Happy to announce that we published the special collection of papers about the work of Neil Smith as both an free e-book and a special issue of Antipode:
Papers in the special collection were written by a fantastic group of scholars, including Andrew Ross, Timothy Brennan, Noel Castree, Susan W.S. Millar, Don Mitchell, John Morrissey, Tom Slater, John Paul Jones III, Helga Leitner, Sallie A. Marston, Eric Sheppard, Setha Low, Patrick Bond and Greg Ruiters.
We, the editors, wrote this introductory essay, based on some of Neil’s archival letters that Don Mitchell allowed us temporary access to. I’d urge folks to take a closer look at the cover art for the collection which is a portrait of Neil that Deb Cowen painted and allowed us to use.
Abstract: Whether writing about gentrification or nature, the production of space or the politics of scale, uneven development or public space, globalization or revolution, the geographer Neil Smith was nothing if not provocative. Neither Festschrift nor hagiography, this special issue of Antipode critically engages Smith’s work—not to unpick the rich tapestry, but to draw the threads out and spin them on in new directions. Consisting of newly commissioned essays by comrades from across the human sciences, it considers the entire range of Smith’s oeuvre. This paper introduces the essays by offering not only some thoughts about Smith’s intellectual contributions generally, but also new insight into the role he played in Antipode.
Nik Heynen 