Andy Merrifield


Andy Merrifield is a Marxist urban theorist.

Background

He was born in Liverpool, UK and attended Quarry Bank Comprehensive School until 1976. He left school at 16 and did office jobs and travelled. He graduated in geography, philosophy and sociology from Liverpool Polytechnic in the mid-1980s. Merrifield received his PhD in geography from Oxford University in 1993, supervised by David Harvey.
Merrifield spent most of his early career teaching geography at the University of Southampton and King's College London, before moving to Clark University, USA, where he taught from 2000 to 2003. He subsequently lived in France with his partner, initially near Geneva, but then moved to the south central as an independent scholar and author.
He returned to the academic system in 2011. In 2011–12 he was a Leverhulme Fellow at the University of Manchester. As of 2015, he was Supernumerary Fellow in Human Geography at Murray Edwards College, University of Cambridge.

Scholarship

Merrifield is a prolific writer, and was a leading proponent of the idea of 'The Right to the City', a phrase associated with Henri Lefebvre. In later work he supports the 'politics of the encounter' in a globalised world, rather than the more restrictive 'right' to urban space. He draws heavily on the work of Lefebvre and his theories.
Merrifield has published articles in various left-wing publications and mainstream magazines and newspapers, including New Left Review, Adbusters and The Nation.
A departure was signalled by his 2008 book, The Wisdom of Donkeys, completed after his departure from academia in the US. It offers insights into a slowing of life and having time for reflection, while undertaking a journey on foot with a donkey through France's Auvergne region. The book has proven popular worldwide: for example, copies are on display at the gift shop at the Grand Canyon Village in Arizona. Subsequent books reflecting on life and people are listed below.

Awards and honors