From uneven and combined development to uneven geographical development

The aim with this article is to revisit the law of uneven and combined development, highlighting its contribution to the geography of the globalized capitalism. Although the origin of this known law can be found in the work of Marx, it was formulated, in the terms that matter here, by Leon Trotsky. The geographic link is obvious. But it is only since the early 1980s that the Geography (in particular, by the works of David Harvey and Neil Smith) brought the questions on socio-spatial inequality to the debate. To achieve the aim proposed, this text was divided into two sections - plus the introduction and the final considerations: in the first section the uneven development is characterized in order to approximate the question of socio-spatial inequalities to the law of uneven and combined development; in the second section it is examined the specific geographical character of uneven development. In the final considerations the dialogues by some Brazilian intellectuals with the law of uneven and combined development, as well as their (involuntary) contributions to the uneven geographical development approach, are revised. Last but not least, it is suggested to consider the possibility of elaborating alternatives to the inevitability of uneven development as a limit for social change.