The Soja essay did a solid job at explaining the basic concepts of Marxist Geography and their role within the greater Marxist philosophy. Many of his thoughts and examples pertained to actual situations that have to be dealt with in the modern political landscape. The design of everything from a city block to the relationship in trade between developed countries and underdeveloped nations has a huge effect on our everyday lives. Can it all be summed up under the idea that “urban geography and the geography of international development were examined as structured outcomes of the countervailing strategies of capitalist accumulation and class struggle”?(54) Soja seems to imply that current geographical Marxists accept this overarching thesis. I definitely see this form of struggle happening between Latin American countries and the developed world, but I would not apply it to the interactions of developed worlds. Even with developing countries, where the balance of trade definitely favors developed nations, the approach of international politics is to reach a state of interdependence. The idea being that everyone with the same political ideology and goals will reach a state of peace through a common objective. One must admit that the world is relatively more stable now than has been in the past, a World War hasn’t happened in over 60 years even though intense political struggle has been a constant.

The other idea that I caught my eye was the thesis that stated “now space more than time that hides things from us, that the demystification of spatiality and its veiled instrumentality of power is the key to making practical, political, and theoretical sense of the contemporary era.” (61) The way in which everything is constructed – the design, location, relative proximity of surrounding buildings, etc… - plays a role in how we live our lives. The people that construct the places we live directly affect our lives, yet very few of us know these people, never mind what they were thinking. Everything from the environment to the way we get to know our neighbors is part of the design of the culture and country we live in. It’s pretty cool stuff to think about…