This paper applauds the vision and originality of Piketty's Capital and Ideology. We draw attention to the distinctive methodological perspective which he adopts, which we liken to call “social science engineering.” This allows a problem oriented perspective on long‐term global social change which sidesteps siloed disciplinary debates in social science and history about the meaning of modernity, the rise of capitalism, the formation of social groups, and the primacy of nations. We bring out how his theory of property permits him to take forward his overarching insight that economic growth leads to wealth accumulation. This, therefore, challenges long standing sociological perspectives by insisting that modernity is a conservative, rather than a revolutionary and transformative process. We build on this essential contribution by noting some areas where his work can push forward even further, notably that his focus on shifting relativities obscures qualitative historical changes, and more particularly means his analysis of the 20th century is not as provocative as that of the 19th century.

中文翻译：

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财产、财富和社会变革：作为社会科学工程师的皮凯蒂

本文为皮凯蒂资本与意识形态的远见和独创性鼓掌. 我们提请注意他采用的独特方法论观点，我们称之为“社会科学工程”。这允许以问题为导向的视角看待长期的全球社会变化，回避社会科学和历史中关于现代性的意义、资本主义的兴起、社会群体的形成和国家至上的孤立学科辩论。我们展示了他的财产理论如何使他能够提出经济增长导致财富积累的总体见解。因此，通过坚持认为现代性是一个保守的过程，而不是一个革命性和变革性的过程，这对长期存在的社会学观点提出了挑战。我们通过指出他的工作可以进一步推进的一些领域来建立在这一重要贡献的基础上，