The Moral Economy and the Discipline of Historical Context

Bohstedt, John

doi:10.1353/jsh/26.2.265

Cited by 53 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…They lie at the heart of moral economies, which are relational but never static, specific to each polity and person and constantly being defined anew. 24 Although this article's focus on access to subsistence goods more closely mirrors the empirical concerns of E.P. Thompson, the conception of moral economy it employs emerged in conversation with the work of James Scott and his interlocutors.…”

Section: O R a L Ru B R I C S A N D M O R A L E C O N O M I E S O Fmentioning

confidence: 99%

Leavened Apprehensions: Bread Subsidies and Moral Economies in Hashemite Jordan

Martínez

2018

Int. J. Middle East Stud.

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This article analyzes the microprocesses that imbue bread with meaning and the macropolitics that shape its subsidized provision. It begins by outlining bread's multiple forms of value and significance, some easily quantifiable, others not. It problematizes the predominant approach to studying moral economies before putting forth an alternative framework. Drawing on eighteen months of fieldwork in Jordan, the following empirical sections examine the different ways in which bureaucrats, bakers, and ordinary citizens portray the government's universal subsidy of Arabic bread. I unpack the diverse opinions encountered in the field and discuss their links to the Hashemite regime's polyvalent legitimating discourse. The article then dissects the politics of provisions that contribute to the bread subsidy's paradoxical persistence. It concludes by considering the relationship between moral economies, opposition politics, and authoritarian power in the context of Jordan's ongoing food subsidy debate.

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Section: O R a L Ru B R I C S A N D M O R A L E C O N O M I E S O Fmentioning

confidence: 99%

Leavened Apprehensions: Bread Subsidies and Moral Economies in Hashemite Jordan

Martínez

2018

Int. J. Middle East Stud.

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“…Although the notion of “moral economy” could be understood either as a source of legitimization rather than a model of action (Arnold, , pp. 131–136), or as a positioning, an attitude defined by certain common features, under no circumstances it is a condemnation of the market, but instead an adjustment.. As Bohstedt () affirms, more than moral motivations, actions are interesting as adaptive responses to the changing political and economic context that affected the lives of the peasants. Forestry conflict therefore seems to reflect a conditional acceptance of the market, inasmuch as respect should also be shown for the peasants' “old” uses, rights, and solidarities.…”

Section: Forms Of Resistance and Peasant Protest In The Province Of Leónmentioning

confidence: 99%

Forestry conflict in Spain: Rethinking peasant protest and resistance

Serrano‐Álvarez

2018

Journal of Agrarian Change

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This article examines forestry conflict in the Spanish province of León and the struggle between village communities and the state over the control of common lands and forests. One of this article's conclusions is that forestry conflict reflected, on the one hand, the struggle for economic control not only between the peasants and the state but also between the peasants themselves and, on the other hand, the clash between the market economy championed by the state and the traditional arrangements, values, and solidarities defended by the peasants. Another conclusion is that widely used concepts such as “weapons of the weak” or “environmentalism of the poor” are deemed inadequate regarding the peasant protest and resistance analysed here, which in turn calls for a definition of these new forms of rural resistance or a reformulation of those already in use.

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“…91 Indeed, as has been argued for England by John Bohstedt, it was the 'stimulus of riot' that 'jump-started' noblesse oblige. 92 The matter was put plainly but typically in a minute of Elgin's town council in February 1773: considering the present dearth of victual and 'that the inhabitants have turned riotous and threatened to raise mobs for want of meal', the council agreed to purchase 300 bolls of meal. 93 In Forfar it was the appearance at the manse in 1782 or 1783 of marchers led by a man carrying a long pole 'on the top of which was fixed a small loaf of bread that had been steeped in blood' that persuaded the town's minister to instigate a relief scheme.…”

Section: IImentioning

confidence: 99%

Custom, Commerce and Lord Meadowbank: the Management of the Meal Market in Urban Scotland, c.1740–c.1820

Whatley¹

2012

J Scottish Historical Studies

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The Moral Economy and the Discipline of Historical Context

Cited by 53 publications

References 22 publications

Leavened Apprehensions: Bread Subsidies and Moral Economies in Hashemite Jordan

Leavened Apprehensions: Bread Subsidies and Moral Economies in Hashemite Jordan

Forestry conflict in Spain: Rethinking peasant protest and resistance

Custom, Commerce and Lord Meadowbank: the Management of the Meal Market in Urban Scotland, c.1740–c.1820

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