ON THE LEGITIMACY OF THE NEOLIBERAL DISCOURSE AND THE MATERIAL AND SYMBOLIC DEVICES OF TERRITORIALITY. REFLECTIONS ON THE RECENT WORK OF DAVID HARVEY

Abstract

The thought of David Harvey has profoundly changed the history of geography, heralding a time that has seen it actively engaged in debate over the great social issues of our times. To his already rich repertoire the author has added a new work in 2014, Seventeen Contradictions and the End of Capitalism, in which he updates his criticism of the system of capital on the basis of events following the crisis, of financial origin, which exploded in the United States in 2007 with the bursting of the speculative bubble in the real estate sector and the corresponding collapse in market values.
This article, while agreeing with the urgency to lay bare the inconsistencies underlying neoliberal logic and to draw critical attention to the dramatic results to which it leads on a social and ecological level, calls into question some developments that the critical reflections of Harvey have undergone over time. In particular, it focuses on the concept of production of space and on the latest interpretations of the ideas of Harvey regarding the question of territoriality.
Lastly, the figure of this scholar is framed in the geographic landscape of today, which relegates him to a marginal position due to a lack of being in tune with dominant scientific paradigms.