Description
Book Synopsis The idea of a moral economy has been explored and assessed in numerous disciplines. The anthropological studies in this volume provide a new perspective to this idea by showing how the relations of workers, employees and employers, and of firms, families and households are interwoven with local notions of moralities. From concepts of individual autonomy, kinship obligations, to ways of expressing mutuality or creativity, moral values exert an unrealized influence, and these often produce more consent than resistance or outrage.
Trade Review “This edited volume provides valuable insights into the lived experiences of ordinary citizens who do not neatly fit into the rational, autonomous, self-regarding maximizers category imposed by neoclassical economists. Taken together, this set of ethnographic studies shows that a sense of justice experienced by different social groups at work can give insight into moral aspects of economies throughout the world. Scholars in the fields of economic anthropology, development studies, and labor relations will enjoy reading diverse examples of these phenomena from a wide range of locations across Eurasia.” • Exertions
“Each chapter carefully contextualizes the social norms, values, and obligations of their respective local setting to demonstrate how the moral economy is at play in various work situations… This well-conceived volume would allow for an engaging discussion in undergraduate (both anthropology majors and non-majors) and graduate classes focusing on work, globalization, and capitalism.” • Anthropos
“Contains a set of impressive ethnographic studies from a wide range of locations, introduced and tied together by an extremely clear, thorough and strong Introduction by Lale Yalçın-Heckmann.” • Frances Pine, Goldsmiths, University of London
Table of Contents List of Figures
Introduction: Moral Economy at Work
Lale Yalçın-Heckmann
Chapter 1. Freedom and Control: Analysing the Values of Niche Business Owners in Aarhus, Denmark
Anne-Erita G. Berta
Chapter 2. The ‘Good’ Employer: Mutual Expectations amidst Changing Employment Situations in Pathein, Myanmar
Laura Hornig
Chapter 3. Moral Economy and Mutuality at Work: Labour Practices in Tobacco Shops
Luca Szücs
Chapter 4. Tenacious Ties: The Embedded Trajectory of Small-Scale Enterprises in Provincial India
Sudeshna Chaki
Chapter 5. The Morality of Relatedness in Medium-Sized Businesses in Central Anatolia
Ceren Deniz
Chapter 6. Post-Soviet Garment Manufacturing in the Era of Global Competition: Between Precarity, Creative Work and Developmental Hopes
Daria Tereshina
Chapter 7. FIAT Automobiles Serbia: The Split Moral Economy of Public-Private Partnerships
Ivan Rajković
Chapter 8. Changing Mutuality: Building a House with Unpaid Labour in Bulgaria
Detelina Tocheva
Afterword: Moral Economy in Context
James G. Carrier
Index
