The Condition of Postmodernity An Enquiry into the Origins of Cultural Change 13 BLACKWELLCambridge Oxford MA &- UK Copyright © David Harvey 1989 First published 1990 Reprinted 1990 (three times), 1991, 1992 (twice) Blackwell Publishers 238 Main Street Cambridge, Massachusetts 02142, USA Contents Blackwell Publishers 108 Cowley Road, Oxford OX4 1JF, UK All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purposes of criticism and review, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior " permission of the publisher. The argument Vll Except in the United States of America, this book is sold subject to the Preface Vlll condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher's prior consent in any form of Acknow ledgemen ts binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar x condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser. Part I The passage from modernity to postmodernity in contemporary culture British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data 1 Introduction 3 A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library 2 Modernity and modernism 10 3 Postmodernism 39 Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data 4 Postmodernism in the city: architecture and urban design 66 Harvey, David, 1935- 5 Modernization The condition of post modernity / David Harvey 99 p. cm. 6 posTmodernIsM or postMODERNism? 113 Bibliography: p. Includes index. Part II The political-economic transformation of late ISBN 0-631-16292-5-ISBN 0-'31-16294-1 (pbk.): twentieth-century capitalism 1. Civilization. Modern-1950- 2. Capitalism. 3. Space and time. 7 Introduction 4. Postmodernism. 1. Title. 121 CB428.H38 1989 8 Fordism 125 909.82.-dc19 88-39135 9 From Fordism to flexible accumulation 141 CIP 10 Theorizing the transition 173 11 Flexible accumulation - solid transformation or ternporary fix? Typeset in lOY2 on 12pt Garamond by Setrite 189 Printed in the USA Part II I The experience of space and time This book is printed on acid-free paper 12 Introduction 201 13 Individual spaces and times in social life 211 14 Time and space as sources 0 f social power 226 15 The time and space of the Enlightenment project 240 VI Contents 16 Time-space compression and the rise of modernism as a cultural force 260 17 Time-space compression and the postmodern condition 284 18 Time and space in the postmodern cinema 308 Part IV The condition of postmodernity The argument 19 Postmodernity as a historical condition 327 20 Economics with mirrors 329 21 Postmodernism as the mirror of mirrors 336 22 Fordist modernism versus flexible postmodernism, or the interpenetration of opposed tendencies in capitalism as a whole 338 23 The transformative and speculative logic of capital 343 There has been a sea-change in cultural as well as in political­ 24 The work of art in an age of electronic reproduction economic practices since around 1972. and image banks 346 This sea-change is bound up with the emergence of new dominant 25 Responses to time-space compression 350 ways in which we experience space and time. 26 The crisis of historical materialism 353 While simultaneity in the shifting dimensions of time and space is 27 Cracks in the mirrors, fusions a t the edges 356 no proof of necessary or causal connection, strong a priori grounds can be adduced for the proposition that there is some kind of References 360 necessary relation between the rise of postmodernist cultural forms, the emergence of more flexible modes of capital accumulation, and a new Index 368 round of 'time-space compression' in the organization of capitalism. But these changes, when set against the basic rules of capitalistic accumulation, appear more as shifts in surface appearance rather than as signs of the emergence of some entirely new postcapitalist or even postindustrial society. Preface IX the wholly new discourses that have ansen m the Western world over the past few decades. There are signs, these days, that the cultural hegemony of post­ modern sm is weakening in the West. When even the developers . tell an archIt� ect hke Moshe Safdie that they are tired of it, then can philosophical thinking be far behind? In a sense it does not matter Preface whether postmodernism is or is not on the way out, since much can be learned from a historical enquiry into the roots of what has been a uite un ttling phase q �: . in economic, political, and cultural development. In wn mg thIS book I have had � . a lot of help and critical encourage­ ment. Vicent� Navarro, Enca Schoenberger, Neil Smith, and Dick Walker pr�vIded a host of comments either on the manuscript or upon the Ideas I was developing. The Roland Park Collective I cannot remember exactly when I first encountered the term post­ provided a grand forum for intellectual discussion and debate. It was modernism. I probably reacted to it in much the same way as I did also my good fortune to work with an extremely talented group of to the various other 'isms' that have come and gone over the past graduate students at the Johns Hopkins University, and I would like couple of decades, hoping that it would disappear under the weight to than Kevin Archer, Patrick Bond, Michael Johns, Phil Schmandt, of its own incoherence or simply lose its allure as a fashionable set of and Enc� Swyngedouw for the tremendous intellectual stimulation 'new ideas.' they provided during my last years there. Jan Bark initiated me into e joys of having But it seemed as if the clamour of postmodernist arguments in­ th. some�::me do the word-processing competently and creased rather than diminished with time. Once connected with WIth good humour whIle undertaking much of the burden of con­ poststructuralism, postindustrialism, and a whole arsenal of other structing :he index. Angela Newman drew the diagrams, Tony Lee 'new ideas,' postmodernism appeared more and more as a powerful h�lp�d WIth the photography, Sophie Hartley sought out the per­ mIsslons, and . configuration of new sentiments and thoughts. It seemed set fair to . Ah son DIckens and John Davey, of Basil Blackwell, play a crucial role in defining the trajectory of social and political prOVIded many helpful editorial comments and suggestions. And development simply by virtue of the way it defined standards of Haydee was a wonderful source of inspiration. social critique and political practice. In recent years it has determined the standards of debate, defined the manner of 'discourse,' and set parameters on cultural, political, and intellectual criticism. It therefore seemed appropriate to enquire more closely into the nature of postmodernism, not so much as a set of ideas but as a historical condition that required elucidation. I had, however, to undertake a survey of the dominant ideas and, since postmodernism turns out to be a mine-field of conflicting notions, that project turned out to be by no means easy to undertake. The results of that enquiry, set out in Part I, have been boiled down to the bare minimum, though I hope not unreasonably so. The rest of the work examines the political-economic background (again, in a somewhat simplified way) before looking much more closely at the experience of space and time as one singularly important mediating link between the dynamism of capitalism's historical-geographical development and complex processes of cultural production and ideological trans­ formation. In this way it proves possible to make sense of some of Acknowledgements Part I The passage from modernity to postmodernity in contemporary culture The author and publisher are grateful to the following for their kind permission to reproduce plates: Alcatel 3.2; Archives N ationales de France 3.3, 3.8; The Art Institute of Chicago,Joseph Winterbotham Collection, The Art Institute of Chicago. All Rights Reserved. DACS 1988 3.9; © © The fate of an epoch that has eaten of the tree of knowledge is that it Associated Press 1.21; A. Aubrey Bodine Collection, courtesy of the Peale must ... recognize that general views of life and the universe can Museum, Baltimore. 1.22; Jean-Fran�ois Batellier 1.4; Bildarchiv Photo never be the products of increasing empirical knowledge, and that the Marburg 1. 20; British Architectural Library RIBA 3.6; The British / highest ideals, which move us most forcefully, are always formed only Library 3.4; Leo Castelli Gallery,New York, Robert Rauschenberg, © © in the struggle with other ideals which are just as sacred to others as DACS 1988 (photograph by Rudolph Burckhardt) 1.9; Deutsches ours are to us. Max Weber Architekturmusuem, Frankfurt am Main, 1.28; P. Dicken, Global Shift 3.1; Equitable Life Assurance Collection of the U.S. 1.5; Fondation Le Corbusier, Paris, DACS 1988 1.1a; Galerie Bruno Bischofberger, © Zurich, 1.6; Lintas Limited, London, 1.10; Lloyds Bank PIc, London, 4.1; Lloyd's of London (photograph by Janet Gill) 1.19; Los Angeles Times 1.18; Mansell Collection 1.7; Metro Pictures, New York, 1.2; Metropolitan Life Insurance Company Archives,New York, 1.1b; Musee National d'Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, ADAGP, © Paris, and DACS, London 1988 3.11, 3.12; Musee d'Orsay, Cliche des Musees Nationaux, Paris, 1.8; The Museum of Modern Art, New York, Purchase Fund, ADAGP, Paris, and DACS, London 1989 3.10; © National Portrait Gallery, London 3.5; Roger-Viollet 1.3. All other photographs were kindly provided by the author.