西方"马克思主义"地理学--人文地理学的一个重要流派

本文全面地概述了西方“马克思主义”地理学的形成过程、理论脉络和研究方法以及新的进展,并着重介绍了西方“马克思主义”地理学的三个核心内容,即政治经济学分析、空间理论和社会－自然关系理论,最后对西方“马克思主义”地理学进行了简要的评论。

MARXISM GEOGRAPHY: AN IMPORTANT SCHOOL IN WESTERN HUMAN GEOGRAPHY

Marxism geography had been a very important school of western human geography, although the socialism system in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe was terminated it tended to be on the wane. Western Marxism geography emerged in the early 1970s in response to two sets of events: (1) The critique of "establishment geography", i.e. positivist, spatial analysis, behavior geography, and so on; and (2) the political uprisings of the late 1960s. David Harvey played a key role in the rise of Marxism geography, and his highly influential "Social justice and the city" was regarded as the consummation of Marxism geography. Marxism geographical research and writing can be treated under three headings: (1) political economics, which uses political economic analyses to explain the geography of capitalism as the outcome of political and economic relationships and progresses in the wider society; (2) theories of space, which highlight the reconstruction the relative conception of space; and (3) theories of nature and environment, which point the fundamental interconnectedness of society and nature. The first developing phase of Marxism geography lasted until the early 1980s, from which the new phase began. The new phase has brought not only the internal maturity but also the increasing challenges from outside, such as the critique of Humanism, Realism, Postmodernism and Feminism. Facing more and more challenges and debates, new Marxism geography took its rise from theoretical needs and the current political and economic situations. Since the socialist system demolished the capitalism and minimized the scope of class contradictions, in China, the academic field of geography lacked the background of class conflicts between working class and capitalist, which is the prerequisite of Marxism theories. As far as the integrity and maturity is concerned, the Western Marxism geography should be treated as an important source of reference.