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 the 21st century, with the world's food system under economic, environmental, social, and political stress, the ethical food umbrella faces an uncertain future as mentioned in this paper, it could be submerged by 'value-for-money'; consumerism; or it could become a champion of what the author calls an emerging set of 'omnistandards', under which fragmented single issues coalesce and articulate a new paradigm.
Abstract: The author considers how ethical food raises complex challenges for policy makers. Looking mainly at Europe and developed countries, it is suggested that the notion of ethical food is plastic, but that therein lie its strength and appeal. Civil society movements see it as a rallying point to restructure food systems, from land use to consumption. The mainstream corporate sector sees ethical food as an umbrella term under which many, sometimes even competing, aspirations nestle, but which can be incorporated as additional niche markets. Far from being new, the ethical-food banner in the late 20th century has resurrected some older traditions, including those which contested power relations in the food system. But in the 21st century, with the world's food system under economic, environmental, social, and political stress, the ethical-food umbrella faces an uncertain future. It could be submerged by 'value-for-money'; consumerism; or it could become a champion of what the author calls an emerging set of 'omnistandards', under which fragmented single issues coalesce and articulate a new paradigm.
58 citations
Cites background from "The moral economy of grades and sta..."
...Most ethical foods are backed up by certification systems and imply meaningful social relationships between consumers and food, a relationship well understood and championed by civil society movements who have worked hard to put the various elements of èthical food' onto the policy map (Busch, 2000)....
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...…ethical foods are backed up by certification systems and imply meaningful social relationships between consumers and food, a relationship well understood and championed by civil society movements who have worked hard to put the various elements of èthical food' onto the policy map (Busch, 2000)....
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TL;DR: In this paper, the authors evaluate the ways in which UK food and clothing retailers are learning to develop their ethical trading programs in response to political calls for more responsible trading and explore what happens when corporations engage explicitly in practices of organisational learning not only to become better capitalists by generating ever more innovative ways of maintaining profitability, improving competitiveness and maximising shareholder value, but also to become more responsible corporate citizens in their business practices.
58 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue that markets are socially constructed, and actors use institutions strategically to advance certain interests and preferences, and that institutions are powerful because they enable and constrain opportunities, privileges and responsibilities by defining a person's rights and that person's exposure to the rights of others within the marketplace.
Abstract: The expansion of global value chains, together with an export‐oriented development strategy by countries in the global South, has been accompanied by the growth of labor markets that are both flexible and feminized. However, the marginalization of sections of the working class, and women in particular, is not an inexorable ingredient of globalization. How, then, are social relations within the labor market constructed? Markets and their institutional arrangements, such as labor standards, are neither passive nor benign processes that simply reflect preexisting social relations. Instead, I argue, markets are socially constructed, and actors use institutions strategically to advance certain interests and preferences. Institutions are powerful because they enable and constrain opportunities, privileges, and responsibilities by defining a person’s rights and that person’s exposure to the rights of others within the marketplace. To understand this process, I conducted field research in 2005 within the...
58 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that consumer choice is better understood as a political ideology addressing a particular way in which everyday practices can be directed so as to solve social problems, a way that makes questions of power particularly challenging.
Abstract: The lack of consistency between people’s engagement in ethical issues and their food choices has received considerable attention. Consumption as “choice” dominates this discourse, understood as decision-making at the point of purchase. But ideas concentrating on individual choice are problematic when trying to understand how social and ethical issues emerge and are dealt with in the practices of buying and eating food. I argue in this paper that “consumer choice” is better understood as a political ideology addressing a particular way in which everyday practices can be directed so as to solve social problems. It is a way that makes questions of power particularly challenging. Some assume consumer sovereignty, emphasizing consumer choice as a reflection of neoliberal deregulation and commercialization. Others worry that ongoing changes increase consumers’ powerlessness. None of these seem to capture that there is active regulation, where public as well as commercial and civil actors are making strong efforts to make people do the right thing—voluntarily. Labeling is the key measure. In practice, the individualized and rationalized model of responsibility depends not only on market opportunities, but even political and social expectations and trust. People may lack concrete capabilities and power to follow up on moral calls, but they may also have a different understanding of who is responsible and what is a “good deed,” or their actions may, in a Foucauldian sense, represent resistance. The paper will, with examples from European empirical studies, discuss how mobilization as well as inertia and disinterest emerge within specific political constellations and practical contexts.
58 citations
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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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