Metromarxism discusses Marxism's relationship with the city from the 1850s to the present by way of biographical chapters on figures from the Marxist tradition, including Marx, Walter Benjamin, Guy Debord, and David Harvey. Each chapter combines interesting biographical anecdotes with an accessible analysis of each individual's contribution to an always-transforming Marxist theory of the city. He suggests that the interplay between the city as center of economic and social life and its potential for progressive change generated a major corpus of work. That work has been key in advancing progressive political and social transformations.
Andy Merrifield is Professor of Geography at Clark University. He received his Ph.D. from Oxford and is the coeditor of The Urbanization of Justice in addition to being a contributor to The Nation and Dissent.
Title: Metromarxism: A Marxist Tale of the City
Author: Merrifield, Andy
ISBN: 9780415933490
Binding:
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd
Publication Date: 2002-08-16
Number of Pages: 224
Weight: 0.3176 kg
People who equate Marxism with drabness have not been keeping up with their shopping (Prada) or their reading. Merrifield, a British writer who now lives in New York, is accessible, optimistic and even fun. The urban center, Merrifield argues, is the site of economic extremes and for that reason the most promising field for social change. A primer for the postindustrial children of Marx and Coca-Cola . -- The New York Times
The strengths of Metromarxism are immediately apparent.Merrifield is a lively, engaging , and sometimes humorouswriter... He says enough about their ideas to pique ourinterest, concisely, and with the minimum of jargon. Hisjudgements are consistenly sound, and the selectedreferences useful... More taster than primer, this booknicely fills a niche. -- H-Net