The moral economy of grades and standards
TL;DR: In this article, it is argued that grades and standards are part of the moral economy of the modern world, and that they both set norms for behavior and standardize (create uniformity).
About: This article is published in Journal of Rural Studies.The article was published on 2000-07-01. It has received 313 citations till now. The article focuses on the topics: Generally Accepted Auditing Standards & Standardization.
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Journal Article•
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present the cambios in el sistema de distribucion de frutas and verduras in Brazil in the ultimos anos and present the posibilidades of actuacion for Centrales Publicas de Abasto.
Abstract: El objetivo es presentar los cambios en el sistema de distribucion de frutas y verduras en Brasil en los ultimos anos y las posibilidades de actuacion para las Centrales Publicas de Abasto. El abastecimiento de alimentos es entendido como primordial para las condiciones de acceso y disponibilidad de esos alimentos en las ciudades. Se consideraran los problemas concernientes a las CEASA desde la ruptura del Sistema Nacional de Centrales de Abastecimiento (SINAC) y frente al proceso de globalizacion agroalimenticio. Ese texto fue realizado en el 2010 con levantamiento de datos secundarios y entrevistas semiestructuradas realizadas a actores importantes en la distribucion de frutas y verduras. Entre las conclusiones, se destaca que todavia hay espacio para una actuacion publica en el abastecimiento de alimentos con nucleo en las centrales de abastecimiento y con base en los principios de la Seguridad Alimentaria y Nutricional.
13 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors distinguish two types of standards for defining organic produce; process standards and product standards, and define organic products by the method and means of production, rather than by the physical quality of the end product.
Abstract: The analysis distinguishes two types of standards for defining organic produce; process standards and product standards. Process standards define organic products by the method and means of production. Product standards define organic by the physical quality of the end product. The National Organic Program (NOP) uses process standards as the basis for defining organic. However, the situation is complicated by agricultural production practices, which sometimes result in the migration of NOP prohibited substances from conventional to organic fields. When this interaction alters the value of the product or the costs of production, a production externality is said to exist. Defining organic using process, rather than product standards, influences the burden and character of production externalities. The NOP’s emphasis on process standards reduces the likelihood that production externalities will emerge.
13 citations
Cites result from "The moral economy of grades and sta..."
...Our argument is consistent with Busch (2000) who maintains that standards are ubiquitous institutions shaping the rewards and penalties associated with the goods and bad, the betters and notso-goods of economic activity....
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03 Mar 2016
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine perspectives on standards and development in Kenya's horticulture sector using case studies that provide linkages and insights into this debate, and show that the proliferation of trade standards is often seen as a threat to poor countries that will diminish their export opportunities and lead to an unequal distribution of the gains from trade and result in marginalization of poor farmers.
Abstract: markdownThis thesis examines perspectives on standards and development in Kenya’s horticulture sector. The debate on standards and development is at the forefront of global policy discussions. The proliferation of trade standards is often seen as a threat to poor countries that will diminish their export opportunities and lead to an unequal distribution of the gains from trade and result in marginalization of poor farmers.
However, empirical studies have produced diverse conclusions about the effects of standards on development. The ability to comply with international standards has emerged as a key factor of success in developing countries’ participation in international trade. Kenya’s horticulture sector continues to play a major role in development as it directly provides export income to numerous small and large scale producers, provides labour and is the second largest forex exchange earner for the country. The success of this sector largely depends on the ability of key stakeholders to meet market requirements.
The thrust of this thesis is to present the different perspectives of standards and development in Kenya’s horticulture sector using case studies that provide linkages and insights into this debate. These different aspects of analysis generate different dimensions of the link between standards and development. In this research, three key aspects are analysed: the effect of standards on export supply; the link between standards, governance and distribution of rent along the value chain; and the social micro-processes of smallholder participation in this global value chain. Finally, the different institutional implications of standards are also discussed.
Key findings indicate that standards negatively affect export supply with rejections affecting exports in the short run and SPS measures affecting exports in the long run. Intricacies at the value chain level indicate that governance structures as a result of standards and subsequent power relationships influence the distributional outcomes of value chains with smallholders bearing the burden for compliance and reaping the lowest benefits comparatively. Participation of smallholders in these global chains is influenced by a number of factors including levels of capitalization, having contracts and belonging to a producer organization. The importance of intermediaries such as producer organizations, contracts and private public partnerships in capacity building, upgrading and linking smallholders to export markets is underscored.
12 citations
Cites background from "The moral economy of grades and sta..."
...When products and processes become more standardized, transparency increases and trade becomes more predictable and easy to control, thus reducing costs involved in transactions (Kaplinsky, 2006; Tander & Tilburg 2007; Busch, 2000)....
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TL;DR: In this paper, the authors focus on the increasing significance of processes of standardization in contemporary social life, but much less attention has been given to how standardization impacts inter-institutional social life.
Abstract: Although recent scholarship focuses on the increasing significance of processes of standardization in contemporary social life, much less attention has been given to how standardization impacts int...
12 citations
Cites background from "The moral economy of grades and sta..."
...As a result, they are part of the moral economy of the modern world, having considerable impact on fundamental questions about who we should be and how we should live (Busch, 2000)....
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...fundamental questions about who we should be and how we should live (Busch, 2000)....
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TL;DR: Fair trade certification is a mechanism used by coffee cooperatives to assist farmers with accessing cash income and securing a better price for their product as discussed by the authors, and it is used in coffee farms.
Abstract: Fair trade certification is a mechanism used by coffee cooperatives to assist farmers with accessing cash income and securing a better price for their product. Third-party certifiers regulate the f...
12 citations
References
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TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present La Volonté de Savoir, the methodological introduction of a projected five-volume history of sexuality, which seems to have a special fascination for Foucault: the gradual emergence of medicine as an institution, the birth of political economy, demography and linguistics as human sciences, the invention of incarceration and confinement for the control of the "other" in society (the mad, the libertine, the criminal) and that special violence that lurks beneath the power to control discourse.
Abstract: This writer who has warned us of the “ideological” function of both the oeuvre and the author as unquestioned forms of discursive organization has gone quite far in constituting for both these “fictitious unities” the name (with all the problems of such a designation) Michel Foucault. One text under review, La Volonté de Savoir, is the methodological introduction of a projected five-volume history of sexuality. It will apparently circle back over that material which seems to have a special fascination for Foucault: the gradual emergence of medicine as an institution, the birth of political economy, demography and linguistics as “human sciences,” the invention of incarceration and confinement for the control of the “other” in society (the mad, the libertine, the criminal) and that special violence that lurks beneath the power to control discourse.
15,794 citations
"The moral economy of grades and sta..." refers background in this paper
...As Foucault (1977) has suggested, some, perhaps most, of these relations of power are benign....
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Book•
01 Jan 1991
TL;DR: This article argued that we are modern as long as we split our political process in two - between politics proper, and science and technology, which allowed the formidable expansion of the Western empires.
Abstract: What makes us modern? This is a classic question in philosophy as well as in political science. However it is often raised without including science and technology in its definition. The argument of this book is that we are modern as long as we split our political process in two - between politics proper, and science and technology. This division allows the formidable expansion of the Western empires. However it has become more and more difficult to maintain this distance between science and politics. Hence the postmodern predicament - the feeling that the modern stance is no longer acceptable but that there is no alternative. The solution, advances one of France's leading sociologists of science, is to realize that we have never been modern to begin with. The comparative anthropology this text provides reintroduces science to the fabric of daily life and aims to make us compatible both with our past and with other cultures wrongly called pre-modern.
8,858 citations
"The moral economy of grades and sta..." refers background in this paper
...On the one hand, the social studies of science has been much in#uenced through the Actor Network Theory developed by Latour (1987, 1993) and Callon (Callon, 1991; Callon and Latour, 1992; Callon et al., 1986) among others (e.g., Law, 1994)....
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Book•
01 Jan 1987
TL;DR: In this article, the quandary of the fact-builder is explored in the context of science and technology in a laboratory setting, and the model of diffusion versus translation is discussed.
Abstract: Acknowledgements Introduction Opening Pandora's Black Box PART I FROM WEARER TO STRONGER RHETORIC Chapter I Literature Part A: Controversies Part B: When controversies flare up the literature becomes technical Part C: Writing texts that withstand the assaults of a hostile environment Conclusion: Numbers, more numbers Chapter 2 Laboratories Part A: From texts to things: A showdown Part B: Building up counter-laboratories Part C: Appealing (to) nature PART II FROM WEAR POINTS TO STRONGHOLDS Chapter 3 Machines Introduction: The quandary of the fact-builder Part A: Translating interests Part B: Keeping the interested groups in line Part C: The model of diffusion versus the model of translation Chapter 4 Insiders Out Part A: Interesting others in the laboratories Part B: Counting allies and resources PART III FROM SHORT TO LONGER NETWORKS Chapter 5 Tribunals of Reason Part A: The trials of rationality Part B: Sociologics Part C: Who needs hard facts? Chapter 6 Centres of calculation Prologue: The domestication of the savage mind Part A: Action at a distance Part B: Centres of calculation Part C: Metrologies Appendix 1
8,173 citations
Book•
01 Jan 1962
TL;DR: In the classic bestseller, Capitalism and Freedom, Friedman presents his view of the proper role of competitive capitalism as both a device for achieving economic freedom and a necessary condition for political freedom as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: In the classic bestseller, Capitalism and Freedom, Milton Friedman presents his view of the proper role of competitive capitalism--the organization of economic activity through private enterprise operating in a free market--as both a device for achieving economic freedom and a necessary condition for political freedom. Beginning with a discussion of principles of a liberal society, Friedman applies them to such constantly pressing problems as monetary policy, discrimination, education, income distribution, welfare, and poverty. "Milton Friedman is one of the nation's outstanding economists, distinguished for remarkable analytical powers and technical virtuosity. He is unfailingly enlightening, independent, courageous, penetrating, and above all, stimulating."-Henry Hazlitt, Newsweek "It is a rare professor who greatly alters the thinking of his professional colleagues. It's an even rarer one who helps transform the world. Friedman has done both."-Stephen Chapman, Chicago Tribune
7,026 citations
6,926 citations
"The moral economy of grades and sta..." refers background in this paper
...On the one hand, the social studies of science has been much in#uenced through the Actor Network Theory developed by Latour (1987, 1993) and Callon (Callon, 1991; Callon and Latour, 1992; Callon et al., 1986) among others (e.g., Law, 1994)....
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...…of Edmund Stone: Mathematical Instruments are the means by which those noble sciences, geometry and philosophy, are render'd 8As both Rouse (1987) and Latour (1987) have noted, the illusion of universality is constructed by a set of speci"c events and actions that are always local in character....
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