Not for the first time, Marxism is considered to be in a state of 'crisis'. This thesis seeks to
'underlabour' on behalf of a particular version of Marxism, a version articulated with
force, coherence and great originality for over two decades within human geography: what
David Harvey (1985a: xii), in a paradigmatic formulation, has called 'historicalgeographical
materialism'. A research programme, rather than the work of any one
individual, historical-geographical materialism has in various ways and at various levels
creatively extended the classical Marxist canon in a geographical direction. Yet today it is
considered increasingly passe by critics on the Left as well as the Right of human
geography, reflecting the wider ennui with Marxism outside the discipline. In particular, it
is seen as being too 'modern' - too foundationalist, totalising and authoritative in its
cognitive and normative claims - to contribute effectively to a critical human geography
for the 1990s. Against this, this thesis seeks to develop an alternative reading of the core
claims of this research programme by offering a novel reinterpretation of Marx's mature
political-economy. Rewriting Marx's account of what Postone (1996: 1) calls "the
fundamental core of capitalism", the thesis puts this reinterpretation of the explanatorydiagnostic
basis of Marx's critique to work on three major themes of historicalgeographical
materialism: the production of space, the production pf nature and the
production of subjectivity. It does so in order to illustrate the explanatory power, thematic
reach and theoretical coherence of this reinterpretation, as well as its relevance to the late
capitalist world. In closing, the normative or anticipatory-utopian basis of this reinterpreted
historical-geographical materialism is considered and its political implications for today
thereby scrutinised.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:BVAU.2429/9843 |
| Date | 05 1900 |
| Creators | Castree, Noel |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Relation | UBC Retrospective Theses Digitization Project [http://www.library.ubc.ca/archives/retro_theses/] |
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