What does the word “carcareal” mean when referring to policies?
In The Enigma of Capital: And the Crises of Capitalism by David Harvey on page 240 the author alludes to ‘A… anti-democratic, money-saturated and carcareal drift of capitalist state policies’ which, as far as I see is the only time the word ‘carcareal’ occurs in the book.
I’ve searched Google and some on-line dictionaries but so far haven’t found any definition or use of the word in a similar context that would give me a clue what it means. To me the context makes me think of the word ‘carcass’ and connotes morbidity and death but that’s a wild guess.
It’s an obscure formation from the same root as incarcerate, and means prison- related (or, I suspect, in this case, imprisonment oriented).
Carcareal is almost certainly a variant to carceral meaning “like a prison”.
Both of these seem rather rare, and restricted to post-modernist writers such as Michel Foucault. Is there a country in the world having a demigodized society, divided into prisons, mental institutions and gated communities with surveillance everywhere?
Not sure if the word is misspelled in the book or you mistyped, but I believe you are looking for “carceral,” which is defined as pertaining to prisons or a prison. In the limited scope of context provided, I imagine it is a semi derogatory reference to the characteristic of capitalism to simply incarcerate criminals rather than reform them.
First I think the spelling is wrong and the word you are looking for is carceral. A carceral state is a state modelled on the idea of a prison. A prison is a state. Where is the carceral state? What is an attempt on the problem of control over urban space? In the carceral state, public space is transformed into defendable space, with the installation of walls, gates, fencing, surveillance cameras and security checkpoints. These works are meant to give control to urban space. In these spaces, gatherings of strangers to the area are discouraged, and barricades of various forms are used to prevent people from entering or
passing through. The principle is simple: to “next year” and in this space, the construction is safer.
