What does the word 'carcareal' mean when referring to policies?

Question

In The Enigma of Capital: And the Crises of Capitalism by David Harvey on page 240 the author alludes to an "... anti-democratic, money-saturated and carcareal drift of capitalist state policies..." which, as far as I can see, is the only time the word 'carcareal' occurs in the book.

I've searched Google and some on-line dictionaries but so far haven't found any definition or use of the word in a similar context that would give me a clue what it means. To me the context makes me think of the word 'carcass' and connotes morbidity and death but that's a wild guess.

Henry · Accepted Answer

Carcareal is almost certainly a variant of carceral meaning "like a prison".

Both seem fairly rare, and restricted to post-modernist writers such as Michel Foucault. You will find phrases such as "carcareal archipelago" or "carceral archipelago", which seem to mean the division of society into prisons, mental institutions and gated communities, with surveillance everywhere.

chaos · Answer

It's an obscure formation from the same root as incarcerate, and means prison- or imprisonment-related (or, I suspect in this case, imprisonment-oriented).

HaL · Answer

Not sure if the word is misspelled in the book or you mistyped, but I believe you are looking for "carceral," which is defined as "pertaining to prisons or a prison." In the limited scope of context provided, I imagine it is a semi-derogatory reference to the characteristic of 'capitalistic state policies' to simply incarcerate criminals rather than reform them.

Answered by HaL on August 20, 2020

n0nChun · Answer

First I think the spelling is incorrect and the word you are looking for is carceral. 
From Wiki: 
A carceral state is a state modelled on the idea of a prison. It employs physical boundaries in order to gain control of urban space. In the carceral state, public space is transformed into defendable space, with the installation of walls, gates, fences, surveillance cameras and security checkpoints. Such installations are meant to provide control over urban space. In these spaces, gatherings of strangers to the area are discouraged, and barricades of various forms can prevent people from entering or passing through.

Cin-Cin · Answer

It’s in Nabokov’s “Invitation to a Beheading” as well — a book about the imprisonment of one Cincinnatus.
Page 206 - 207:
...he was about to sit down again when suddenly the key scraped in the lock and the door opened whining, rattling and groaning in keeping with all the rules of carceral counterpoint.

What does the word 'carcareal' mean when referring to policies?

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