scholarly journals An interview with Thomas Piketty

Author(s):  
Mike Savage

This interview focuses on Thomas Piketty's future intellectual plans which build on his Capital in the 21st Century. It explores his interests in expanding databases on wealth and income, and in analysing inequality at different spatial scales, including cities, regions, and global processes. The interview discusses his understanding of new elites and their relationship with older elites, and clarifies his understanding of social class and inheritance. It includes discussions on his relationship with the discipline of economics and with the social sciences more generally. It reflects on conceptual issues, including his theoretical interests in Bourdieu and Marx, and his relationship to socialist theory and politics. His new role in the LSE's International Inequalities Institute is also discussed.Billie Elmqvist ThurenInstitute AssistantInternational Inequalities InstituteLondon School of Economics & Political Science8th Floor, Tower 1Clement's InnLondon, WC2A 2AZ+44 (0)20 7955 [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>[small logo]<http://www.lse.ac.uk/InternationalInequalities/Home.aspx>[twitter tiny]<https://twitter.com/lseinequalities>

Author(s):  
Lav Kanoi ◽  
Vanessa Koh ◽  
Al Lim ◽  
Shoko Yamada ◽  
Michael R. Dove

Abstract Infrastructure is often thought of in big material terms: dams, buildings, roads, and so on. This study, instead, draws on literatures in anthropology and the social sciences to analyse infrastructures in relation to society and environment, and so cast current conceptions of infrastructure in a new light. Situating the analysis in context of President Biden’s recent infrastructure bill, the paper expands what is meant by and included in discussions of infrastructure. The study examines what it means for different kinds of material infrastructures to function (and for whom) or not, and also consider how the immaterial infrastructure of human relations are manifested in, for example, labour, as well as how infrastructures may create intended or unintended consequences in enabling or disabling social processes. Further, in this study, we examine concepts embedded in thinking about infrastructure such as often presumed distinctions between the technical and the social, nature and culture, the human and the non-human, and the urban and the rural, and how all of these are actually implicated in thinking about infrastructure. Our analysis, thus, draws from a growing body of work on infrastructure in anthropology and the social sciences, enriches it with ethnographic insights from our own field research, and so extends what it means to study ‘infrastructures’ in the 21st century.


2018 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 22-38
Author(s):  
Angelo Serpa

Resumo O artigo busca problematizar a relação dialética entre diversidade e desigualdade em uma perspectiva geográfica e em um contexto de fragmentação socioespacial. Parte-se da premissa de que pensar em diversidade social remete às particularidades do social, enquanto refletir sobre desigualdade social requer, em termos mais gerais, uma análise da estrutura social. Em um primeiro momento, e a partir de dados de pesquisa realizada pela ONG britânica OXFAM Brasil e da divulgação do relatório “A distância que nos une – Um retrato das desigualdades brasileiras”, em 2017, diversidade e desigualdade são articuladas enquanto categorias para a reflexão sobre conquistas e retrocessos no contexto brasileiro. A seguir, a categoria “classe social” vai ser operacionalizada para refletir sobre o empreendedorismo popular em bairros e cidades do estado da Bahia, a partir da sistematização de dados de nossas próprias pesquisas. Por fim, busca-se aprofundar a discussão sobre o processo de fragmentação socioespacial nos diferentes recortes e escalas abordados bem como sobre a possibilidade de ação política em um contexto adverso de fragmentação. Palavras-chave: Diversidade, desigualdade, fragmentação socioespacial, classe social, ação política, Bahia, Brasil.   Abstract The article aims to discuss the dialectical relationship between diversity and inequality in contexts of socio-spatial fragmentation through a geographical perspective. We start from the premise that thinking about social diversity refers itself to the particularities of the social phenomenon whilst reflecting on social inequality requires, in broad terms, an analysis of the social structure. Initially, based on research results by the British NGO OXFAM Brazil and their report "The distance that unites us: an overview of Brazilian inequalities", we sought to articulate inequality and diversity as categories to reflect on the Brazilian context, its achievements and setbacks. Next, based on the systematized data of our own researches, we operationalized the category “social class” to meditate on popular entrepreneurship in various neighborhoods and cities in Bahia, Brazil.  Ultimately, we tried to deepen the discussion about the process of socio-spatial fragmentation in the different spatial scales addressed and to reflect on the possibilities of political action in adverse contexts of fragmentation. Keywords: Diversity, inequality, socio-spatial fragmentation, social class, political action, Bahia, Brazil.   Résumé L 'article cherche à problématiser la relation dialectique entre diversité et inégalité dans une perspective géographique et dans un contexte de fragmentation socio - spatiale. En partant du principe que la réflexion sur la diversité sociale renvoie aux particularités du social, tandis que la réflexion sur l'inégalité sociale nécessite, en termes plus généraux, d´une analyse de la structure sociale. Initialement, sur la base des données de recherche de l'ONG britannique OXFAM Brésil et de la publication du rapport «La distance qui nous unit - Un portrait des inégalités brésiliennes», en 2017, la diversité et l'inégalité sont articulées en tant que catégories de réflexion sur les réussites et les échecs dans le contexte brésilien. Ensuite, la catégorie «classe sociale» sera opérationnalisée pour réfléchir sur l'entrepreneuriat populaire dans les quartiers et les villes de l'État de Bahia, basé sur la systématisation des données issues de nos propres recherches. Enfin, nous cherchons à approfondir la discussion sur le processus de fragmentation socio-spatiale dans les différentes découpes et échelles abordées ainsi que sur la possibilité d'une action politique dans un contexte de fragmentation adverse. Mots-clés: Diversité, inégalité, fragmentation socio-spatiale, classe sociale, action politique, Bahia, Brésil.


2022 ◽  
pp. 80-96
Author(s):  
Thomas C. Weeks

Phenomenology is an often-used form of inquiry within education and the social sciences more broadly. As scholars have employed its methods to answer complex social and political questions, new modes of inquiry have emerged. One such mode is queer phenomenology, which has sought to engage queer theory with phenomenology for an enriched form of inquiry. In this chapter, queer phenomenology will be explored, including its origins in the 21st century and the kinds of questions it can answer. A discussion of queer phenomenology's relation to the field of critical phenomenology is also included. Current research in both the social sciences and education that use this method is covered in depth.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Plamen Akaliyski ◽  
Michael Harris Bond ◽  
Christian Welzel

Nations have been questioned as meaningful units for analyzing culture. Against this skepticism, we underline that culture is always a collective phenomenon, commonly understood as the prevalent values in a population that form its mentality and identity in differentiation from others. Nations are population entities that are manifest in states as their organizational frame, in countries as their territorial space, and in national identity as their psychological glue. Territorial in character, nations form spatial fields of ‘cultural gravitation.’ Above and beneath nations, other spatial fields of cultural gravitation exist, like sub-national regions (beneath) and geo-political areas (above). There are also non-spatial forces of cultural gravitation, including language, ethnicity, religion, social class, gender, and generation. To operationalize nations as gravitational fields of culture, we look at them in terms of their central tendencies and these tendencies’ densities and variance-binding powers, rather than understanding nations as monolithic and closed cultural containers. Because national culture is foundational for societal institutions and guides individuals’ behavior, it is of intrinsic interest for the social sciences to study culture at the nation-level, even in the presence of internal heterogeneity and cross-border similarity. Whenever of interest, sub- and supra-national cultural groups as well as non-spatial cultural groups should also be studied, but our theoretical framework warrants the use of nations as meaningful gravitational units for analyzing the dimensions and dynamics of culture.


Water Policy ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 141-149 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen Merrett

The objective of this paper is to provide a general theory of the manner in which the water resources of a catchment shift from surplus to deficit and the means by which water resource institutions can manage or reverse this shift. The approach combines the languages of hydrology and the social sciences. After defining the concepts of catchment water surplus and deficit, an account is given of how a river basin may shift from one to the other as its output per head and population expand. Twelve possible options to confront such a shift are reviewed. The paper discusses the global significance of these issues and ends with a general testable hypothesis as a basis for fieldwork.


2017 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 142-154 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marisela Montenegro ◽  
Joan Pujol ◽  
Silvia Posocco

Purpose Contemporary governmentality combines biopolitical and necropolitical logics to establish social, political and physical borders that classify and stratify populations using symbolic and material marks as, for example, nationality, gender, ethnicity, race, sexuality, social class and/or disability. The social sciences have been prolific in the analysis of alterities and, in turn, implicated in the epistemologies and knowledge practices that underpin and sustain the multiplication of frontiers that define essential differences between populations. The purpose of this paper is to develop a strategy that analyze and subvert the logic of bordering inherent in the bio/necropolitical gaze. In different ways, this paper examines operations of delimitation and differentiation that contribute to monolithic definitions of subject and subjectivity. Design/methodology/approach The authors question border construction processes in terms of their static, homogenizing and exclusionary effects. Findings Instead of hierarchical stratification of populations, the papers in this special issue explore the possibilities of relationship and the conditions of such relationships. Who do we relate to? On which terms and conditions? With what purpose? In which ethical and political manner? Originality/value A critical understanding of the asymmetry in research practices makes visible how the researcher is legitimized to produce a representation of those researched, an interpretation of their words and actions without feedback or contribution to the specific context where the research has been carried out. Deconstructive and relational perspectives are put forward as critical strands that can set the basis of different approaches to research and social practice.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document