Geographies Of Wealth Research Articles

Geographies of wealth: the materiality of an elite school in Switzerland

ABSTRACT Elite schools, long tasked with creating a future national elite, often now find themselves competing in a global education market. This article explores how one such school, in Switzerland, articulates with the global imaginary of its local geography – in particular, with images of luxury tourism and safety – to appeal to a globally wealthy clientele. It unpacks the material benefits derived from this articulation, for both the institution itself and the individuals who attend it. The school, I argue, fostered a ‘club effect’ that enhanced the social and symbolic capital of (most of) its students, brought into relief by the scholarship students who were excluded from it. This article thus explores what kind of work is being done when a particular vision – that of wealth – is attached to a school, and for whom that work is done. It closes by pointing to ways in which this educational landscape is shifting.

En un rincón de la frontera se teje insurgencia. Territorios encarnados ante la (re)patriarcalización

In the face of the imminent threats of despoilment and increase of violence on the bodies-territories-lands of rural, indigenous, and farming women and their community frameworks, six years ago an exchange of dialogue and organizational networks began between different collectives from the border and women from the Tojolabal Meseta of Chiapas (Comitán, Trinitaria and Margaritas) with the goal of building a repertoire of actions to establish dams that could put a break on the (re)patriarchalization of the social space. The objective of the article is to start with the conceptualization of the meaning of embodied territory, an analytic category that elaborates on the organizational loom of diverse women. First, I will outline the context of the border to frame the (re)patrarchalization of the territories that are spread out in this corner of the southeast, which is characterized by the existence of regional economies that constitute unequal geographies of wealth and offset dynamics of violence. Subsequently, I analyze the itineraries, routes, and strategies that organized women of the border deploy to enunciate what they are witnessing as embodied territory.

Geographies of wealth: real estate and personal property ownership in England and Wales, 1870–1902

This article explores the composition and geographies of individual wealth holding in England and Wales in the late nineteenth century. It draws on various forms of death duty records to determine the individual ownership of wealth including both personal property and real estate. By combining information on these different kinds of property, it is possible to explore how different strata of wealth holders accumulated specific forms of wealth at the time of their death. The article then examines how the composition of that wealth varied according to the wealth holder's location in the urban hierarchy and distance from London. It points out important geographical differences in both the scale and nature of wealth holding and raises questions about the implications of these findings.

Osaka: The Merchants' Capital of Early Modern Japan. Edited by James L. McClain and Wakita Osamu. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1999. xxviii, 295 pp. $49.95.

Social and political life in early modern Japan revolved around three cities: the emperor's city of Kyoto, the shogun's city of Edo and the commercial centre of Osaka. This volume explores the merchants' capital, Osaka, during the Tokugawa era from 1600 to 1800. The contributors explore topics including the early growth and development of the city, the geography of wealth and power in the 17th century, political dissidence, the theatre, gang violence, and Osaka's religious and intellectual life.

Metropolitan Estates of the Middle Class, 1800–50: Probates and Death Duties Revisited*

Abstract This article compares the nature of probate records with the death duty registers and explores some of the ways in which these data can be used to analyse wealth‐holding in London in the first half of the nineteenth century. Shortcomings of the probate data are discussed and suggestions made as to how such data can be interpreted in relation to wealth‐holding in the urban middle class. In the context of London, the paper demonstrates how probate records can be used to examine the geography of wealth, the relationships between occupations and wealth, and the role of gender.