ABSTRACT
In the last chapter at various points we referred to the role of space in poverty policy in capitalist Britain; in this chapter we consider this role more systematically. Space is central to poverty policy because the geography of capitalism is inherently dynamic. Capital constantly seeks out new labour forces, production linkages, final markets and political conditions (section 1.1). In doing so it frees itself from the constraints of any one place. As capital moves, its new absences and fresh presences change places, create new ones, and produce new spatial patterns of inclusion and exclusion. In consequence, space-by which we mean distance, place and scale-has been a constitutive element in policies and ideologies of exclusion.
