大衛．哈維是當代最重要的馬克思主義地理學家。他致力將馬克思主義的分析洞見，運用於都市發展、環境生態、時空關係與意識、後現代情境、城市與社會正義、全球化、文化產業與經濟等議題，企圖從地理學角度補充修正馬克思主義理論的基本原則，提出了「歷史地理唯物論」（historical geographical materialism）的分析視野。

1935年，哈維生於英國肯特郡（Kent county）的Gillingham。他於1957年獲得劍橋大學地理學學位，1961年獲博士學位。最初在英國布里斯托大學（Bristol University）擔任教職，1969年赴美於巴爾地摩（Baltimore）約翰霍普金斯大學（The John Hopkins University），擔任地理學與環境工程系教授。後於1987年回到英國，在牛津大學地理系擔任哈福德．麥金德（Halford Mackinder）地理學講座教授，後來又返美任職。目前於紐約市立大學（CUNY）研究中心任教。他的重要著作包括《地理學解釋》（Explanation in Geography, 1969）、《社會正義與城市》（Social Justice and the City, 1973）、《資本的限制》（The Limits to Capital, 1982）、《意識與都市經驗》（Consciousness and the Urban Experience, 1985）、《資本的都市化》（The Urbanization of Capital, 1985）、《都市經驗》（The Urban Experience, 1989）、《後現代性狀況》（The Condition of Postmodernity, 1989）、《正義、自然與差異地理學》（Justice, Nature, and the Geography of Difference, 1996）、《希望的空間》（Spaces of Hope, 2000）、《資本的空間》（Spaces of Capital, 2001），以及近期的《巴黎，現代性之都》（Paris, Capital of Modernity, 2003）、《新帝國主義》（The New Imperialism, 2003）、《新自由主義簡史》（A Brief History of Neoliberalism, 2005）和《新自由主義化的空間》（Spaces of Neoliberalization, 2005）等。

Prolific social theorist Harvey explains how a turn towards harshly neo-liberal policies in the 1970s and 80s, specifically in the U.S. (and its involvement in the economies of Chile and Mexico) and the UK, affected "the historical geography of global capitalism," and produced effects that range from dictatorial China's embrace of neo-liberalism-which Harvey understands as an effort to restore class power to the top elites-to the successful manipulation of the money supply in Japan and West Germany. But the main paradox of global neo-liberalism, Harvey argues, is that it does not promote real, fairly distributed economic growth. Tracing global development within capitalism, Harvey finds that the stories told about the situation-including the one where "backwards" countries need to "catch up"-are myths, since the system is not set up to support the actual development of most countries and populations, but rather to subjugate them. This is not a new idea, but Harvey provides a good (if dense) description of the current global state of affairs. He presents his own class-based framework for understanding "how the dynamics of political and class struggles power continuous changes in capitalism's uneven geographical development."

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