Žižek's Dialectics of Difference and the Problem of Space

This paper begins with the question of what about dialectics might be interesting to geographers today. I argue that, for those who are interested in engaging dialectical thought, Slavoj Žižek's work offers a productive way of conceptualizing an open dialectic without synthesis or totality. The goal of this paper is to explain Žižek' idea of the parallax view and to demonstrate its relevance for geographers. To do this, I begin by showing how Žižek's dialectical vision differs from that of David Harvey by using the example of Harvey's analysis of ‘capitalist imperialism’. Next, I turn to Deleuzian spatial ontology and its understandings of virtual and actual spaces. I discuss Žižek's engagement with Gilles Deleuze's thought and draw out the implications of a dialectical understanding of the virtual and the actual.