Capitalism and Confinement

Capitalism thrives on motion—but its power is built on the confinement of land, labor, and life.

We often describe capitalism as movement: flows of money, migrations of labor, cycles of production and consumption. From Marx’s “limitless chase” to David Harvey’s “flows” and Badiou’s “boundless quest,” the language of motion dominates our understanding of the system. But what if capitalism depends not only on movement, but on confinement?

Capitalism and Confinement reframes the history of accum...