Violent Geographies

Flashcards on Violent Geographies

Accumulation through dispossession

A process where wealth and power are concentrated by dispossessing individuals or communities of their land, resources, or means of production, often through violent or coercive means.

Transatlantic slave trade

A historical trade route from 1501-1867 where enslaved Africans were transported across the Atlantic on slave ships, with approximately 12.5 million people transported and 2 million dying en route.

Triangular slave trade

A trade pattern involving commodities from Europe traded in Africa for slaves, slaves transported to American plantations, and plantation commodities returned to Europe.

Transportation Act of 1717

A law that allowed convicts to be sent to work in British colonies instead of being executed, with sentences of seven years for minor crimes and fourteen years for serious crimes.

Gulag system

Camps and prisons run by the Soviet secret police used to accelerate industrialization, exploit resources, and liquidate kulaks.

Spatial fix

A geographical solution to political-economic crises where surplus capital and labor are absorbed through investments in new spaces and infrastructures.

Primitive accumulation

The historical process of divorcing the producer from the means of production, which involves the expropriation of peasants from the soil and the initial creation of a property-less working class.

Labour Theory of Value

The economic theory stating that the value of a commodity is determined by the amount of labor needed to produce it.

Capital surplus absorption problem

The need to find new ways to invest surplus capital, which can lead to crises if barriers to circulation and growth arise.

Historical-geographical materialism

A methodological approach that examines the historical and geographical processes that shape material conditions and social relations.

Accumulation through dispossession

A process where wealth and power are concentrated by dispossessing individuals or communities of their land, resources, or means of production, often through violent or coercive means.

Transatlantic slave trade

A historical trade route from 1501-1867 where enslaved Africans were transported across the Atlantic on slave ships, with approximately 12.5 million people transported and 2 million dying en route.

Triangular slave trade

A trade pattern involving commodities from Europe traded in Africa for slaves, slaves transported to American plantations, and plantation commodities returned to Europe.

Transportation Act of 1717

A law that allowed convicts to be sent to work in British colonies instead of being executed, with sentences of seven years for minor crimes and fourteen years for serious crimes.

Gulag system

Camps and prisons run by the Soviet secret police used to accelerate industrialization, exploit resources, and liquidate kulaks.

Spatial fix

A geographical solution to political-economic crises where surplus capital and labor are absorbed through investments in new spaces and infrastructures.

Primitive accumulation

The historical process of divorcing the producer from the means of production, which involves the expropriation of peasants from the soil and the initial creation of a property-less working class.

Labour Theory of Value

The economic theory stating that the value of a commodity is determined by the amount of labor needed to produce it.

Capital surplus absorption problem

The need to find new ways to invest surplus capital, which can lead to crises if barriers to circulation and growth arise.

Historical-geographical materialism

A methodological approach that examines the historical and geographical processes that shape material conditions and social relations.

American Revolutionary War (1775-83)

A conflict fought between Great Britain and its 13 American colonies, leading to the formation of the United States of America.

Convict Labour to Lethal Labour

The transition from using convict labor for colonial development to systems where labor leads to death, such as in concentration camps.

Soviet Labour Camps

A network of forced labor camps in the Soviet Union used for political repression and economic exploitation.

Golden Gulag

A term referring to the economic boom in the Soviet Union during the Stalin era, heavily reliant on forced labor in the Gulag system.

Secret Primitive Accumulation

The concealed or undocumented dispossession and exploitation of resources and labor, often masked within legitimate economic activities.

Academics who apply