Capital's Need to Sell and Black Economic Development

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Many have sought to disentangle the complexities of advanced capitalist societies by accepting the Marxist idea of the centrality of production. But a structural imperative of capital is to expand not only production, but also consumer spending. This study examines how that imperative of capital articulates with the black economy, which has historically been steeped in black consumers buying and selling in segregated parts of towns and cities. An historical narrative is provided of how black inner-city communities in the United States have been simultaneously ignored as well as assiduously controlled and managed as foci for commodity consumption. Whereas places of consumption have become a significant component of the urban landscape, attracting the attention of a few social and cultural geographers, geographers overall have not paid enough attention to places of consumption located in segregated areas of towns and cities.