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Where's the capital? A geographical essay
Author(s) -
Jones Gareth A.
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
the british journal of sociology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.826
H-Index - 92
eISSN - 1468-4446
pISSN - 0007-1315
DOI - 10.1111/1468-4446.12112
Subject(s) - capital (architecture) , capitalism , democracy , inequality , capital accumulation , inheritance (genetic algorithm) , population , sociology , colonialism , politics , economics , political economy , economic history , political science , geography , economic growth , human capital , demography , law , mathematical analysis , biochemistry , chemistry , mathematics , gene , archaeology
This paper is inspired by T homas P iketty's book C apital in the T wenty ‐ F irst C entury . P iketty does a wonderful job of tracing income and wealth over time, and relating changes to trends of economic and population growth, and drawing out the implications for inequality, inheritance and even democracy. But, he says relatively little about where capital is located, how capital accumulation in one place relies on activities elsewhere, how capital is urbanized with advanced capitalism and what life is like in spaces without capital. This paper asks ‘where is the geography in C apital ’ or ‘where is the geography of capital in C apital ’? Following P iketty's lead, the paper develops its analysis through a number of important novels. It examines, first, the debate that J ane A usten ignored colonialism and slavery in her treatment of nineteenth century B ritain, second, how B alzac and then Z ola provide insight to the urban political economy of capital later in the century, and third, how K atherine B oo attends to inequality as the everyday suffering of the poor.