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University of Wollongong Research Online Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers Faculty of Arts, Social Sciences & Humanities 2013 Neil Robert Smith: 18 July 1954-29 September 2012 Noel Castree University of Manchester, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://ro.uow.edu.au/sspapers Part of the Education Commons, and the Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons Recommended Citation Castree, Noel, "Neil Robert Smith: 18 July 1954-29 September 2012" (2013). Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers. 668. https://ro.uow.edu.au/sspapers/668 Research Online is the open access institutional repository for the University of Wollongong. For further information contact the UOW Library: [email protected] Neil Robert Smith: 18 July 1954-29 September 2012 Abstract Neil Smith's tragic early death has robbed geography of one of its finest minds and most inspirational characters. Disciplines Education | Social and Behavioral Sciences Publication Details Castree, N. (2013). Neil Robert Smith: 18 July 1954-29 September 2012. Geographical Journal, 179 (1), 94-95. This journal article is available at Research Online: https://ro.uow.edu.au/sspapers/668 Obituary NEIL ROBERT SMITH 18 July 1954–29 September 2012 Neil Smith in Gothenburg, October 2010 Source: Reproduced with kind permission of Tom Slater Neil Smith’s tragic early death has robbed geography His answer was affirmative. The ‘take over’ of of one of its finest minds and most inspirational char- working-class urban neighbourhoods did not reflect acters. He was one of four children born to a school some general ‘rationality’ found in the individual teacher father and full-time mother. His early years minds of middle-class consumers. Instead, Neil were spent in Dalkeith, an old market town on the argued, it reflected an historically specific form of fringes of Edinburgh. By his teens he had developed a class power orchestrated by property developers and strong interest in, and love of, the volcanic, glacial state officials. These arguments were articulated in his and fluvial landscapes of southeast Scotland. In large undergraduate thesis and subsequently published in part, this led him to study Geography at St Andrews Antipode, Geography’s still young radical journal University. Two important things happened to him (Smith 1979a). He graduated with BSc Honours First there. First, he was inspired by the teachings of a Class in 1977 and flew across the Atlantic to pursue young human geographer, Joe Doherty. Joe, by all doctoral research at Johns Hopkins University. accounts, was sympathetic to the stirrings of left-wing Neil’s many publications on inner city gentrifica- politics and critical theory evident in human geogra- tion constitute one of his enduring intellectual lega- phy after the worldwide ‘revolutions’ of 1968. cies. They were a blend of Marxist theory and Second, a study abroad year in Philadelphia made empirical data designed to test and finesse it. His Neil notice the fault-lines cleaving the human land- concept of the ‘rent gap’ remains a touchstone for scape more than ever before. Why did poor inner city gentrification researchers. It describes the eventually neighbourhoods in a single American city seem to be large difference between the actual ground rent gentrifying rapidly in ways similar to those he already received by property owners in declining neighbour- knew in Edinburgh? Were there larger forces at work, hoods and the potential ground rent achievable notwithstanding the differences of geographical through judicious reinvestment (Smith 1979b 1987). detail? However, to make gentrification happen, and to 2 Obituary 1bs_bs_query legitimate the process, Neil argued that reference to Distinguished Professor of Anthropology and Geogra- 59bs_bs_query 2bs_bs_query political economy was insufficient. We must also, he phy – he established the Center for Place, Culture and 60bs_bs_query 3bs_bs_query argued, pay analytical attention to the associated Politics. Neil also helped to create a human geogra- 61bs_bs_query 4bs_bs_query ‘moral economy’. This was fleshed-out in his influen- phy PhD programme at CUNY. Additionally, he was a 62bs_bs_query 5bs_bs_query tial book The new urban frontier (1996a), in which he tireless presenter seen frequently at academic meet- 63bs_bs_query 6bs_bs_query detailed the new middle-class ‘revanchism’ against ings worldwide, and the recipient of endless speaking 64bs_bs_query 7bs_bs_query the urban poor evident in New York and elsewhere. invitations. Most recently, he spent part of each year in 65bs_bs_query 8bs_bs_query Neil’s gentrification research was nestled within a his native Scotland as Sixth Century Professor of 66bs_bs_query 9bs_bs_query larger project designed to comprehend the compound Geography and Social Theory at Aberdeen University. 67bs_bs_query 10bs_bs_query geographies of capitalism. The project was pursued at As many others will attest, Neil Smith was warm, 68bs_bs_query 11 bs_bs_query Hopkins and subsequently published as a landmark engaging and had a terrific sense of humour. He 69bs_bs_query 12bs_bs_query book Uneven development (1984). Its central argu- created important ideas, presented them eloquently 70bs_bs_query 13bs_bs_query ment was that spatially ‘even development’ is a (he was a superb writer), and was a model for all those 71bs_bs_query 14bs_bs_query fantasy because capitalism depends upon a dialectic who aspire to politically engaged scholarship. He kept 72bs_bs_query 15bs_bs_query of spatial equalisation and differentiation. The book the flame of Marxist scholarship alive through difficult 73bs_bs_query 16bs_bs_query also presented two other ideas – both initially seen as times and persuaded Marxists of all stripes that geog- 74bs_bs_query 17bs_bs_query counterintuitive. The first is that geographical scale is raphy matters. Even those whose ideas he excoriated 75bs_bs_query 18bs_bs_query not a fixed metric of the sort used to present maps. respected him. He was awarded Distinguished Schol- 76bs_bs_query 19bs_bs_query Instead, Neil argued, it is materially produced by arship Honours by the Association of American Geog- 77bs_bs_query 20bs_bs_query political economic forces as part of the dynamics of raphers in recognition of the quality and influence of 78bs_bs_query 21bs_bs_query uneven development and class power. The second is his published writings. Geography as a whole is all the 79bs_bs_query 22bs_bs_query that ‘nature’, the material bedrock of human exist- poorer for the passing of this remarkable man. But his 80bs_bs_query 23bs_bs_query ence, is also produced rather than given. This is legacy will, undoubtedly, be long-lasting. 81bs_bs_query 24bs_bs_query because capital accumulation depends upon, but Neil Smith died on 29 September 2012 in New York 82bs_bs_query 25bs_bs_query constantly seeks to work around, the opportunities City as a result of kidney and liver failure. Alcohol was 83bs_bs_query 26bs_bs_query and constraints offered by biophysical phenomena. his undoing. He is survived by his sister Sheila Voas, 84bs_bs_query 27bs_bs_query He developed and debated both ideas in a string of his brothers Derek and Harvey Smith, and his partner 85bs_bs_query 28bs_bs_query influential later publications. of many years Deborah Cowen. 86bs_bs_query 29bs_bs_query In all these contributions Neil wanted not only to 87bs_bs_query 30bs_bs_query understand the world but to change it. As his later 31bs_bs_query writings showed, he remained a life-long believer that Acknowledgement 88bs_bs_query 32bs_bs_query revolution is not only necessary but possible – even My sincere thanks to Deb Cowen, Don Mitchell, Tom 89bs_bs_query 33bs_bs_query when the odds are unfavourable (e.g. see Smith 2007). Slater and Charles Withers for assistance. 90bs_bs_query 34bs_bs_query He devoted considerable energy to understanding NOEL CASTREE 91bs_bs_query 35bs_bs_query why and how geographical knowledge was routinely University of Manchester 92bs_bs_query 36bs_bs_query used in counter-revolutionary ways. In part, this took 37bs_bs_query him into the history of the discipline in America, with 93bs_bs_query 38bs_bs_query a particular focus on the geopolitical imagination of Selected publications 94bs_bs_query 39bs_bs_query Isaiah Bowman (Smith 2002). In part, it involved him 40bs_bs_query taking issue with his contemporaries, including those Smith N 1979a Gentrification and capital: practice and ideology 95bs_bs_query 41bs_bs_query who considered themselves to be on the political Left in Society Hill Antipode 11 24–35 96bs_bs_query 42bs_bs_query (for instance, see Smith 2005). No dogmatist, his mind Smith N 1979b Toward a theory of gentrification – back to the 97bs_bs_query 43bs_bs_query was always open. But he would offer principled criti- city movement by capital, not people Journal of the American 98bs_bs_query 44bs_bs_query cism, often laced with biting humour, if he thought Planning Association 45 538–48 99bs_bs_query 45bs_bs_query you had taken a wrong turn (e.g. see Smith 1996b). Smith N 1984 Uneven development Blackwell, Oxford 100bs_bs_query 46bs_bs_query The onus was then on you to defend your ground or Smith N 1987 Gentrification and the rent gap Annals of the 101bs_bs_query 47bs_bs_query concede the power of his arguments. Association of American Geographers 77 462–5 102bs_bs_query 48bs_bs_query For those who worked with Neil the experience was Smith N 1996a The new urban frontier Routledge, New York 103bs_bs_query 49bs_bs_query usually formative. He was a major contributor to the Smith N 1996b Rethinking sleep Environment and
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