The British Journal of Sociology 2014 Volume 65 Issue 4
Piketty symposium: Editors’ introduction Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the Twenty-First Century has been a publishing sensation. The book reached number one on the bestseller list of Amazon.com, and remained on the New York Times nonfiction bestseller list for twenty-two weeks. It goes without saying that the book has also attracted a vast amount of commentary in news and social media. Thomas Piketty himself has rapidly become a household name, with speaking appearances sold out long in advance. The Guardian even called him a ‘rock star economist’. Much has been said about why an economics book – and why a book on inequality – might have caught the public imagination in this way. But at the British Journal of Sociology, we were equally struck by the tremendous opportunity the book presents for developing an interdisciplinary conversation about some really fundamental questions: not simply about social class and inequality, as important as these are, but also issues such as the way different social science disciplines think about history and social change, methodology, and contradiction, and about the social and political nature of capital, wealth and value. The purpose of this Symposium is to encourage such a conversation, so we are featuring papers not only from sociology, but also from anthropology, economics, gender studies, geography, political science, and social policy. We believe that, by virtue of its interdisciplinarity, this is an unusual set of reflections, and a landmark event in the Journal’s history. As anticipated in our June editorial, the British Journal of Sociology is going through an exciting period of renewal in which we hope to develop the publishing strategy of the Journal, for example by encouraging papers on new areas of the discipline from its emerging scholars, and as is the case with this Symposium, by responding quickly to current debates by publishing special issues and sections. We are especially pleased to be able to make all of the papers freely available to readers, and are proud that this Symposium is linked to the latest issue of the magazine of the British Sociological Association, Discover Society, which is on the topic of inequality. While we remain deeply committed to publishing the very best work in sociology, we are also keen to feature dialogue and debate with our neighbouring disciplines on questions – such as the nature of inequality in the
© London School of Economics and Political Science 2014 ISSN 0007-1315 print/1468-4446 online. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd, 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA on behalf of the LSE. DOI: 10.1111/1468-4446.12113
590
Piketty symposium editors’ introduction
contemporary world – which are of clear and compelling interest across disciplinary boundaries. We are delighted to be kicking off this new era in the Journal’s history with this Symposium, and extremely grateful to our authors – including Thomas Piketty himself – for agreeing to write for us under extremely tight deadlines. The Editorial Team
© London School of Economics and Political Science 2014
British Journal of Sociology 65(4)
Copyright of British Journal of Sociology is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use.
Piketty symposium: Editors’ introduction Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the Twenty-First Century has been a publishing sensation. The book reached number one on the bestseller list of Amazon.com, and remained on the New York Times nonfiction bestseller list for twenty-two weeks. It goes without saying that the book has also attracted a vast amount of commentary in news and social media. Thomas Piketty himself has rapidly become a household name, with speaking appearances sold out long in advance. The Guardian even called him a ‘rock star economist’. Much has been said about why an economics book – and why a book on inequality – might have caught the public imagination in this way. But at the British Journal of Sociology, we were equally struck by the tremendous opportunity the book presents for developing an interdisciplinary conversation about some really fundamental questions: not simply about social class and inequality, as important as these are, but also issues such as the way different social science disciplines think about history and social change, methodology, and contradiction, and about the social and political nature of capital, wealth and value. The purpose of this Symposium is to encourage such a conversation, so we are featuring papers not only from sociology, but also from anthropology, economics, gender studies, geography, political science, and social policy. We believe that, by virtue of its interdisciplinarity, this is an unusual set of reflections, and a landmark event in the Journal’s history. As anticipated in our June editorial, the British Journal of Sociology is going through an exciting period of renewal in which we hope to develop the publishing strategy of the Journal, for example by encouraging papers on new areas of the discipline from its emerging scholars, and as is the case with this Symposium, by responding quickly to current debates by publishing special issues and sections. We are especially pleased to be able to make all of the papers freely available to readers, and are proud that this Symposium is linked to the latest issue of the magazine of the British Sociological Association, Discover Society, which is on the topic of inequality. While we remain deeply committed to publishing the very best work in sociology, we are also keen to feature dialogue and debate with our neighbouring disciplines on questions – such as the nature of inequality in the
© London School of Economics and Political Science 2014 ISSN 0007-1315 print/1468-4446 online. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd, 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA on behalf of the LSE. DOI: 10.1111/1468-4446.12113
590
Piketty symposium editors’ introduction
contemporary world – which are of clear and compelling interest across disciplinary boundaries. We are delighted to be kicking off this new era in the Journal’s history with this Symposium, and extremely grateful to our authors – including Thomas Piketty himself – for agreeing to write for us under extremely tight deadlines. The Editorial Team
© London School of Economics and Political Science 2014
British Journal of Sociology 65(4)
Copyright of British Journal of Sociology is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use.
