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Running Head: SYNOPSIS OF THE CONDITIONS OF POSTMODERNITY
Synopsis of The Conditions of Postmodernity by David Harvey
Diane Fittipaldi
University of St. Thomas
November 2, 2008
EDLD 913

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Synopsis of The Conditions of Postmodernity by David Harvey
On the first page of The Condition of Postmodernity, David Harvey (1990) summarizes his
premise in four short paragraphs under the heading: The Argument. In this section, Harvey explains that
due to the recession of 1972, capitalism transformed from a rigid model of mass production to a more
flexible model of capital accumulation. Harvey calls this triggering event a “sea change” (p.vii) and
asserts that as a result, a host of cultural, aesthetic, and political transformations ushered in
postmodernity. From here, Harvey explores a variety of themes. I will focus on only two of them. First, I
will review the change in the regime of accumulation from the Fordist model to flexible accumulation.
Second, I will review what Harvey calls time – space compression triggered by new technologies in
communication and transportation allowing us to experience the globe as if it were a village. I will
conclude by offering a few questions worthy of discussion or further exploration.
According to Harvey (1990), Fordism, so named for Henry Ford’s assembly line production
model, entailed more than just a rigid form of mass production; it permeated culture by promoting mass
consumption as well. Characterized by specialization and a detailed division of labor, Fordism placed a
high value on homogeneity, standardization, functionality and efficiency. From World War II on, more
efficient production methods produced a glut of inventories and ultimately a slowdown of consumption.
Harvey calls this condition overaccumulation typified by business contraction, unemployment and
economic downturn. As economies struggle to absorb overaccumulation, capitalism employs two
solutions outlined by Harvey. First, capitalists shift resources into research and development searching
for new products or services. Harvey calls these fixes temporal. Investments such as these require debt
or credit, instruments of “fictitious capital” (p.107). Secondly, capitalists shift resources into new
geographies seeking new demand for their products and services. Harvey calls these fixes spatial.
Importantly, Harvey asserts that the overaccumulation of 1972 proved to be a tipping point as it
triggered the globalism we witness today.

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Harvey (1990) asserts that starting in the early 1970s the industrialized nations began a shift
that continues to this day. This deindustrialization resulted in production plants relocating to Thrid
World countries where labor comes cheap. Here, businesses sought found a ready source of less
expensive, flexible labor in the form of sub‐contractors, part time workers, and temporary help. Unions
lost power; small businesses sprang up, many providing services rather than products. This new era of
late‐stage capitalism, Harvey dubs “flexible accumulation,” a condition that typifies post modernity.
For Harvey (1990), flexible accumulation proved pivotal in changing the way we experience
space and time, compressing the experience on both dimensions. With innovations in communications,
we hear news from around the world the minute it happens. Because of technology, we experience
new worlds through television images and entertainment venues that allow us to live vicariously and
virtually, a phenomenon Harvey calls simulacrum. This time‐space compression underlies many of the
cultural changes witnessed since the early 1970s. Harvey argues that we see this phenomenon in the
unsettling and disorienting effects of post modern art and architecture. Furthermore, Harvey asserts
that the effects of time‐space compression bled over to the financial markets and fed globalization. By
the 1970s as the Fordist influences waned and the Bretton Woods agreement broke down. Betton
Woods made the US dollar the basis for all world trade and because gold backed the value of US dollars,
value remained clear. Without this link to gold, money became an ambiguous method for determining
value. Harvey aregues these instabilities in global commerce pushed capitalism into post modernity.
I conclude by posing two questions raised by Harvey’s (1990) arguments. With flexible
accumulation at the center of globalization, Harvey shows the interconnectedness of each country’s
fiscal and monetary policies. Many of these policies are now internationalized. As the many nations of
the world meld into one economic entity, is it possible or at what point might they meld into one entity
politically? Secondly, Harvey looks in depth at the situation surrounding and the causes of the over‐
accumulation of the 1970s but neglects to comment on the impact of women entering the workforce. I
am curious as to what this impact was and how it shaped a post modern world.

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References
Harvey, D. (1009). The condition of postmodernity: An inquiry into the origins of cultural change. Malden,
Massachusetts, Blackwell Publishing.