Journal Article

Bringing the Moral Economy Back in... to the Study of 21st-Century Transnational Peasant Movements

Edelman, Marc

2005

Overview

James Scott's \"The Moral Economy of the Peasant\" (1976) appeared at a time when \"peasant studies\" had begun to occupy an important place in the social sciences. The book's focus on Vietnam, as well as its novel argument about the causes of rural rebellion, attracted widespread attention and unleashed acerbic debates about peasants' \"rationality\" and the applicability of concepts from neoclassical economics to smallholding agriculturalists. In this article, I analyze E. P. Thompson's notion of \"moral economy\" and Scott's use of it to develop an experiential theory of exploitation. I then discuss other influences on Scott, including Karl Polanyi, A. V. Chayanov, and the Annales historians. \"Moral economy\" and \"subsistence crisis\" are concepts that Scott elaborated mainly in relation to village or national politics. In the final section of the article, I outline changes affecting peasantries in the globalization era and the continuing relevance of moral economic discourses in agriculturalists' transnational campaigns against the WTO.

• Publisher: American Anthropological Association,Blackwell Publishing Ltd
• Subject: 21st century / Agriculture / Collective action / Discourses / Exploitation / Farm commodities / Farm exports / Farmers / Food security / Food sovereignty / Globalization / Historians / In Focus: Moral Economies, State Spaces, and Categorical Violence: Anthropological Engagements with the Work of James Scott / Industrial agriculture / Moral economy / Neoclassical economics / Peasant agriculture / Peasant class / Peasant economy / Peasant movements / Peasantry / Peasants / Polanyi, Karl (1886-1964) / Political anthropology / Political dissent / Politics / Rationality / Scott, James C / Social movements / Social sciences / Sustainable agriculture / Transnationalism