Popular Capitalism and Popular Culture

Article Review: "Popular Capitalism and Popular Culture" -David Harvey

Harvey analyzes the rise postmodern condition through an historical, ‘post-marxist’ standpoint:

-The dimensions of space and time are compressed due to the pressure created by the over-accumulation and persistent circulation of capital, which began in the nineteenth century.

-Effect on aesthetic and cultural practices subject to the ‘flow of human experience’ within space and time.

-Space-time compression sparks confusion and uncertainty as society struggles within the overwhelming density of the moment, intitiating strong aesthetic movements.

Deconstruction and the fragmentation of society:

Harvey weaves together the threads that have spurred societal change into a tapestry of the postmodern condition.

-The mediatization of politics: powerful positions carefully shaped by image. underlying fascist regime glossed over with the image of warm and well-meaning politics.

-Deindustrialization and the shift to service industry causing widespread unemployment widened the gap between the haves and have nots rendering much of the population vulnerable.

Rise of the credit industry and fictitious capital:

- Asset inflation replaces commodity inflation
- dependency on fictitious/symbolic capital: image of affluence increases the perceived needs of the disenfranchised.
- Detachment from reality: an increasingly image based society is indifferent to the modes of production and economy
- Detachment and disassociation triggers the notion of ‘the other’ prevalent in aesthetic movements

Postmodernism is undergoing a subtle evolution:

-Deconstructionism is being put under fire for its past sympathies for the fascist/Nazi regime (Heidegger, Paul De Man)
-East/west economic and ideological gaps are closing in.
-Economic mergers: movement away from the fragmentary
-New emphasis on ‘becoming’, rather than ‘being’
-Seeking out unity within difference.