to study ways the in whichsocial space and timeget shaped in different historical geographical and contexts? Thereis no answerto thatindependent the of explicit character our ontological of and epistemological commitments. own are, as is My well known,explicitly Marxist, which means the organization enquiryaccordingto the of basic principles historical of mageographical terialism. objectivedefinitions The in must the first instance understood, byappeal to be not the worldof thoughts and ideas (thoughthat is study always rewarding), from study but the ofmaterial processes socialreproduction. of As Smith (1984,77) putsit,"the relativity space of (is) not a philosophical issue but a productof socialand historical practice." Let me illustrate such a principle work.I at often ask beginninggeographystudentsto wheretheir mealcamefrom. Tracconsider last ing back all the itemsused in the production of thatmeal revealsa relation dependence of upon a wholeworldofsociallaborconducted in manydifferent places underverydifferent social relations and conditions production. of Thatdependencyexpandseven further when we considerthe materials goods used in and of the production the goods we directly consume.Yetwe can inpractice consumeourmeal without slightest of the knowledge theintricate of social and geography production themyriad that relationships embeddedinthesystem puts it upon our table. Thiswas the condition thatMarx(1967,71one of hismost 83) pickedupon indeveloping of telling concepts-the fetishism commodities. He soughtto captureby thattermthe wayin whichmarkets conceal social(and,we should information relations. and add, geographical) We cannottellfrom at looking thecommodity whetherit has been produced by happylain in borers working a cooperative Italy, grossly exploitedlaborersworking under conditions

BetweenSpace and Time of apartheid SouthAfrica, wage laborers in or protectedby adequate labor legislation and wage agreements Sweden. The grapesthat in situpon thesupermarket shelves mute;we are cannot thefingerprints see ofexploitation upon them tellimmediately part theworld or what of theyare from. can,byfurther We enquiry, lift the veil on thisgeographical and social ignoranceand makeourselves awareoftheseissues (as we do whenwe engageina consumer boycottof nonunion SouthAfrican or grapes). But in so doingwe find haveto go behindand we beyondwhatthe market itself revealsin order to understand society working. was how is This precisely Marx'sown agenda.We have to get the behindtheveil, fetishism themarket of and the commodity, orderto tell the fullstory in of social reproduction. Thegeographical ignorance arises of that out the fetishism commodities in itself of is cause forconcern.The spatialrangeof our own individual of experience procuring commodities inthemarket place bearsno relationship the to spatial range over which the commodities themselves produced.The two space hoare rizons quitedistinct, decisions seem are and that reasonable from former the standpoint not are necessarily appropriatefromthe latter.To whichset of experiences shouldwe appeal in the understanding historical of geography space and time?Strictly speaking, answerwillbe my bothbecause bothare equallymaterial. it But is herethatI insist shoulddeploytheMarxwe ian conceptoffetishism itsfull with force.We willarrive a fetishistic at interpretation the of world the (including objective socialdefinitions of space and time)ifwe takethe realmof individualexperience(shoppingin the superto market, traveling workand picking monup ey at the bank) as all there is. These latter activities realand material, their are but organizationis such as to conceal the otherdefiof nitions space and timeset up inaccordance withthe requirements commodity of productionandcapital circulation through price-fixing markets. A pureconcernforthe material base of our own daily reproduction ought to dictate a working knowledge the geography comof of modity production and of the definitions of space and timeembedded in the practices of commodity production capital and circulation.

423

But in practicemostpeople do without. This also raisesimportant moralissues. If,forexample,we consider right proper show it to and moralconcernforthosewho help put dinner on the table,thenthisimplies extension an of moralresponsibility throughout whole inthe tricate geography sociality intersecting and of We markets. cannotreasonably to church go on Sunday, donatecopiously a fundto help to the poor in the parish, and thenwalkobliviouslyintothe market buygrapesgrownunto der conditions apartheid. of We cannot reasonablyargue forhighenvironmental quality inthe neighborhood whilestill on insisting livingata levelwhichnecessarily implies polluting the air somewhereelse (thisis, afterall, the heartof the ecologists'argument). Our problem is indeed preciselythat in which Marx to us. sought instruct We haveto penetrate the veiloffetishisms whichwe are necessarily with of surrounded virtueof the system comby and and discover modity production exchange whatlies behindit. In particular, need to we knowhowspace and timegetdefined these by material which processes bread. giveusourdaily It is to thisworldthatI now turn.

The Historical Geographyof Space and Time in the CapitalistEpoch

Consideration the historical of geography of space and timeintheeraofWestern capitalism illustrates conceptions how and practices with respectto both have changed in accordance withpolitical-economic practices. The transitionfrom feudalism capitalism, Goff to Le (1980, 1988)argues, entaileda fundamental redefinitionofconcepts spaceandtime of which served to reorderthe worldaccordingto quite new socialprinciples. hourwasan invention The of thethirteenth the century, minute thesecand ond became commonmeasures onlyas lateas the seventeenth. Whilethe first thesemeaof sureshad a religious origin (illustrating a deep between the Judeo-Christian continuity view of the world and the rise of capitalism), the of spreadof adequate measures time-keeping had muchmoreto do withthe growing concern for efficiency production, in exchange,

424

Harvey

and commerce administration. an urbanItwas "in basedrevolution mental structures their and material expressions" and it was "deeply implicated,"according Le Goff to (1980,36),"in themechanisms classstruggle." of "Equalhours" in the city,Landes (1983, 78) confirms, "announcedthevictory a newcultural ecoof and nomicorder."Butthe victory partial was and patchy, leaving muchofthewestern outworld side of its reach untilat least the mid-nineteenthcentury. The history cartography the transition of in from feudalism capitalism to has,likethe historyof time-keeping, been verymuchabout refinement spatialmeasurement of and representation according clearly to defined mathematical of principles. Here,too, the interests trade and commerce,of property and territorialrights the sortunrecognizable the in (of feudalworld)were of paramount importance in reshapingmentalstructures and material practices. Whenitbecameclearthat geographicalknowledge a vital was sourceofmilitary and economic power, then the connection between mapsand money, Landes(1983,110) as followed farbehind.The introducnot shows, tionofthePtolemaic in mapintoFlorence 1400 and itsimmediate adoptionthereas a means to depict geographical space and store locational information, arguablythe fundawas in mentalbreakthrough the construction of geographical knowledgeas we now know it. it Thereafter became possiblein principle to the comprehend worldas a globalunity. The political of significance this cartographic revolutiondeserves consideration.Rational mathematical conceptionsof space and time were, forexample,a necessary conditionfor Enlightenment doctrinesof politicalequality and socialprogress. One of the first actionsof the Frenchrevolutionary was assembly to ordain the systematic mappingof Franceas a meansto ensureequality political of represenThisissucha familiar tation. issue constitutional in the democraciesof the world (giventhe of whole history gerrymandering) the inthat timate connection betweendemocracy raand tionalmappingis now takenforgranted. But to imagine attempting draw up an egalitarian of armedonlywiththe system representation Mappa Mundi! The Jeffersonian system, land withits repetitive mathematical thatstill grid the dominates landscapeof the UnitedStates, likewise sought rational the partitioningspace of

so as to promotethe formation an agrarian of In democracy. practicethisprovedadmirable forcapitalist appropriation and speculation of inspace,subverting Jefferson's butitalso aims, of demonstrates a particular how definition obinterjectivesocial space (in thiscase strictly fapretedin rationalistic Enlightenment terms) cilitated riseofa new kindofsocialorder. the which Goff Landes Le Accounts thesort and of provideillustrate beyonddoubtthatconcepts associated ofspace and timeand the practices neutral human in with them far are from socially and affairs. Precisely because of such political the economicimplications, sense ofspace and timeremains and moreproblematic contested thanwe are wont to admit.Helgerson (1986) the connecpointsout,forexample, intimate tionbetweentheRenaissance mapsofEngland (by Speed, Nordon,Caxton,and the others), thefight with and dynastic privilege thelatter's in the ultimate replacement a politics which by became relation betweenindividual nation and hegemonic.Helgerson's pointis thatthe new allowed meansof cartographic representation in that individuals see themselves terms were to of more in accord withthese new definitions relations. thecolonialpeIn socialand political riod,to takea muchlaterexample,the maps ofcolonialadministrations very had distinctive theirsocial purposes qualitiesthat reflected (Stone 1988). elseSinceI havetakenup theabove themes I where(Harvey 1985,1989a), shallheremerely conassert theconstruction newmental that of withrespect to and material ceptions practices to space and timewere fundamental the rise ofcapitalism a particular as socioeconomic sysand practices werealtem.Theseconceptions wayspartial (though theybecame morehegemonicas capitalism and were,in evolved), they anycase, always subjectto socialcontestation in specific places and times.Butsocial reprosort their duction thecapitalist required of deep in implantation the worldof ideasas wellas in the realmof social practices. a mode Capitalism however, revolutionary is, of production, out searching alwaysrestlessly new technologies, new organizational forms, of new lifestyles, new modalities producand tionand exploitation. has Capitalism also been with revolutionary respectto itsobjectivesoof cialdefinitions time space. Indeed,when and of comparedwithalmostall otherforms inof novation, radicalreorganizations space the

BetweenSpace and Time relations ofspatial and representations had have effect. The turnan extraordinarily powerful pikesand canals,the railways, steamships and telegraph, radioand the automobile, the containerization, cargotransport, jet television and have altered space and telecommunications, timerelations and forcedus to new material practices wellas to new modesofrepresenas tationof space. The capacity measureand to first divide time has been revolutionalized, through the production and diffusion inof creasingly accurate time pieces and subsequently through close attention the speed to of and coordinating mechanisms production (automation, robotization) and the speed of movement goods,people,information, of messages,and the like.The material bases of objective space and time have become rapidly moving rather thanfixeddatumpointsin humanaffairs. Whythismovement? Since I have explored its roots in greaterdetail elsewhere(Harvey 1982,1989a)I simply summarize principal the argument. Timeisa vital magnitude undercapitalism becausesociallabortimeisthemeasure ofvalueand surplus sociallabortimeliesat the of origin profit. Furthermore, turnover the time of capitalis significant because speed-up (in in in production, marketing, capitalturnover) is a powerful competitive meansforindividual In capitalists augment to profits. timesof economiccrisisand of particularly intensecomwitha faster turnover time petition, capitalists withthe result survive thantheirrivals, better inthatsocialtimehorizons typically shorten, of tendsto pickup and tensity working living The same and the pace of changeaccelerates. of sorts proposition of applyto theexperience of and space. The elimination spatialbarriers to the struggle "annihilate space by time" is of essentialto the whole dynamic capitalaccumulation becomes particularly and acute in The crises capital of overaccumulation. absorptionof surpluses capital(and sometimes of laintonew bor)through geographical expansion the of territories through construction a and newsetofspace relations been has completely short remarkable. construction of The nothing of and reconstruction space relations and of the global space economy,as HenriLefebvre (1974) acutelyobserves,has been one of the the of mainmeansto permit survival capitalism intothe twentieth century. characteristics opposedto the Thegeneral (as

425

detailed where, whenand how)ofthehistorical geography space and timewhichresults of are not accidentalor arbitrary, implicit the but in verylawsof motion capitalist of development. The general trend towards acceleration is an in turnover time(the worldsof production, exchange,consumption tendto changefaster) all of and a shrinking space horizons.In popular terms, might thatToffler's we say (1970)world of"future shock"encounters, itwere,Maras shall McLuhan's(1966) "global village."Such in periodic revolutions the objective social their qualities time spacearenotwithout of and It contradictions.takes, example, for longterm and oftenhighcost fixedcapitalinvestments ofslowturnover (likecomputer time hardware) timeofthe rest, to speed up theturnover and ittakestheproduction a specific ofspace of set relations (likea railnetwork) orderto anniin hilatespace bytime.A revolution temporal in relations often not and spatial entails, therefore, onlythe destruction waysof lifeand social of practicesbuiltaround precedingtime-space systems, the"creative but destruction" a wide of rangeofphysical assetsembeddedinthelandscape. The recenthistory deindustrialization of isamply illustrative thesortofprocessI have of in mind. The Marxian of theory capitalaccumulation theoretical into permits insights thecontradictory changesthathaveoccurredinthedimenof sionality space and timein Western capitalism.If,as is the case, the temporal and spatial Wall Streetis so very worldof contemporary different from thatof the nineteenth century from of stockexchange and ifbothdepart that rural France and now)orofScottish croft(then ers (thenand now),thenthismustbe underset to stood as a particular of responses a pervasive condition aggregate shapedbytherules of commodity productionand capital accuIt mulation. is the contradictions tensions and therein thatI wantto examine. implied

Culturaland Political Responsesto the Changing of Dimensionality and Time Space

Rapid changesin the objectivequalitiesof social space and timeare both confusing and revolutionbecause their disturbing, precisely

426

Harvey

aryimplications thesocialorderare so hard for to anticipate. nervous The wonderment itall at is excellently capturedin the Quarterly Review for1839:
Supposing thatour railroads, even at our present simmering of travelling, rate wereto be suddenly established overEngland, wholepopulation all the ofthe country would,speaking at metaphorically, once advanceenmasse, placetheir and chairs nearer to the fireside theirmetropolis.... As disof tanceswere thusannihilated, surface our the of country would,as it were,shrivel size untilit in became not muchbigger thanone immense city (citedin Schivelbusch 1978,32).

The poet Heine likewiserecorded his "tremendousforeboding" the openingof the on raillinkfrom Paristo Rouen:
What changes nowoccur,inourwayoflookmust in ingat things, our notions! Eventhe elementary of and concepts time space havebeguntovacillate. Space iskilled therailways. as if mounI feel by the tainsand forests all countries of were advancing on Paris. Evennow,I can smelltheGerman linden Sea's breakers rolling are trees;the North against mydoor (citedin Schivelbusch 1978,34).

The Germantheatre director BirJohannes ringer (1989,120-38)records similar a sense of shockin a contemporary On in setting. arrival Dallasand Houston, felt "unforeseen he an collapseofspace,"where"the dispersion deand of compositions the urbanbody(the physical and cultural representation community) of have reacheda hallucinatory on: stage."He remarks
theunavoidable fusion confusion geographand of icalrealities, theinterchangeability places, or ofall or the disappearance visible(static) of pointsof reference a constant into commutation surface of images.

The riddleof Houston, concludes: he

isone ofcommunity: and fragmented explodedin all directions.... The cityimpersonates specua lativedisorder, kindof positive a unspecificity on thevergeofa paradoxical hyperbole (globalpower/localchaos).

I shallcallthis senseofoverwhelming change in space-time dimensionality "time-space in compression" order to capturesomething of Heine'ssense offoreboding Birringer's and sense of collapse.The experienceof it forces all ofus to adjustour notions space and time of and to rethink prospects socialaction. the for This rethinking as I have alreadyargued, is, embeddedinpolitical-economic But struggles. itisalso thefocusof intense cultural, aesthetic

and politicaldebate. Reflection this idea on helps us understand some of the turmoil that has occurredwithin fields cultural the of and in political production the capitalist era. The recentcomplexof movements known as 11post-modernism" for example, conis, as nected in the writings authors diverse of as (1984),Berman (1982)and Daniel Bell Jameson (1976) to some new experienceof space and time.Interestingly, having advancedthe idea, none of themtellsus exactly whattheymight meanbyit.Andthe material basisupon which of thesenewexperiences spaceand timemight econbe built, and itsrelation the political to remains topic a omyofcapitalist development, lostintheshadows.I am particularly interested to see how farpostmodernism be undercan it stood simply relating to the new experiby ences of space and timegenerated of the out crisis political-economic of1973(Harvey 1989a). Much of the advanced capitalist worldwas at thattimeforcedintoa majorrevolution in production techniques, consumption habits and political-economic practices.Strongcurrents of innovation have focusedon speed-up and acceleration turnover of times. Time-horizons fordecisionmaking of (now a matter minutes in international financial markets) have shortened and lifestyle fashions have changedrapidly.And all of thishas been coupled witha radicalreorganization space relations, of the further reductionof spatialbarriers, the and of emergenceof a new geography capitalist These eventshave generated a development. powerfulsense of time-space compression whichhas affected aspectsof cultural all and life. havehad to be political Whole landscapes in destroyed orderto makewayforthe creation of the new. Themesof creativedestrucof tion, of increasedfragmentation, ephemof erality community ofskills, lifestyles) (in life, in havebecome muchmorenoticeable literary and philosophic discoursein an era when reof from industrial structuring everything proto citieshasbecome ductiontechniques inner a majortopic of concern.The transformation in "the structure feeling" whichthe move of towardspostmodernism betokens seems to in have much to do withthe shifts politicaleconomic practicesthat have occurredover the lasttwo decades. that Consider, glancing backwards, complex cultural movement known as modernism is (againstwhich postmodernism supposedly

BetweenSpace and Time reacting). Thereisindeedsomething special that happensto writing artistic and representation inParis after 1848and itis useful lookat that to of against background political-economic the transformations in occurring thatspace and at thattime.Heine'svagueforeboding became a and traumatic dramatic experience in 1848, when,forthe first timein the capitalist world, assumed unlookedfor sipolitical-economy an multaneity. economiccollapseand politThe ical revolutions thatsweptacrossthe capitals of Europein thatyearindicated thatthe capitalist worldwas interlinked waysthathad in hitherto seemed unimaginable. speed and The simultaneity itall was deeplytroubling of and called forsome new mode of representation whichthisinterlinked through worldcould be better understood. Realist modesofrepresenwhichtooka simplenarrative tation, structure as their model,simply could notdo thejob (no matter how brilliantly Dickens rangedacross space and timein a novellikeBleakHouse). Baudelaire (1981) took up the challengeby definingthe modernistproblematicas the in searchforuniversal truths a worldcharacterized by (spatial)fragmentation, (temporal) and creativedestruction. The ephemerality in novcomplexsentencestructure Flaubert's els and the brushstrokes Manetdefined of toof newmodesofrepresentation space and tally time thatallowed new waysof thinking and new possibilities socialand political for action. in Kern's(1983)accountof the revolution the representation space and timethat of occurred shortly before1914(a periodof extraordinary in as as experimentation fields diverse physics, is literature, painting and philosophy) one of the clearest studiesto date of how time-space compressiongenerates experiences out of which new conceptionsare squeezed. The in fieldin movements thecultural avant-garde to also sought impose but partreflected inpart of newdefinitions spaceand timeupona Westerncapitalism thefull in floodofviolent transformation. A closerlookat thecontradictions into built these cultural and politicalmovements illustrateshow theycan mirror fundamental the in contradictions capitalist political economy. Considerthe cultural responseto the recent speed-up and acceleration capitalturnover of time.The latter a presupposes, beginwith, to morerapid in turnover consumption habits and lifestyles whichconsequently become the fo-

427

cus of capitalist social relations production of and consumption. Capitalist penetration the of realmof cultural production becomes particularly attractive because the lifetime conof sumption images, opposed to moretanof as gible objects like autos and refrigerators, is almostinstantaneous. recentyears, good In a deal of capitaland laborhas been applied to thispurpose.Thishas been accompaniedbya renewed emphasisupon the productionof controlled spectacles which LosAngeles (of the OlympicGames was a primeexample)which can conveniently double as a meansof capital accumulation ofsocialcontrol and (reviving politicalinterest the old Roman formula in of "bread and circuses"at a timeof greaterinsecurity). The reactions the collapseof spatialbarto riers no lesscontradictory. moreglobal are The interrelations become, the more internationalized our dinneringredients our money and flows, and the more spatialbarriers disinteso grate, more rather thanless of the world's populationclingsto place and neighborhood or to nation, ethnicgrouping, relior region, giousbeliefas specific marks identity. of Such a questfor visible tangible and marks identity of is readily in understandable the midst fierce of No time-spacecompression. matter thatthe capitalist responsehasbeen to invent tradition as yetanotheritemof commodity production and consumption reenactment ancient of (the rites and spectacles, excessesofa rampant the heritage thereis still insistent an culture), urge to lookfor in roots a world whereimage streams accelerateand become moreand moreplaceless(unlessthetelevision video screencan and properly regarded a place).The forebodbe as inggenerated of the sense of socialspace out in imploding uponus(forcibly marked everyby thingfromthe dailynews to randomacts of international terroror global environmental translates a crisis identity. into of problems) Who are we and to whatspace/placedo we belong? Am I a citizenof the world,the nation,the Not locality? forthe first timein capitalist hisif tory, Kern's(1983)accountofthe periodbeforeWorldWarI is correct, diminution the of has barriers provoked increasing an sense spatial ofnationalism localism, excessive and and geopoliticalrivalries and tensions,preciselybecause of the reduction the powerof spatial in barriers separateand defendagainst to others. tension Theevident betweenplaceandspace

428

Harvey

contradiction capof fundamental echoes that to economy whichI havealready italist political of organization alluded;thatittakesa specific space and thatit space to tryand annihilate timeto facilitate takescapitalof longturnover of the morerapidturnover the rest.Thistenstandfrom another yet sioncan be examined capitalshould have scant point.Multinational bethesedaysprecisely respect geography for open thewhole spatial barriers causeweakening But oyster. thereduction worldas itsprofitable has opof spatialbarriers an equallypowerful and gradeddifsmall-scale finely positeeffect; of ferences betweenthe qualities places(their and their infrastructures political laborsupply, theirmarket their receptivity, resourcemixes, beniches, etc.)become even moreimportant capitalis in a betterposicause multinational by tionto exploit them. Places, thesametoken, become much more concerned about their comclimate" and inter-place "good business becomesmuchmore for petition development of The fine-tuned. image-building community inBaltimore's (ofthesortwhichcharacterizes becomes embedded in powerful ner harbor) (Harvey competition processesof interurban 1989b).Concernforboththe realand fictional in of qualities place increases a phase of capiin the talist development which powerto comwith mandspace,particularly respectto financialand money has flows, becomemoremarked The geopolitics place tend of thaneverbefore. to become more ratherthan less emphatic. its thusgenerates exactopposite Globalization and waroppositions motionintogeopolitical ringcamps in a hostileworld.The threatof in geopoliticalfragmentation global capitalpowerblockssuch ism-between geopolitical the North as the EuropeanCommonMarket, and the Japanese CommonMarket, American idle. empire-is farfrom trading It is forthese reasonsthatcomingto terms of with historical the geography space and time makes muchsense.The diso undercapitalism alectical betweenplace and space, oppositions between long and short-term time horizons, in a existwithin deeper framework shifts of that dimensionality aretheproduct time-space to of underlying imperatives accelcapitalist times to annihilate erateturnover space by and time.The studyof how we cope withtimein illustrates shifts the how space compression experienceof space and time generatenew in as and struggles suchfields aesthetics cultural

representation, very how basicprocesses soof cial reproduction, wellas ofproduction, as are in deeply implicated shifting space and time horizons. thisregard, finditintriguing,I In I if maymaketheaside,that exploration the the of relations betweenliterature geography and that have so faremanatedfromthe geographer's camp havealmostwithout exceptionconcentratedon the literary evocationof place (see, for example, Malloryand Simpson-Housley 1987)whenthefar morefundamental question of spatiality say,the novelsof Flaubert in, and hisfor Joyce topic of greatimport literary (a I has torians) passed by unremarked.also find it odd thatgeographers have concentrated so in muchmoreupon theimportance locality of thepresent as conjuncture, leaning, itwere,to one side ofthecontradictory of dynamic space and place, as iftheyare separaterather than relatedconcepts. dialectically

Geographyin Relationto Social and AestheticTheory

Armedwithsuch epistemological and ontological commitments historical-geographas ical materialism provides, can beginto unwe ravel the theoretical and philosophical conceptionsof space and timewhichsustain or socialvisions (explicitly implicitly) particular of and interpretations the world.In so doing, itis useful beginwith to consideration a maof jor divide in Westernthoughtbetween aesthetic and socialtheory. in Social theory the sortconstructed the of of or diverse traditions AdamSmith, Marx, Wetime over space in its ber tends to privilege and those formulations, reflecting legitimizing who view the world throughthe lenses of of and spacelessdoctrines progress revolution. Inrecent havesought years, many geographers to correctthatdefective visionand to reintroduce conceptofspaceas notonlymeanthe to ingful vital the properunderstanding but of social processes(see Gregory and Urry 1985; has effort been Soja 1989).To somedegreethat rewardedby the recognition the partof on some social theorists thatspace indeed does matter (forexample,Giddens 1984). But that is task onlypartly the behind complete. Getting fetishism commodities of us challenges to inthe historical of tegrate geography space and

BetweenSpace and Time within frame allourunderstandings the of time of how humansocietiesare constructed and in change. Our interventionssocialtheory stand to be strengthened even further the exploby ration thattheme, of though presupposes, this as always, the training geographers of witha powerfulcommand over social theoryand seized intellectually the challengeto exby plorethe difficult terrain interface of between society thesocialconstruction spaceand and of time. Butthereis,curiously, another terrain theof oretical intervention which remainslargely unexplored, except in thatunsatisfactory and partial manner always that comeswithnibbling at hidden ratherthan struggling over overt questions.I refer here to the intersection betweengeographical work aesthetic and theory. The latter, directcontrast social theory, in to is deeplyconcernedwith "the spatialization of time,"albeitin terms how thatexperience of is communicated and receivedbyknowing, to sensuousindividuals. architect, takethe The to mostobviouscase, triesto communicate certainvaluesthrough construction a spatial the of form.Architecture, suggestsKarstenHarries (1982),is not onlyabout domesticating space, wresting and shapinga livableplace out of empty space. It is also a deep defenseagainst "theterror time."The "language beauty" of of is"thelanguage a timeless of reality." create To a beautiful timeand eternity" object is "to link in sucha wayas to redeemus from time'styris anny.The aim of spatialconstructs "not to illuminate so temporal reality that(we) might feelmoreat homein it,but... to abolishtime within time,ifonlyfora time."Evenwriting, comments Bourdieu "tears (1977,156), practice out and discourse of the flowof time." Thereare,ofcourse, many as varieties aesof as thetic theory thereare ofsocialtheory (see, treatise forexample,Eagleton's (1990)brilliant on the subject).But I quote these comments one of the central fromHarriesto illustrate themeswithwhichaesthetic theory grapples: constructs createdand used as how spatial are of fixedmarkers humanmemory of social and of flux valuesina world rapid andchange. There is much to be learnedfromaesthetictheory about how different forms producedspace of inhibit facilitate or processesof socialchange. now even more Interestingly, geographers find for from endeavors theorsupport their literary ists 1984and Ross1988)than from the (Jameson

429

social theorists. Conversely, thereis muchto socialtheory the be learnedfrom concerning fluxand change withwhichaesthetictheory has to cope. Historical geography, insofar it as liesattheintersection thosetwodimensions, of has an immensepotentiality contribute to to understanding both.Byplaying them thesetwo currents thought against of off each other, we mayeven aspireto createa moregeneraltheoretical framework interpreting historfor the ical geography space and timewhilesimulof how cultural taneously figuring and aesthetic practices-spatializations-intervenein the of political-economic dynamic social and political change. Let me illustrate wherethe political significance ofsuchan argument lie. might Aesthetic artistic judgments wellas the"redemptive" (as practices thatattachthereto)have frequently enteredin as powerful criteria political of and social action. Kant argued that independent aesthetic judgment could actas a mediator betweenthe worldsof objectivescience and of If subjectivemoraljudgment. aestheticjudgmentgives space priority over time,then it follows that and spatial practices conceptscan, undercertaincircumstances, become central to socialaction. In thisregard, German the philosopher Heithe deggeris an interesting figure. Rejecting Kantian dichotomies subjectand object,and of the descent into nihilism that Nietzfearing schean thought seemed to promote,he proclaimed the permanenceof Beingover the transitorinessBecoming attached of and himself to a traditionalist visionof the truly aesthetic state(Chytry political 1989).His investigations led himawayform universals modernism the of and Judeo-Christian and back to the thought nationalism pre-Socraof intense and creative All ticGreekthought. metaphysics philosand ophy,he declared(Heidegger 1959),are given their to of meaning onlyin relation thedestiny the people. The geopolitical positionof Gerin many theinterwar years, squeezed ina "great threatpincer"between Russiaand America, "If ened thesearchforthatmeaning. thegreat andecisionregarding Europeis not to bring "must he the nation nihilation," wrote, German moveitself thereby history theWest the of and future beyondthe centerof their 'happening' realm thepowersof of and intotheprimordial being" and "that decision mustbe made in histerms new spiritual of energiesunfolding

430

Harvey

fromout of the center." Hereinfor torically Heideggerlaythe "innertruth and greatness Socialist movement" oftheNational (Blitz 1981, 217). Thata greattwentieth-century philosopher, who has incidentally the inspired philosophizing of Karsten Harries well as muchof the as on of geographical writing the meaning place (see Relph1976;Seamonand Mugerauer 1989), himself should so compromise politically and in throw hislot withthe Nazisis deeplytroubling.But a numberof usefulpointscan be made fromthe standpoint mypresentarof gument.Heidegger'swork is deeply inbued withan aesthetic sense whichprioritizes Being and the specific of qualities place overBecomingandtheuniversal propositions modernist of in of progress universal space. Hisrejection Juof deo-Christian values,of the myth machine rationality, of internationalism total. and was The position whichhe subscribed active to was and revolutionary precisely because he sawthe necessity redemptive for practices whichineffect depended upon the restoration the of powerof myth blood and soil,of race and (of of and place) while mobifatherland, destiny of lizingall of the accoutrements social progress towardsa project of sublime national achievement. application thisparticular The of aesthetic sense to politics helpedalterthe hisof with a ventoricalgeography capitalism geance. I scarcely need to remind geographers the of tortured of history geopoliticalthinking and in practices thetwentieth century the difand havehadinconfronting ficulty geographers the I issuesinvolved. notethat Hartshorne's thorny of written Viin (1939)TheNature Geography, enna shortly after Anschluss, the totally rejects in and reserves most aesthetics geography its vitriolic for of condemnations the mythologies landscape geography.Hartshorne, following seems to wantto expel anyopening Hettner, of in forthe politicizing academicgeography an era whengeography suffused was withpoliticsand whensentiments place and ofaesof theticswere being actively mobilizedin the Nazi cause. The difficulty, course, is that of the does noteliminate even avoiding problem it, in academicgeography. Thisis not to saythateveryonewho, since Hartshorne, soughtto restore aesthetic has an to dimension geography a crypto-Nazi, is for, as Eagleton (1990,28) pointsout,the aesthetic

double-edged haseverbeen "a contradictory, as concept."On theone hand"itfigures a genof force-as a community uinely emancipatory subjectsnow linkedby sensuousimpulseand whileon the otherit can also fellowfeeling" social "inserting repression, serveto internalize power more deeply into the verybodies of as and so operating a suthose it subjugates premelyeffectivemode of political hegeof has, The aestheticization politics for mony." posingboth probthisreason,a long history, in to lemsand potentialities relation socialproversions San(the and Thereare left right gress. politicsaround afterall, aestheticize dinistas, are of and Marx'swritings the figure Sandino, to projectof fullof references an underlying senses).The clearest of liberation the creative in the takesis theshift emphasis form problem and itsideologiestohistorical progress from wards practiceswhich promote national(or often sparking evenlocal)destinies culture, and the within worldeconoconflicts geopolitical of my.Appeals to mythologies place, person to sense,haveplayed andtradition, theaesthetic a vitalrole in geopolitical history. of lies Herein,I think, the significance conwith socialtheoretic perspecaesthetic joining that understandings give together tives, bringing over timewiththose thatgive space priority geography timepriority over space. Historical geof and the study the historical in general, at of ography space and time,lies exactly that has and pointofintersection therefore a major and practical political theoretical, intellectual, how role to playin understanding humansothe cietieswork.By positioning studyof gewe betweenspace and time, evidently ography have muchto learnand muchto contribute.

The GeographicalImagination
I conclude witha brief on commentary the for of implications sucha perspective thestudy small ofgeography for and that relatively group a of scholars occupying niche labeled "geogof within academicdivision labor. the rapher" The latteris a productof late nineteenthand concerns.It is by no conditions century boundmeansself-evident thedisciplinary that fossilariesthen drawnup (and subsequently and ized byprofessionalization institutionalizato conditions tion)correspond contemporary in and needs. Partly responseto thisproblem,

BetweenSpace and Time an theacademyhas movedtowards increasing of fragmentation the division laborwithin in in disciplines, spawnednew disciplines the inon terstices lookedforcrosslinks thematic and topics. Thishistory resembles development the of the division laborin societyat large.Inof difcreasing specialization taskand product of ferentiation, increasingroundaboutnessof linkproduction the searchforhorizontal and ages are as characteristic largemultinational of corporations theyare of largeuniversities. as Within geography thisprocess of fragmentationhas acceleratedsince the mid-1960s. The effect been to make it harderto identify has thebinding by logicthatissuggested theword "discipline." The turnover timeof ideas in academia has also accelerated.Not so long ago, to publish was morethantwobooksina lifetime thought to be over-ambitious. it Nowadays, seems,leadtwo ingacademics haveto publish bookevery a yearsiftheyare to prove theyare stillalive. Definitions productivity outputin acaof and demiahavebecome muchmorestrictly applied and career advancementis more and more in measuredsimply such terms.There is, of course, certain a intersection betweenrehere search and corporate/nation state requirements, betweenacademiaand the publishing trade, and the emergenceofeducationas one in ofthebiggrowth sectors advancedcapitalist of societies. Speed-up in the production ideas a parallels generalpushto accelerateturnover timewithin as capitalism a whole. Butgreater mustreston the outputof booksand journals and implies production newknowledge, that of the muchfiercer searchfornew competitive in interest ideas, a much greaterproprietary them. can Suchfrenetic upon activity converge "truth" some consensual and well-established hiddenhandhasall those onlyifAdamSmith's in it effects academiathat plainly does nothave In the in othermarkets. practice, competitive of marketing ideas, theories,models, topic fashions color-of-the-month thrusts, generates conrather thanameliorate whichexacerbate ditions of rapid turnover, speed-up and Last and ephemerality. year it was positivism next this Marxism, yearstructurationism, year thatconstructivism, realism and the yearafter It to or postmodernism,whatever. iseasier keep in colorsthan the pace with changes Benetton's ideasnow the of to follow gyrations ephemeral overwithin academicworld. the beingturned

431

Itis hardto see whatwe can do to resist such trends, evenwhenwe bewailtheir effects. Our job descriptions not encompassthose of do "intellectual geographer" muchmoretypbut icallyspecifyever narrower proficiencies in everything merecommand techniques from of (remote sensing GIS)to specialists transand in port modeling,industrial location,groundwatermodeling, Sovietgeography, flavor or of the month topic (sustainabledevelopment, chaos theory, fractal geometry whatever). or The best we can do is appointspecialists and hope theyhavean interest the discipline in as a whole.Our seeming or inability unwillingness to resist fragmentation ephemerality and suggestsa condition whichsomething being in is I done to usbyforces beyondourcontrol. wish, for that example, thosewho nowso loudly proclaimthepowerofindividual agencyinhuman affairs how or could demonstrate their ourspecific in agencieshaveproducedthismacroshift Are our conditions working of and living. we mere victims social processes rather of than their progenitors? here,too, I prefer If real the Marxian of to conception individuals struggling but makehistory notunderconditions their of own making, is because mostof us have a it lifetime exactly of thatkindof experiencebehindus. Thissamequestioncomesto mind whenwe in considerthe resurgent interest aesthetics, to landscape geography placeas central the and The concerns of manyhumangeographers. in claimthatthe place of geography academia is to be securedbyattaching discipline the to a core conceptof place (even understood a as unique configuration of elements) has in strengthened a phase of capitalist developof ment whentheparticular qualities placehave concernto multinabecome of muchgreater has tional and capital whenthere simultaneousin and lybeen a renewedinterest the politics imageof place as an arena of supposed (even fictional) stability underconditions powerful of The time-space compression. socialsearchfor identity rootsin place has reentered and geas and ography a leitmotif isinturn increasingly used to provide the disciplinewitha more sense of idenpowerful (and equallyfictitious) in world. tity a rapidly changing A deeper understanding the historical of geof ography space and timeshedsconsiderable such on the cultivate light why discipline might arenas of researchin thistime and place. It

432

Harvey

providesa critical perspective from whichto evaluateour reactions the social pressures to thatsurround and suffuse lives.Do we, us our in unthinkingly acceptingthe significance of place to ourdiscipline, thedanger driftrun of ing intosubconscious supportfora reemergence ofan aestheticized geopolitics? quesThe tiondoes notimply avoidanceofthatissuebut a properconfrontation itthrough concepof a tionof geography thatlies at the intersection betweensocialand aesthetic theory. The historical geography space and time of facilitates critical reflection who we are and on whatitiswe might struggling What be for. conceptsofspace and timeare we trying estabto lish?How do theserelateto thechanging historicalgeographyof space and time under capitalism? Whatwould the space and timeof a socialistor ecologically responsible society look like?Geographers, after are contriball, utors(and potentially powerful important and ones at that) thewholequestionofspatiality to and itsmeanings. Historical with geographers their potential in interests bothspace and time have unbounded potentiality reflect to back notonlyon thehistory this that of or place and space relations the whole conundrum but of the changing experienceof space and timein social lifeand socialreproduction. Criticalreflection the historical on geography space and timelocatesthe history of of ideas about space and time in theirmaterial, socialand political Hartshorne not setting. did write Nature Geography a political The of in vacuumbutinpost-Anschluss fact Vienna, that and in (thoughnevermentioned consideration of thatwork)is surelypresentin its mannerof construction intervention the worldof and in ideas.Thistextof mineis likewise constructed in the lightof a certainexperienceof timespace compression, shifting of moresof social reproduction political and argument. Eventhe greatKantdid not develop hisideas on space and time,his distinctions between aesthetic, moral and scientific in judgments, a socialvacuum.His was the grandattempt codify to and the synthesize evident contradictions inherent inthebourgeois logicofEnlightenment reason as it was then unfolding the midstof the in revolutionary impulses sweeping Europeat the end of the eighteenth It century. was a very distinctive of withitsparproduct thatsociety ticular and practical in interests commanding space and timewithrational mathematical and

precision, while experiencing the frustraall tionsand contradictions initiating a raof such tionalordergiventhe nascentsocial relations ofcapitalism. Hegelattacked If Kant(on everything from aesthetics histheory history) to of and if Marx attacked bothHegelandKant (again, on everything aesthetics basicconcepfrom to tionsof materiality history), thesedeand then bates had everything do withtrying reto to definethe paths of social change. If 1, as a still Marxist, clingto thatquest foran orderly social revolution thatwilltake us beyondthe contradictions, manifest injustices and senseless "accumulation for accumulation's sake" logicof capitalism, thenthiscommits to a me the struggle redefine meaning space and to of timeas partand parcelof thatquest. And ifI am still muchina minority an academyin so in which neo-kantianism dominates (without, it mustbe said, mostpeople even knowing it), then thisquite simply testifies the persisto tence of capitalist social relations and of the bourgeois ideasthatderivetherefrom, includingthose defining objectifying and space and time. to Attachment a certain conception space of and timeis a political decision, and the historical geography space and timerevealsit so of to be. Whatkindof space and timedo we, as professional geographers, to promote? seek To whatprocesses socialreproduction those of do concepts subtlybut persistently allude? The current campaignforgeographical is literacy laudable, whatlanguage itthat teach? but is we Do we simply insist ourstudents that learnhow many countries borderon Chad? Do we teach the staticrationality the Ptolemaicsystem of and insist geography nothing that is morethan GIS, the contemporary versionof the Hartshornian rulethatifitcan be mapped,thenit isgeography? do we teachtherich Or language of the commodity, all itsintricate with history of social and spatialrelations back stretching from dinner our tableintoalmosteveryniche oflaboractivity themodern in world?Andcan we go on from to teachtherichand comthat plex languageof unevengeographical develof transformations opment, environmental (desoil degradation, hydrological forestation, climatic modifications, shifts) whose historical has scarcelybegun to be recongeography Can we go even further create structed? and a deep awareness how social processescan of be givenaestheticformsin politicaldebates

Between Space and Time

433

(andlearn appreciate thedangers lurk to all that therein)?Can we build a language-even a whole discipline-arounda projectthatfuses the environmental, spatialand the social the within sense of the historical a geography of space and time? Allsuchpossibilities to be explored. exist But whatever coursewe takeentails political a commitment to whatkindofspace and timewe as wishto promote.We are political agentsand have to be aware of it. And the politicsis an everyday question.The marketing head of a U.S. communications firmin Europe commented(International HeraldTribune, March 9 in 1989),on conversations seniorbankers with which sought go beyond banter he to the about itbeingthewarmest January recordandtalk on effects global of seriously aboutthe long-term warming. clientsall reactedin such a way His as to suggest about the environtheythought ment"in the same waywe practicea hobby, inthecomfort ourhomes"and atweekends, of when we should reallythinkabout it all the time"especially work."Buthow can interat when national bankers think aboutsuchthings If is theirtime-horizon minutes? twenty-four hoursis a verylong timein financial markets, finance is the and if capital today most powerful thenwhat forcein international development, kinds long-term of decisions we expect can from that quarterthat make any sense fromthe of of standpoint even long-term planning investments, alone of environmental let regulaof tion?Whenthe commander the Vincennes decision on had to make the life-and-death whetheran image on a screen was a diving or fighter an Iranian airbus,he was caughtin which the terror time-spacecompression of into dissolves ultimately everything ephemera such the and fragments that deviltakesnotthe the hindmost theglobaltotality, wholesobut cial fabric an internationalizing of societythat is morecloselylinkedthaneverbeforeand in accelwhichthe pace of changehas suddenly erated. cannot escape the terrors of Geographers these times.Nor can we avoid in the broad sense becomingvictims history of rather than itsvictors. we can certainly But for struggle a socialvision different futures with different and a conscious awareness stakes goals, of albeit and under conditions thatare never of our own It our bemaking. is bypositioning geography tweenspace and time, and byseeingourselves

in as active participants the historical geography space and time, of that can,I believe, we recover someclearer senseofpurposefor ourselves,definean arena of seriousintellectual make major debate and inquiry and thereby in contributions, intellectually politically, a and deeplytroubled world. Acknowledgment
I wish thank Smith hisconstructive Neil for comto ments bothwithrespectto the plenary lecture and thedraft thewritten of paper.I also received helpful comments from Jack Langton.

Note
1. Thisis an editedversion a plenary of lecturedelivered the AnnualConference the Associat of ationof American Geographers, Baltimore, MD, 21 March1989.

References
Baudelaire,C. 1981. Selectedwritings artand on artists. Cambridge: Cambridge Press. University Bell, D. 1976. Thecultural contradictionscapitalof ism.New York:BasicBooks. Berman, M. 1982. Allthat solidmelts air.New is into York:Simonand Schuster. Birringer, 1989. Invisible J. imcities/transcultural ages. Performing Journal Arts 12:33-34,120-38. Blitz,M. 1981. Heidegger's being time: posand The sibility political of NY: philosophy. Ithaca, Cornell Press. University Bourdieu,P. 1977. Outline a theory practice. of of Press. Cambridge: Cambridge University J. Chytry, 1989. The aesthetic A quest modern state: in German of thought. Berkeley: University California Press. Debord, G. 1983. Society thespectacle. of Detroit: Blackand Red Books. Durkheim, 1915. Theelementary ofthereE. forms life. ligious London:Allenand Unwin. T. Eagleton, 1990. Theideology theaesthetic. of Oxford:BasilBlackwell. F. Forman, J.,withSowton,C., eds. 1989. Taking ourtime: Feminist on Oxperspectives temporality. ford: Press. Pergamon OxGiddens,A. 1984. Theconstitution society. of ford: Press. Polity Gregory, and Urry, eds. 1985. SocialrelaD., J., tions spatial and structures. London:Macmillan. Hall,E. T. 1966. Thehidden dimension. Garden City, NY: Doubleday.

434

Harvey Mallory, F.,andSimpson-Housley, eds. 1987. W. P., and A of Geography literature:meeting thedisciplines. Syracuse, Syracuse NY: University Press. Marx, K. 1967. Capital, Volume1. New York:International Publishers. McLuhan,M. 1966. Understanding media:Theextensions man.New York:McGraw-Hill. of Mitchell,T. 1988. Colonising Egypt. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Moore, B. 1986. Space,textandgender. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Pearce, D.; Markandya, and Barbier, 1989. A.; E. Blueprint a green for economy. London: Earthscan Publications. Relph,E. 1976. Placeandplacelessness. Pion. London: of Ross, K. 1988. Theemergence socialspace:RimbaudandtheCommune. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. Sack, R. 1986. Humanterritoriality: Its theory and history. Cambridge: Cambridge Press. University New York: Random Said, E. 1978. Orientalism. W. Schivelbusch, 1978. Railroad space and railroad time.New German Critique 14:31-40. Seamon,D., and Mugerauer, eds. 1989. DwellR., ing, placeandenvironment. York: New Columbia University Press. N. Smith, 1984. Uneven development: Nature, capital andtheproduction space.Oxford: of BasilBlackSoja, E. 1989. Postmodern London: geographies. Pluto. Stone, J. 1988. Imperialism, colonialism and cartography. Transactions, Institute British of Geographers. 13, No. 1, 57-64. N.S. 2000.Baltimore: Szanton,P. 1986. Baltimore GoldsekerFoundation. A. Toffler, 1970. Future shock.New York:Bodley Head. Tuan, Yi-Fu. 1977. Space and place. Minneapolis: Minnesota University Press.
well. House.

PhilaHallowell,A. 1955. Culture experience. and of Press. delphia:University Pennsylvania timeand industrial Hareven,T. 1982. Family time. Press. Cambridge: Cambridge University and Harries,K. 1982. Building the terror time. of Perspecta: YaleArchitectural The Journal 19:59-69. of LanHartshorne, 1939. Thenature geography. R. caster,PA: Association AmericanGeograof phers. Harvey, 1982. Thelimits capital. D. to Chicago:University ChicagoPress. of 1985. Consciousness theurbanexperiand Press. ence.Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University of New . 1989a. Thecondition postmodernity. York:BasilBlackwell. . 1989b. Frommanagerialism entrepreto neurialism: transformationurbangoverThe in nance in late capitalism. Annaler Geografiska 71(Series B):3-17. Heidegger,M. 1959. An introductionmetaphysto Press. ics.New Haven,CT: Yale University Helgerson, 1986. The landspeaks:Cartography, R. in chorography, subversion Renaissance and England.Representations 16:51-85. F. or Jameson, 1984. Postmodernism, the cultural logicof latecapitalism. New Left Review 146:5392. Kern,S. 1983. Theculture time space,1880of and 1918.London:Weidenfeld Nicholson. and in Landes,D. 1983. Revolution time: Clocks the and of MA: making themodern world.Cambridge, Harvard University Press. H. Lefebvre, 1974. Laproduction lespace. Paris: de Anthropos. Le Goff, 1980. Time, work culture the and in middle j. ages.Chicago:University ChicagoPress. of . 1988. Medievalcivilisation. Oxford:Basil Blackwell. as Levine,M. 1987. Downtown redevelopment an a urbangrowth of strategy;critical appraisal the Baltimore renaissance. of Journal Urban Affairs 9(2): 103-23. New C. Levi-Strauss, 1963. Structural anthropology. York:RandomHouse.