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 Zizek's work offers a productive way of conceptualizing an open dialectic without synthesis or totality. The goal of this paper is to explain Zizek's idea of the parallax view and to demonstrate its relevance for geographers. To do this, I begin by showing how Zizek's dialectical vision differs from that of David Harvey by using the example of Harvey's analysis of 'capitalist imperialism'. Next, 1 turn to Deleuzian spatial ontology and its understandings of virtual and actual spaces. I discuss Zizek's engagement with Gilles Deleuze's thought and draw out the implications of a dialectical understanding of the virtual and the actual.
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