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The Condition of Postmodernity: An Enquiry into the Origins of Cultural Change

David Harvey

4.15 · Rating details · 2,066 ratings · 82 reviews

A great deal has been written on what has variously been described as the postmodern condition and on postmodern culture, architecture, art and society. In this new book, David Harvey seeks to determine what is meant by the term in its different contexts and to identify how accurate and useful it is as a description of contemporary experience.

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Paperback, 378 pages

Published 1992 by Wiley-Blackwell (first published 1989)

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Aug 21, 2012 Lucid rated it really liked it

In the past, I have tried to talk about capitalism – with friends, family members, acquaintances and all kinds of people who are more or less unfamiliar with comparative politics – as a totality, without explicitly saying that, “We must view capitalism as an all-encompassing system, and not merely a few trade policies, laws, and practices.” Any time one broaches the topic of capitalism (unintentionally invoking a sticky web of other words ending in –ism, like socialism, communism, sexism, racism In the past, I have tried to talk about capitalism – with friends, family members, acquaintances and all kinds of people who are more or less unfamiliar with comparative politics – as a totality, without explicitly saying that, “We must view capitalism as an all-encompassing system, and not merely a few trade policies, laws, and practices.” Any time one broaches the topic of capitalism (unintentionally invoking a sticky web of other words ending in –ism, like socialism, communism, sexism, racism, etc.) one risks her own legitimacy from the other person’s point of view, risks sounding like a conspiracy theorist, someone for whom a single, oddly simple theory can explain a host of major and minor features of everyday life. The problem with this otherwise reasonable response to what sounds like an improbable claim (that our economic paradigm has effects that inevitably spill over into other realms of social life) is that it does not do the concept of economy justice, does not acknowledge the etymology of the word economy. The English word economy comes from the ancient Greek oikonomos which meant “one who manages the household,” from the ancient Greek oikos, for house. The etymology of economy shows the evolution of the meaning of the word from its origins as a signifier of the administration of domestic life to its current, much narrower usage to describe an arcane academic discipline related to monetary exchanges and trade.

In The Condition of Postmodernity David Harvey (in addition to his central goal of illuminating the relationship between cultural production and the dominant regime of accumulation) rehabilitates the ancient Greek application of economy by showing how what we now think of as economics has critical ties with cultural and intellectual production. With impressive erudition Harvey shows that, far from being strictly constituted by laws and trade-related practices, capitalism is an evolving and total “household system” which in fact relies on intellectual and cultural production in order to reproduce itself.

In Capital, Volume One, Karl Marx takes aim at liberal economists like Adam Smith who built their economic theories on superficial concepts of value, conveniently avoiding the common-sense truth that value comes from carefully directed human labor. In offering false explanations of the source of value, Smith and others were likewise able to offer false explanations of the source of surplus value and profit, ensuring that they could defend their economic practices from critics. Marx insists on going right to the most fundamental economic question – the question of the source of value – in order to correct Smith’s analysis of Western economics. Marx implicitly asserts that no economic analysis without an accurate concept of value can possibly reflect the economic reality. Marx’s labor theory of value is one step in his analysis that broadens and deepens our picture of capitalism and its impact on society. He discovered that capitalists (and bourgeois economists) relied on false concepts of value in order to obfuscate the real nature of their profit-making.

In the same spirit as Marx, David Harvey shows how cultural and intellectual production (material and immaterial) is either taken up by the dominant economic regime to promote and reproduce itself, or functions as a means by which the public can get a new and critical view of capitalist logic and the human experience. Whether cultural and intellectual production is critical of capitalism or simply instrumental to its reproduction, Harvey shows that art and ideas serve as powerful objective forces within history.
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Jan 05, 2012 Chris rated it it was amazing

Shelves: psychology-philosophy

Deepest book you've ever read. I read Harvey's 'Enigma of Capital' and was astonished by the depth of knowledge he commands, so I knew this book couldn't be terrible, and wow, it was intense. So, onto the review.. having established that the man knows his Capital, he perhaps has more detail and logical/rational arguments to expound on the relation between economics and culture than his more literary counterparts-- like Jameson in 'Postmodernism, or the logic of late capitalism.' I've read some o Deepest book you've ever read. I read Harvey's 'Enigma of Capital' and was astonished by the depth of knowledge he commands, so I knew this book couldn't be terrible, and wow, it was intense. So, onto the review.. having established that the man knows his Capital, he perhaps has more detail and logical/rational arguments to expound on the relation between economics and culture than his more literary counterparts-- like Jameson in 'Postmodernism, or the logic of late capitalism.' I've read some of Jameson's book on Postmodernism (I'm writing a paper on the topic as a Psychology/Philosophy student), which definitely makes a case for deepest book you've ever read, but I would contend that in it's often esoteric language, Harvey's more explicit rational (Modernist) language is a breathe of fresh air in these Postmodern times. Speaking of esoteric, this is precisely the thesis of this book, that the confusion of world markets, complex debt packages, inflation since the 70's etc. has been paralleled in cultural forms-architecture (modernist functionalism to Postmodern illusion), art (modernist representation to Post modern pastiche-imitation, death of history), philosophy (search for meaning to endlessly deconstructing meaning), and psychology, from Modern emphasis on what is signified, to the Postmodern emphasis on the ephemeral signifier. This last signifier vs. signified disparity is disturbing from an economic standpoint: what the Postmodern is prioritizing--money, for example as signifier--over the signifier, the value it represents or repression it necessitates, is merely echoing economic policies that began around the 70's, which have seen the rise of fictitious capital, the widening of the gap between paper money and any sense of being grounded in a real representative base. Harvey notes at one point the largest physical export out of New York City is paper, on which multifarious forms of imaginary capital are erected and distributed. As another reviewer noted, it is fascinating to read Harvey's detailed analysis of economics, and realize it was written in 1990! I double checked that as I was reading some sections, because he pretty much said 'there will be a crisis in the 21st century.' But to speak too much of economics in this review would be to overlook the truly fascinating elements of this book.It begins with a detailed account of Modernism in all it's complexities, and shows by the end that Postmodernism may not be it's own historical-geographical movement as it claims, but rather, a continuation of Modernism in some respects (in the end, it cannot reject meta-theories without appealing to it's own meta theory, in the self referential, circular logic it-- like Capital--employs). The final sections preceding the conclusion on Postmodernism itself, are much more philosophical. They focus on how our material relations with objects within economics, effects our perception of space and time throughout various modes of existence and cultural forms in Modernism, Enlightenment, and then Postmodernism. This space time tour makes you think a lot about how time and space perception are influenced and morphed throughout different time periods, debunking the common sense idea that time categories are universal. It makes you reflect on how ideologies are created and shaped through material practices, and implemented from the objective, to the subjective perspective, thus giving meaning to the stoner- like reaction to the present times-- 'duude, don't you feel like things move too fast heeere??' The answer is that they are, and that they HAVE to be because this is the new logic of the movement of capital. It flows instantaneously from border to border, shifting from Fordist-Keynesian logic of centralized mass consumption to what Harvey calls Flexible Accumulation and individualized consumption, aka. everyone is on their smartphones telling each other what they're buying via social (or more aptly named 'marketing') networks, so businesses can tailor to quick spurts of demand- patterns of consumption that have seen the dissolution of unions and other forms of stable work networks, comprising the shift from the vertical, hierarchical corporate formation, to a more ephemeral (Postmodern) horizontal formation. Read this book. ...more

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Sep 24, 2012 W.D. Clarke rated it it was amazing

Shelves: political-economy, to-re-read, kultur-kritik, how-d-it-come-to-this

The best attempt that I've encountered to straddle and parse and explain the modernist-postmodernist divide—the first chapter of Jameson's Postmodernity not/included perhaps.

Modernity/Modernization/Fordism/Modernism+ 4x[Post-]s...how are these words in search of concepts related, and how is the (ca. 1990) now-supposedly-(semi-)autonomous cultural superstructure related to the economic base, and how is all this to be explained historically and geographically—and (gulp/yea!) economically, huh?

All ...more

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Dec 19, 2014 sologdin rated it liked it

Shelves: leftwing-theory

Part of the subgenre wherein surly marxist subjects postmodernism to critique, as does Callinicos in Against Postmodernism or Habermas in The Philosophical Discourse of Modernity or Jameson in Postmodernism, the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism.

Focus here however is on how transformations in the material base determine superstructures such as ‘postmodern’ practices and doctrines. The breakdown of fordist-keynesian relations of production is the key for Harvey, who finds a compression in tim ...more

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May 04, 2010 Chelsea Szendi rated it really liked it

Shelves: theory

The question is: if Ernest Mandel defined "late capitalism" as the result of technological changes that occurred in 1945, and Fredric Jameson sees the "cultural logic of late capitalism" - postmodernity - emerging in the 1970s, what explains the lag? Harvey offers a discussion of the recession of 1973, the crisis of overaccumulation that faced Fordism, and the birth of a new regime of "flexible accumulation."

Good historical materialism that puts the economy first. For a political take on the que ...more

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Aug 30, 2014 Mark Bowles rated it it was amazing

A. Synopsis: The argument here is that there has been a sea change in cultural, political and economic practices since 1972. There is a relationship between the rise of (1) postmodernist cultural forms, (2) the emergence of flexible modes of capital accumulation, and (3) the new ways in which we experience space-time (Simultaneity and space-time compression). But these three changes, when set against the basic rules of capitalism appear more as shifts in surface appearance than signs of the emer ...more

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Mar 29, 2008 Jared Colley rated it it was amazing

I thought to add this book after briefly reviewing Peter Gay's book on Modernism.

The word 'Postmodernism' has become an empty signifier. It is a misused and abused term that more often serves the purposes of academic rhetoric than that of informative description of certain historical states of affairs. I mean how many times do we hear this word used to modify various things?

This book does a good job crystalizing the term and making clear what this word 'refers' to in history. Part of the reaso ...more

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Nov 24, 2017 Amy rated it it was amazing

Shelves: studied

Brilliant book.
I've only read a few select chapters but this book is brilliant and an easily digestible academic text.
Harvey discusses the city in relation to postmodernity a lot and I think this will be very useful for one of my modules next semester so will be returning soon. ...more

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Feb 26, 2020 Differengenera rated it it was amazing

replace cultural studies with geographers' literature reviews ...more

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Jul 14, 2016 Billie Pritchett rated it it was amazing

Shelves: david-harvey

David Harvey's The Condition of Postmodernity is a difficult book and by no means a perfect book. Still, for its ability to explain so much, it is a great book. Harvey explains what postmodernism means and why it makes sense to talk about the current epoch as the postmodern age.

Harvey takes up Fredric Jameson's definition of postmodernism as "the cultural logic of late capitalism" and spends the rest of the book explaining what that would mean. Late capitalism is the Marxist designation for the ...more

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Jan 23, 2010 Vern Glaser rated it really liked it

this is a very intriguing book that explores the nature of the changes in culture and society that we are currently experiencing from different perspectives - from art, architecture, economics, etc. His basic idea is that technological advances cause the world to become compressed in the dimensions of space and time, and that this compression fundamentally changes the nature of social relationships, power structures, etc.

Is worth reading, although if you don't have a business/economics backgrou ...more

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Sep 21, 2010 Joel rated it liked it

Shelves: critical-theory

there is a certain kind of rigid tedium to harvey's argument, reflected in the tripartite structure (modernity to postmodernity in contemporary culture, political economy, experience of space and time), though plenty of interesting material within each part.

second-edition addendum to one chapter saying 'postmodern feminists' didnt get it - okay then?

i dont want to say 'ay yo dre, stick to producing' but i like it better when he just talks about capital! ...more

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Jul 25, 2014 Brandon Held rated it it was amazing

Although Harvey's cultural depictions of "Postmodern" (and I am always skeptical of classifying anything as "post" something) art and cinema seem a bit dated now in 2014, Harvey's temporal/spatial understandings in a globalized hyper-capitalist society ring true. One of great neo-Marxists of the 20th/21st century. ...more

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Jul 11, 2014 Parenthetical Grin rated it really liked it

This is a go-to book for anyone wanting to understand the political and economic shifts circa 1973-74: the shift away from Fordism (Keynesianism) and the rise of neoliberalism (or, in Harvey's terms, the shift toward the regime of flexible accumulation). ...more

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Oct 20, 2011 Grant rated it it was amazing

Seriously great.

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Jan 10, 2021 Derek Frasure rated it really liked it

This is an incomparable Marxist account of postmodernism, but far more than that, much of the book is a history of the concepts of time and space from the Enlightenment through modernity. This leads to Harvey's central conceit: postmodernism is time-space compression, an acceptance of the ephemeral, and celebration of the fragmented (non)unity. Harvey is a much better economist and geographer than he is a philosopher and literary critic. The main thing that keeps me from rating this book five st ...more

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Feb 05, 2018 Shibin Joseph rated it it was amazing

David Harvey’s theme in this work is a critique of postmodernisms inability to go beyond the Metanarratives. Postmodernism failed to give an alternate way of life as it relied on superficial elements of experience originating from modernism. Modernity with its totalizing themes and Metanarratives destroyed and constructed cultural artifacts.
Harvey gives a detailed review of the postmodern aesthetics which is rooted in the currents of capitalism. Harvey concludes that postmodernism is just an ex ...more

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Aug 02, 2018 Onur özcan rated it it was ok

It is like a documentary of the history of capitalism and Marxism based on various points of views throughout the years. His originality stems from his understanding of the concepts of space and time as not something static, but dynamically changing by means of materially shifted conditions. This is, I think, a brilliant idea that can be addressed and studied. However, a typical accusation towards postmodernism, which may be kind of inefficient generalization, may lead us to disregard various pr ...more

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Jan 18, 2019 E. C. Koch rated it it was ok

Harvey is definitively on the materialist side of the aestheticist/materialist divide within the postmodern conversation. So materialist is he that his treatment of postmodernism required lengthy piano-tuning in the form of a detailed history of modernization of Western society and economies, Fordism, and market practices circa the late-eighties, all of which is academically valuable and none of which interests me. On the occasions when he treated of aesthetic concerns Harvey focused mostly on a ...more

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Oct 06, 2020 ADZ rated it really liked it

General themes: time-space compression, Being vs. Becoming, aesthetics/illusions/cultural commodification, relation between capital and social power. Economics determines culture.

Prefer Harvey's Brief History of Neoliberalism slightly more, but both are incredibly ambitious yet readable studies ...more

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Mar 02, 2018 Hossein rated it it was amazing

Shelves: philosophy

A difficult reading of postmodernity from a conservative post-Marxist theoretician. Great anyway. It has nothing to do with literary works though, just pure postmodernism

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Oct 20, 2019 Scott Hebenstreit rated it really liked it

It was hard work getting through this book, but in many ways it was worth it. I've really appreciated Harvey's work so far. ...more

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Apr 22, 2020 Pve rated it it was amazing

Very good on how changes in the ways capital organises capital accumulation can lead to time-space compression and how this affects modes of perception.

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May 21, 2020 Raj Karan Gambhir rated it really liked it

Really good!

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Dec 09, 2020 Elizabeth rated it really liked it

needlessly difficult writing style but fantastic content

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Dec 15, 2017 Patrick rated it liked it

Shelves: u-s-a, europe

An important argument made in this book. A little dated at this point. I like his history of neoliberalism better.

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May 03, 2007 Drew rated it it was amazing

Shelves: non-fiction, favorites

The book was gifted to me on the day of my graduation by my professor after Harvey's A Brief History of Neoliberalism was central to my senior thesis. Its probably an appropriate stepping stone from my studies as an undergraduate and my possible future as a graduate student. The finishing of the book is the culmination of a year and a half of inconsistent reading and a broadened perspective.

It is my academic introduction to historical materialism, which I've only seen previously from afar. Its c The book was gifted to me on the day of my graduation by my professor after Harvey's A Brief History of Neoliberalism was central to my senior thesis. Its probably an appropriate stepping stone from my studies as an undergraduate and my possible future as a graduate student. The finishing of the book is the culmination of a year and a half of inconsistent reading and a broadened perspective.

It is my academic introduction to historical materialism, which I've only seen previously from afar. Its central theme: that postmodernism, with its fragmentary and ephemeral tendencies, arises as a necessary extension of capitalism and has far reaching affects into cultural aesthetics and our collective experiences in space and time.

A few other new (to me) themes are:
-The time period preceding following WWII until the early 1970s represented by the Fordist (Keynesian) production model which is paralleled by the cultural movement of modernism. Significant economic descriptors of this period are the acquiescence of capital to labor as the consumer of excess goods. Culturally, it adhered to a post-Enlightenment view that truth and universality are the goal of human aesthetics and expression. Architectural representations were monolithic expressions of state power and functionalism.

-This Fordist model was followed, as a result of the economic crises in the 1970s, by a period characterized by Harvey as 'flexible accumulation'. Globalization (although not termed as such in the book) allowed for--and leads to--the need for capital to move more freely in space and time to meet the needs of profit. Harvey writes, "For the labourers this all implied an intensification (speed-up) in labour processes and an acceleration in the de-skilling and re-skilling required to meet new labour needs." The experience of labor in this world of flexible accumulation and time-space compression became the foundation for the postmodern condition. This condition is characterized by accelerating turnover in production and exchange, mobilization of fashion to the masses as a means of accelerated consumption, a lifestyle of disposal (values, relationships, attachments, and identities), and the manipulation of desires and tastes towards consumption in markets described best by volatility, to name a few.

-Postmodernism offers many different opportunities to the human experience. Its reaction against the universality of modernism espouses multiple perspectives and insight. There is no singular human experience. And while the rhetoric of postmodernism may sound enticing, the same principles of domination still exist. Those who have practical control over space and the representation of time (lords and nobles of centuries before, capitalists and their government representatives today) have significant power over those who seek a voice in the global society. "Small differences in what the space contains in the way of labour supplies, resources, infrastructures, and the like become of increased significance. Superiour command over space becomes an even more important weapon in class struggle."

-At the heart of the condition of postmodernity as presented by Harvey is the tendency towards schizophrenia. Harvey uses the quote of a literary critic (Terry Eagleton) as a possible definition of postmodernism: "There is, perhaps, a degree of consensus that the typical postmodernist artefact is playful, self-ironizing and even schizoid; and that it reacts to the austere autonomy of high modernism by impudently embracing the language of commerce and the commodity. Its stance towards cultural tradition is one of irreverent pastiche, and its contrived depthlessness undermines all metaphysical solemnities, sometimes by a brutal aesthetics of squalor and shock." The schizophrenic nature of postmodernism is a consistent theme presented by Harvey.

My previously held understanding of historical materialism was simplistic and uninformed. If anything, my reading of Harvey has taken a giant step forward in developing an understanding, but I know further reading is required. I found Harvey's Marxist-informed insights into capitalism especially enlightening; especially his writing on capitalist crises of accumulation. Having read the book I have a new interest in urban studies and planning (how space is utilized by capital to exhibit control of the labor population), a peaked interest in how capital exhibits control over the experience of time through retirement plans and ability to retire, and a further deepening interest in the social implications of the human experience in capitalism (i.e.-Marxism). ...more

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Sep 26, 2020 Derek Shouba rated it it was amazing

Surprisingly easy to read. Loved it. Very different from his unreadable book on Brecht.

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Jan 21, 2011 GB rated it it was amazing

The first quarter presents an objective historical and theoretical context packed with concise references. From the emergence of the Market we see an ending of Realism as Modernism emerges: industrial functionality replaces the agricultural dependency upon the whims of nature. Intellectual rationalisation replaces superstition whilst a collective secular mythology brings hope and engenders meaning within the new modern world. But through the capitalistic nature of accumulation and over-accumulat

The first quarter presents an objective historical and theoretical context packed with concise references. From the emergence of the Market we see an ending of Realism as Modernism emerges: industrial functionality replaces the agricultural dependency upon the whims of nature. Intellectual rationalisation replaces superstition whilst a collective secular mythology brings hope and engenders meaning within the new modern world. But through the capitalistic nature of accumulation and over-accumulation; creative/destructive cycles, two World Wars is the culminating shattering of any illusions of collective ideology giving way to consumerist fragmentation and isolation.

The second quarter is far more abstract and philosophical (ontology and epistemology) and incorporates a heavy influence of Lefebvre as Harvey tackles the tricky subject of the experience of time and space: time-space compression. But just when it threatens to lose a (layman) reader like me, it interweaves familiar cultural, political and (easy-to-follow) economic examples to elicit comprehension.

The third quarter is an exposition of post-modern culture. Having previously and heavily used architecture and literature to illuminate, Harvey now refers to multi-media to explore personal identity and the prevalance of multi-layered ephemerality over the permanance of history. This includes a particularly pleasing analysis of the movie, Bladerunner.

The book rounds off his dissertation with sweetly short chapters which encapsulate all the ideas: 'fictitious capital' versus production industry; aesthetics v ethics; crises don't threaten the economic system because it speculatively reacts with even more political/economic transience/flexibility, cultural fragmentation and personal fantasy. After summarising, Harvey concludes that there is possibly no demarcation between the conditions of (Fordist) modernism and (flexible) post-modernism but a schizophrenic, internal and dynamic profit-concerned flux between the two which negates all meta-theories. That perhaps the difference is one more of dominance rather than direct control? Whilst in which direction we are led by this evolved fusion is left open-ended.

This is a must-read for any student of politics, economics, history, sociology, philosophy, literature, art and maybe even geography (the author is a former Professor of Geography). And, makes for a fascinating read for anyone generally interested in our pop-art, western capitalistic modern world particularly as it remains incredibly aposite today (it was written in 1991). ...more

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Oct 07, 2010 Leanna rated it liked it

Ok, so I just read the chapters relevant to my interests (there's a lot of stuff about architecture and econimics that I skipped), but I basically picked up this book because darn it, I'm sick of only having the vaguest ideas of what "modernism" and "postmodernism" mean in terms of literature. I went back to my college Norton's anthologies the other day, looking for explanations for these movements, and discovered that I never took a class, at least with Norton, that went past, oh, 1915! So I gu Ok, so I just read the chapters relevant to my interests (there's a lot of stuff about architecture and econimics that I skipped), but I basically picked up this book because darn it, I'm sick of only having the vaguest ideas of what "modernism" and "postmodernism" mean in terms of literature. I went back to my college Norton's anthologies the other day, looking for explanations for these movements, and discovered that I never took a class, at least with Norton, that went past, oh, 1915! So I guess that explains my lack of knowledge. I did take some class on the Modern American Novel, but if my professor ever defined modernism and postmodernism, I've forgotten.

Anyway. Interesting book. Harvey uses the following quote of Baudelaire to define both modernism and postmodernism:

"Modernity is the transient, the fleeting, the contigent; it is the one half of art, the other being the eternal and the immutable."

Harvey returns to this quote throughout the book to argue that modernism was interested in both of these halves (the fleeting AND the eternal), while postmodernism is much more interested in the fleeting, the ephemeral.

He reproduces a table by literary theorist Ihab Hassan that sketches some broad differences between modernism and postmodernism. For those interested, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ihab_Hassan

Harvey also explains the importance of "meta narratives" (i.e., interpretive schools like Freudism or Marxism) to modernism. If I have it right, Harvey argues that meta narratives were very much important to modernism (a search for greater meaning and play was, indeed, behind all of the obscurity and difficulty), while postmodernism argues that these narratives are ultimately useless (deconstruction, essentially?)

Harvey defines postmodernism, as well, by highlighting the importance the movement gives to "fringe" and minority voices. Postmodernism also emphasizes plurality of all kinds.

Well, that is what was salient to me. If you're into econimics/anthropology/architechture/literature, I imagine something in here will intrigue! ...more

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About David Harvey

David Harvey

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David Harvey (born 1935) is the Distinguished Professor of Anthropology at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York (CUNY). A leading social theorist of international standing, he graduated from University of Cambridge with a PhD in Geography in 1961. He is the world's most cited academic geographer (according to Andrew Bodman, see Transactions of the IBG, 1991,1992), and the author ...more

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“The common-sense notion that 'There is a time and place for everything' gets carried into a set of prescriptions which replicate the social order by assigning social meanings to spaces and times.” — 10 likes

“The reduction of experience to 'a series of pure and unrelated presents' further implies that the 'experience of the present becomes powerfully, overwhelmingly vivid and "material": the world comes before the schizophrenic with heightened intensity, bearing the mysterious and oppressive charge of affect, glowing with hallucinatory energy' (Jameson, 1984b, 120). The image, the appearance, the spectacle can all be experienced with an intensity (joy or terror) made possible only by their appreciation as pure and unrelated presents in time. So what does it matter 'if the world thereby momentarily loses its depth and threatens to become a glossy skin, a stereoscopic illusion, a rush of filmic images without destiny?' (Jameson, 1984b). The immediacy of events, the sensationalism of the spectacle (political, scientific, military, as well as those of entertainment), become the stuff of which consciousness is forged.” — 1 likes

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