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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TL;DR: In this paper, a focus on how bureaucracy contributes to constituting ecological modernities in the case of organic food trade in the UK and India is presented. But, a key part of what can be called traditional agriculture and organic farming is in the certification system itself.
Abstract: This paper seeks to analyse ecological modernisation using a focus on how bureaucracy contributes to constituting ecological modernities in the case of organic food trade in the UK and India. Ecological modernisation is a way for business to apply ecological technologies to satisfy the demands of increasingly affluent publics for higher quality of life, including high environmental standards. However, a key part of the distinction between what can be called traditional agriculture and organic farming is in the certification system itself. This reflects Weber's assertion that modernity is associated with a rise of bureaucracy to regulate the expansion of the capitalist market. The organic food industry may be vulnerable to classic criticisms of ecological modernisation that it is merely ameliorating unsustainable growth, but it is also reducing the environmental impact of agriculture whilst improving the living standards of poor farmers.
4 citations
Cites background from "The moral economy of grades and sta..."
...Some, such as Buttel (2000) and Blühdorn (2000) have typified criticisms of EM by alluding to its Eurocentric (or at least Northern) bias, its alleged lack of emphasis on reducing the diminution of environmental resources and also its lack of attention to social equity issues (both within and between states and between generations)....
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TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explored the standardisation effects of origin food schemes on the diversity of local practices and knowledge by analysing the emergence of the specifications of four origin cheeses recognized as Geographical Indications and Slow Food Presidia (Chefchaouen goat cheese in Morocco, Piacentinu Ennese in Italy, and Bearn mountain cheese and Ossau-Iraty in France).
Abstract: Origin food schemes (OFS) aim to protect and promote a unique product resulting from a specific place and know-how whose qualities are objectified in the product specifications. This paper explores the standardisation effects of OFS on the diversity of local practices and knowledge by analysing the emergence of the specifications of four origin cheeses recognised as Geographical Indications and Slow Food Presidia (Chefchaouen goat cheese in Morocco, Piacentinu Ennese in Italy, and Bearn mountain cheese and Ossau-Iraty in France). Results confirm that specifications directly preserve some genetic resources, taste, and know-how, whilst they also show that traditional production practices are taken into account differently, depending on negotiations among stakeholders during which opposing motives, strategies, and forms of knowledge may emerge. We argue that paradoxically this process results in adapting and reducing existing diversity, including in OFS that are more oriented towards localising practices and promoting a diversity of tastes.
4 citations
01 Jan 2006
4 citations
Cites background from "The moral economy of grades and sta..."
...In stark contrast, Busch (2000) argues that scientific standards are not merely benign, technical devices for reducing transaction costs or improving efficiency or “quality”....
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01 Jan 2003
TL;DR: In this paper, the social acknowledgment of the difference in Brazil related to afro-descendent population is analyzed from the analysis of the public policies of land regularization of quilombolas territories and the patrimonialization of cultural goods related to this social segment.
Abstract: This work has as its subject the social acknowledgment of the difference in Brazil related to afro-descendent population. The problematization of such question is made from the analysis of the public policies of land regularization of quilombolas territories and the patrimonialization of cultural goods related to this social segment, aiming to understand how works the acknowledgment of afro-descendents difference in these social processes and to think about the participation of anthropologists in these situations. This way, we aim to explore the subtleties of this phenomenon, its impacts over the groups that are its objects and the reactions it causes on the public realm. The research universe in this work is composed by the territorial acknowledgment processes in the lasting community at quilombo Família Silva, in Porto Alegre, and the cultural acknowledgment of Cerro dos Porongos, in Pinheiro Machado, both counties at Rio Grande do Sul State. The comparative analysis of the processes leads us to believe that the culture is still the place par excellence reserved to the subject of afro-descendent population in our country, what means to say, the espace of difference.
4 citations
Dissertation•
01 Dec 2014
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors developed a spatial information management system to aid with integrated agricultural and environmental management, where the spatial data requirements were identified by unpacking the relevant imperatives directing integrated agricultural, environmental and topographic data.
Abstract: The agricultural sector plays a valuable role in the South African economy. However, agriculture is embedded in the natural environment. The research problem revolves around the lack of an information management system, capable of integrated agricultural and environmental management to promote sustainable agricultural development on farm level. This study aimed to develop a spatial information management system to aid with integrated agricultural and environmental management. The study area consisted of a seven-farm production unit, Howbill Properties, which provided the necessary agricultural and environmental elements for this study. Spatial data requirements were identified by unpacking the relevant imperatives directing integrated agricultural and environmental management. Data was collected with a recreational outdoor GPS device, digitised from remotely sensed images and obtained from various sources. Spatial data consisted of infrastructure data, such as water pumps, power lines, and fruit orchard boundaries, whereas environmental spatial data consisted of natural resource data, and topographic data. The study further details the process of selecting the necessary components for an enterprise GIS and building the system. PostgreSQL with the PostGIS spatial extension was selected as the spatial database and QGIS was selected as the desktop GIS application. It was found that the prototype integrated spatial information system could be effectively applied to assist integrated agricultural and environmental management. The prototype spatial information system was able to serve the needs of novice to advanced users. However, insufficient spatial data were identified as a limitation, and spatial data should be improved and updated regularly.
4 citations
Cites background from "The moral economy of grades and sta..."
...Ultimately, such standards can be applied to constrain market access, which inevitably force suppliers to adhere to regulations and environmentally beneficial production principles (Busch 2000; Van der Grijp et al. 2005; Fulponi 2006; Havinga 2006)....
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...2001), which in turn opens new competitive market opportunities (Busch 2000; Van der Grijp et al. 2005)....
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...…to policies and legislation, consumer trends and market initiatives also require certain sustainable certified measures to be put in place to satisfy market demands (Sahota 2009; Bredahl et al. 2001), which in turn opens new competitive market opportunities (Busch 2000; Van der Grijp et al. 2005)....
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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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