Ó American Sociological Association 2019 DOI: 10.1177/0094306119853802 http://cs.sagepub.com REVIEW ESSAYS

The Durability and Dynamism of David Harvey

ANDY CLARNO University of Illinois at Chicago [email protected]

With an export-oriented manufacturing economy dependent on consumer demand The Ways of the World,byDavid Harvey. in the United States, China confronted a mas- Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, sive crisis of unemployment when the U.S. 2016. 384 pp. $27.95 paper. ISBN: economy crashed in 2008. To address this 9780190469443. crisis, the Chinese government organized an extraordinary wave of investment in Marx, Capital, and the Madness of Econo- physical infrastructure—employing over 20 mic Reason,byDavid Harvey. Oxford, million workers to build cities, industrial UK: Oxford University Press, 2018. 252 zones, transportation grids, communications pp. $24.95 cloth. ISBN: 9780190691486. networks, and other megaprojects. In just three years, China consumed 1.5 times as much cement as the United States consumed volume. Each of the eleven groundbreaking during the entire twentieth century. The vast essays is followed by a short commentary majority of these infrastructure projects were in which Harvey reflects on the context in financed by credit. China’s massive invest- which the piece was written, its reception, ment in the built environment helped to and its significance today. The chapters fol- temporarily ‘‘fix’’ the 2008 economic crisis, low the trajectory of Harvey’s effort to devel- while setting the stage for a future crisis by op a Marxist framework for understanding reproducing the pattern of speculative finan- why capital accumulation generates con- cialization that produced the U.S. housing stantly shifting and uneven geographical bubble after the crash of the earlier ‘‘dot- development, for analyzing the social and com’’ bubble. environmental consequences of these pro- The story of China’s role in saving global cesses, and for building an anti-capitalist capitalism from disaster bookends two political praxis. In the concluding essay, recent works by David Harvey: The Ways of from which the volume takes its title, he the World opens with this narrative, and writes: ‘‘If we are to collectively change this Marx, Capital, and the Madness of Economic world into a more rational and humane con- Reason concludes with the same account. In figuration through conscious interventions, both books, Harvey presents analytical then we must first learn to understand far frameworks to help readers understand better than is now the case the ways of the why capital accumulation generates such world, what we do in it, and with what destructive crisis tendencies. The Ways of consequences’’ (p. 307). the World traces the development of Together, the chapters that make up The Harvey’s thought over 47 years through Ways of the World demonstrate the durability a collection of his most influential essays. and dynamism of Harvey’s framework for Marx, Capital, and the Madness of Economic analyzing the historical geography of capi- Reason explores the relevance of Karl Marx talism. The first three essays, published in for understanding the proliferation of debt the 1970s, chronicle Harvey’s early engage- and the spiral of speculative investments today. ment with Marx and the development of The Ways of the World will stand the test of his core analytical framework. Concepts he time as Harvey’s ultimate ‘‘greatest hits’’ began exploring in these essays—such as

369 Contemporary Sociology 48, 4 370 Review Essays crises of overaccumulation, tensions neoliberal structure of interurban competi- between fixity and motion, and spatio- tion that generated a shift from managerial temporal fixes (such as China’s post-2008 urban government focused on addressing investment in the built environment)— local concerns to entrepreneurial urban gov- remain central to Harvey’s work and are ernance focused on creating a ‘‘good busi- indispensable tools for urban geographers ness climate’’ to attract corporate investors. and sociologists. In ‘‘The Geography of Cap- Another groundbreaking essay, ‘‘The Nature italist Accumulation,’’ Harvey describes of Environment,’’ includes Harvey’s produc- a spatial contradiction that continues to tive meditations on dialectics and ecoso- ground much of his scholarship today: cialism. Tracing the contradictions of various ‘‘The produced geographical landscape con- ecological projects, he calls for ecosocialist stituted by fixed and immobile capital is projects that recognize these tensions, both the crowning glory of past capitalist address the aspirations of working people, development and a prison that inhibits the and incorporate systemic critiques of capital- further progress of accumulation precisely ism and the state. And in ‘‘Militant Particu- because it creates spatial barriers where larism and Global Ambition,’’ Harvey draws there were none before’’ (p. 49). The endur- on the novels of Raymond Williams to reflect ance of his framework is also manifest in on a research project that forced him to nav- a diagram of the multiple circuits of capital igate between his loyalty to a group of strik- that appeared in ‘‘The Urban Process under ing workers and his commitment to abstract, Capitalism,’’ published in 1978, and again global, political-economic analysis. Each of in Marx, Capital, and the Madness of Economic these five brilliant essays highlights the rad- Reason, published in 2018. ical dynamism of Harvey’s intellectual pro- The next five essays trace the maturation of ject. Together, they fueled the growth of Harvey’s conceptual framework during the Marxist geography and the revival of Marx- 1980s and 1990s. Through historical, cultural, ist urban sociology. spatial, ecological, and reflective studies, The book ends with three more-recent Harvey established the utility of his—and essays that expand Harvey’s framework by Marx’s—process-based, dialectical mode of introducing new tools for studying empire, analysis. ‘‘Monument and Myth’’ provides neoliberalism, and the contradictions of con- a rich history of political and class dynamics temporary capitalism. In ‘‘The New Imperi- in nineteenth-century France to account for alism,’’ Harvey introduces the concept of the construction of the Basilica of Sacre´- ‘‘accumulation by dispossession’’ to analyze Coeur. After mobilizing anti-urban, anti- violent, predatory forms of accumulation modernist sentiment to smash the Paris such as resource wars, land grabs, specula- Commune, Harvey argues, an alliance of tive raiding by hedge funds, and the privat- Catholics and Monarchists built Sacre´-Coeur ization of public goods. Whereas Marx to reassert their symbolic domination over labeled these ‘‘primitive’’ forms of accumula- the city and its ‘‘vanquished but unsubju- tion, Harvey insists that they are omnipres- gated’’ population (p. 94). In ‘‘Time-Space ent features of capitalism that have become Compression and the Postmodern Condi- increasingly important due to the instability tion,’’ Harvey analyzes the ‘‘postmodern’’ of U.S. global hegemony and the recurrent fascination with ephemerality, fragmenta- crises of neoliberalism. Harvey analyzes tion, and dispersal as a cultural expression these recurrent crises in ‘‘The Urban Roots of the political-economic transition from of Financial Crises,’’ an article that antici- Fordism to neoliberal ‘‘flexible accumula- pates some of the themes in Marx, Capital, tion.’’ He also points out that the embrace and the Madness of Economic Reason. Setting of fragmentation exists in tension with out to explain why property bubbles have a simultaneous search for stability, often generated so many financial crises since the expressed through dangerous (yet market- 1970s, Harvey focuses on financialization, able) place-based identities. accumulation by dispossession, and the This section also includes Harvey’s boom-bust cycles that result from over- most-cited essay, ‘‘From Managerialism to investment in the built environment as a Entrepreneurialism,’’ which analyzes the temporary ‘‘fix’’ for previous rounds of

Contemporary Sociology 48, 4 Review Essays 371 overaccumulation. The collection ends with when money is parceled out as wages, taxes, ‘‘Capital Evolves,’’ which outlines a dialecti- rent, interest, and profits (distribution), a por- cal method for studying the development of tion takes the form of money capital that is capitalist society. Arguing that capitalism reinvested in production (valorization). develops by moving between and across Unlike the water cycle, however, capital seven ‘‘activity spheres’’—ranging from accumulation is structured as a constantly technologies and production processes to expanding spiral. This expansion depends relations to nature and mental conceptions on the successful movement of value across of the world—he insists that revolutionary different forms: from valorization to realiza- change requires movements and alliances tion to distribution back to valorization. Cri- between social forces that traverse these ses of overaccumulation occur whenever the spheres. ‘‘The revolution has to be a move- flow stalls, such as when commodities can- ment in every sense of that word,’’ he not be sold or when money capital cannot concludes. ‘‘If it cannot move within, across find profitable investments. and through the different spheres then it will At this point, Harvey raises the concern ultimately go nowhere at all’’ (p. 321). that animates his study: the contradictory The Ways of the World captures the impres- role of credit—or interest-bearing capital— sive breadth of Harvey’s political and intel- in the circulation of value. First, credit facili- lectual project. For people new to his work, tates both production and consumption. ‘‘In it provides a highly accessible introduction housing markets, for example, financiers to his conceptual framework, his dialectical fund developers to produce housing while method, and his wide-ranging interest. For the same financiers lend to consumers Marxists, urban sociologists, and others to realize housing values in the market’’ versed in Harvey’s work, it provides an (p. 43). Thus, credit helps ‘‘bridge’’ or ‘‘har- invaluable compilation of his most influen- monize’’ the movement from valorization tial and transformative writings. to realization, lubricating a crucial transition Marx, Capital, and the Madness of Economic in the circulation of capital. But credit is Reason begins with the proposition that read- a dangerous lubricant. Because debts must ing Marx can help us understand our current be repaid, credit generates new incentives conditions. But make no mistake: this is nei- for investing in production. ‘‘The frantic ther a general introduction to Marx’s work search for profit,’’ Harvey writes, ‘‘is supple- nor a conjunctural analysis of the multiple, mented by the frantic need to redeem debts’’ overlapping crises of contemporary capital- (p. 44). This accelerates the spiral of endless ism. If you are interested in the latter, see accumulation. But capitalists increasingly Harvey’s brilliant Seventeen Contradictions lend out money as interest-bearing capital and the End of Capitalism (2014). Marx, Capital, rather than investing in production. The and the Madness of Economic Reason draws on result is a massive accumulation of debts Marx’s analysis of capital as ‘‘value in with no real chance that they will ever be motion’’ to develop an original argument redeemed. Ultimately, Harvey predicts, the about the dangers posed by a spiraling failure to redeem these debts will initiate accumulation of debt. Exemplifying the ‘‘the mother of all crises to the system of cap- dynamism of Harvey’s work, it extends his ital flow’’ (p. 23). conceptual framework by developing a new For Harvey, the concept of ‘‘anti-value’’ theory of ‘‘anti-value.’’ provides the key to understanding these Harvey begins by describing Marx’s dynamics. Through a close reading of overall analysis of capital as ‘‘value in Marx, Harvey argues that value always motion.’’ Much like water changes form as exists in relation to its negation: anti-value. it moves through the hydrological cycle— Whenever the circulation of capital stalls, evaporation, condensation, precipitation— value is temporarily negated. If commodities value changes form as capital circulates. cannot be sold, for instance, value cannot be Value produced by labor initially takes the realized. And during a crisis, capital under- form of a commodity (valorization); when goes a general devaluation. Anti-value is commodities are sold on the market, value thus omnipresent: ‘‘a permanently disrup- is transformed into money (realization); tive force in the very gut of capital

Contemporary Sociology 48, 4 372 Review Essays circulation’’ (p. 74). The credit system, surplus value production. But financializa- Harvey argues, helps prevent devaluation tion transformed money into an infinite com- by facilitating the passage from production modity that could be lent without limit in to realization. It also ensures that money tak- exchange for interest. As a result, the flow en out of circulation through savings (anti- of credit became ‘‘the principle and unre- value) is returned to circulation as interest- strained driver of endless capital accumula- bearing capital (value). tion’’ (p. 66). Borrowing language from But the credit system also produces anti- Marx, Harvey notes that spiraling debt value in the form of debt. Harvey defines amplifies the ‘‘madness of economic reason’’ debt as anti-value because it involves claims and intensifies the crisis tendencies that ‘‘can on future value production. Capitalists must only culminate in devaluation and destruc- produce value to pay off debts, just as work- tion’’ (p. 174). ing people must labor to overcome their Building on his argument in ‘‘The Urban debts. As such, debt generates an imperative Roots of Financial Crises,’’ Harvey explains for expanded production and provides that these tendencies have produced recur- a powerful tool for disciplining the working ring boom-bust cycles since the 1970s. The class. Yet the capitalist system contains a dan- 2008 financial crisis, for instance, was pro- gerous tendency toward the spiraling expan- duced by the flow of credit into the U.S. hous- sion of debt. ‘‘The danger exists that the eco- ing market after the crash of the ‘‘dot-com’’ nomic system will collapse under the dead bubble. Originating in the United States, the weight of anti-value,’’ he concludes. ‘‘When crisis spread to China, where millions of debt becomes so huge that there is no pros- workers faced unemployment. In response, pect for future value production to redeem the Chinese government carried out massive, it, then debt peonage, debt slavery rules. credit-financed infrastructure projects, simi- We celebrate Athens of the past as the cradle lar to projects undertaken by the United of democracy. The Athens of today is States after World War II and France after the epitome of undemocratic debt peonage’’ 1848. But China’s vast consumption of (p. 83). cement after 2008 demonstrates that the spi- For working people, debt peonage means ral of debt financing has reached an unprec- that the future is ‘‘already foretold and fore- edented scale. And Harvey predicts that closed’’ (p. 204). Trapped in debt, they are future crises will be even more severe. The forced to work their entire lives with little only hope, he argues, is to quickly and delib- hope that they will ever be free of debt. For erately dismantle the ‘‘tower of debt’’ that states like Greece, it means the end of democ- threatens our collective future (p. 93). racy through subjugation to the will of bond- Harvey also introduces a theory of holders and financiers. Ultimately, Harvey ‘‘regional value regimes’’ to analyze the geo- argues, credit expands the spiral of capital political battles that shape flows of credit and accumulation by ‘‘foreclos[ing] upon the future the spatial displacement of crises on a global of as many economic agents as possible and scale. Uneven geographical development, he condemn[ing] all and sundry—consumers as argues, has produced distinct regional value well as producers, merchants, landlords, and regimes around which power-blocs compete even the financiers themselves—to a state of on the world stage. Each power-bloc is man- debt peonage’’ (p. 204). aged by a ‘‘state-finance nexus’’ made up of Harvey traces the ‘‘irrational’’ expansion private capital, central banks, and the trea- of credit to the elimination of the gold stan- sury departments of powerful states. The dard in the early 1970s. When the United Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), for instance, States abandoned the metallic basis of the was ‘‘designed by the United States and monetary system, bankers and financiers Japan to constrain the ability of Chinese began to effectively create money through and European companies to build market lending. Profits no longer relied on produc- share in Asia’’ (p. 161). Similarly, as infra- tion, and the relationship between money structural development slows in China, the and value became increasingly tenuous. Chinese government is exporting surplus The logic of endless capital accumulation steel along with cheap credit to encourage already required the perpetual expansion of countries around the world to carry out

Contemporary Sociology 48, 4 Review Essays 373 infrastructural projects. Donald Trump’s to scholars of financialization, neoliberalism, trade war must be seen in this context. and economic crisis. Both books certainly Overall, Marx, Capital, and the Madness of have limitations. Like much of Harvey’s Economic Reason paints a devastating picture work, they bracket questions of race, gender, of credit as a mechanism propelling the dan- and other dimensions of oppression to focus gerous spiral of endless capital accumula- on the logics of capital accumulation. And tion. ‘‘The unprecedented pace of global the implications for political praxis remain debt creation since the 1970s suggests a glob- underdeveloped, especially in Marx, Capital, al economy that is increasingly growing by and the Madness of Economic Reason. But this the deployment of the smoke and mirrors should not detract from the brilliance of of anti-value creation within the world’s these books, which reveal the sophisticated multiple regional monetary systems,’’ theories, rigorous dialectical methods, and Harvey concludes. ‘‘It is not clear where trenchant critiques that Harvey has devel- the value will come from to redeem this oped through a lifelong engagement with ever-escalating debt’’ (pp. 183–84). the work of Karl Marx. Together, these two books provide impor- tant tools for unpacking the contradictions and crises of contemporary capitalism. The Reference Ways of the World will be indispensable for Harvey, David. 2014. Seventeen Contradictions and students of geography, globalization, capi- the End of Capitalism. Oxford, UK: Oxford Uni- talism, and urban sociology. Marx, Capital, versity Press. and the Madness of Economic Reason will speak

Back to the Future

GABRIEL ROSSMAN University of California-Los Angeles [email protected]

In one of my undergraduate courses, I show students a photo of Paul Lazarsfeld and Bit by Bit: Social Research in the Digital Frank Stanton. Of course, neither social sci- Age,byMatthew J. Salganik. Princ- entist is familiar to them, but I argue to my eton, NJ: Princeton University Press, students that Lazarsfeld had a bigger impact 2018. 423 pp. $35.00 cloth. ISBN: on the daily practice of sociology than any 9780691158648. member of the Marx/Weber/Durkheim tri- umvirate they study in classical theory. But even those of us who are aware of Lazars- about 1500 randomly sampled respondents feld’s impact on sociology can forget how and about 100 theory-driven Likert scale much of his work and other social science questions, sociologists had to hustle. Data of his era generally relied either on data col- collected through industry sometimes feel lected as an industrial byproduct or on deficient by contemporary standards, with piggy-backed, theory-driven data collection non-random samples and few covariates. on industrial efforts. After all, in the picture Nonetheless, work along these lines done Lazarsfeld is collaborating with Stanton, in collaboration with CBS, Pfizer, Life maga- a psychology PhD who was first the head zine, and the Department of War gave us of research at CBS radio and then the presi- many of the great works of social science dent of CBS as it transitioned to television. published prior to the first wave of Before the establishment of the National Sci- the GSS. We would do well to learn from ence Foundation’s Social, Behavioral, and the mid-twentieth-century model as we con- Economic Sciences division and the prolifer- sider our response to threats to the late- ation of regularly collected surveys with twentieth-century model in plummeting

Contemporary Sociology 48, 4