The Dual Chains of Automation and Finance: A Moral Economy Perspective

The ‘moral economy’ thesis was first propounded by E. P. Thompson and then developed by James C. Scott, and centres on the idea that in pre-capitalist societies social relations are grounded in a p...

This chapter argues that the 'moral economy' concept can contribute to our understanding of the relation between morality and economy in economic sociology. The benefits of the concept are twofold: First, it allows scholars to conceptualize the relationship between morality and economic action not only on the level of single markets, as is common in economic sociology, but also with regard to the larger institutional architecture of capitalist societies. Second, while many economic sociology studies tend to focus on the role of morality for the functioning of markets, the moral economy perspective allows for the consideration of the potentially conflictual relationship between morality and economy. We discuss exemplary studies from the moral economy perspective in four substantive areas - transitions to capitalism, welfare regimes and the moral economy of (re)distribution, commodification and taboo markets, and collective agency - in order to flesh out these ideas.

The 'moral economy perspective' has enriched a number of recent analyses in the history of industrial relations. Focusing on perceptions of fairness helps to explain the reasoning and activism of workers and trade-unionists engaged in industrial politics, movements and protests. A moral economy framework seems particularly apt where activists were animated by a sense of the established order being disturbed and dismantled by employers and policy-makers. Working-class and trade-union responses to the loss of industrial employment from the 1960s to the 1980s were often articulated in terms of collective injustice. Examination of these responses has been influenced by the works of E. P. Thompson and Karl Polanyi. Seeing the erosion of manual employment and changing working-class organization through the twin frameworks of deindustrialization and the moral economy is more productive than older and arguably dead-end narratives of economic decline and trade-union defeat.

After comparing the predictions of Marxist, moral economy, and rational-choice theories concerning collective actions by workers in Egypt in the period since the 1952 Free Officers coup, this article concludes that a moral economy perspective is best able to explain the nature and frequency of these protests. The supporting evidence is the correlation between labor protest and violations of workers' feelings of entitlement, as manifest in declining real wages or disruptions to established patterns of wage differentials. The targeting of state institutions, combined with the fact that workers have eschewed actual production stoppages in favor of symbolic protests, indicates a view of reciprocal rights and obligations between themselves and the state. The latter reinforces the moral economy by combining significant concessions with its repressive response to labor protests. Marxism proves unable to explain the largely defensive and reactive nature of labor protest, while rational-choice theory is reduced to efforts to quantify workers' reactions to this repression.

This article investigates conflicts over large-scale mining through the lens of E. P. Thompson’s concept of the moral economy. The concept proves fruitful for an analysis of the local impacts of fundamental political-economic transformations, notably how people are affected by, and react to, structural changes. The recent global “commodity boom” and the related expansion of large-scale mining is a case in point. I refer to the moral economy to analyse conflicts around two gold mines in Burkina Faso. I argue that protests against mining are far from being irrational and instinct led, just as Thompson demonstrated for the food riots. Rather, the protests are driven by the notion that the way in which the “mining boom” has proceeded is profoundly unjust. Behind the conflict are different basic assumptions regarding what is considered legitimate and “normal,” namely the right to food and to live in dignity, as opposed to profit-making.

This article investigates the moral outlooks and obligations that are intertwined in the teaching and learning processes of the traditional folk music community in Norway and how moral aspects affect the development of professional identities. Theoretically, we combine the concept of a community of practice with a moral economy perspective. This allows us to see that professional folk musicians are positioned between two different moral economies, one that builds on voluntary values and gift exchange and another that builds on professional ideals of the market-based economy of the music industry. In this way, we extend existing knowledge on teaching and learning processes by specifying the moral content that is learnt by participating in the practices of the folk music community. Being socialised into the moral outlook of the Norwegian folk music community means internalising specific norms and values that create moral obligations and shape social contracts.

This chapter examines how resistance appears in Andrew Sayer’s account of the moral economy. While E.P. Thompson, James Scott and Karl Polanyi explicitly explore how subordinate groups engage in a range of collective action to oppose unjust economic practices, Sayer is ambivalent about resistance. He argues that resignation, complicity and accommodation to economic domination are likely to occur. But drawing on his work on lay morality as well as our research on rentierism in Central Asia, this chapter suggests there is more space for resistance and activism in his moral economy perspective than he usually allows.

Normative Power Europe in the Maghreb: A Moral Economy Perspective on the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreements

The modern financial paradigm generally prioritizes profit as its main objective, often neglecting moral and social justice aspects. This condition creates inequality and reduces the role of finance as a means for collective welfare. This study aims to reframe the understanding of profit through a moral economy perspective, emphasizing the values of social justice and collective welfare. The research method used is qualitative, through in-depth interviews with business actors and analysis of related documents. The results of the study emphasize that profit is no longer understood solely in materialistic terms, but is also related to moral and ethical values. Business actors place profit as a means of achieving social good, which provides inner satisfaction beyond financial value. Profit is perceived as an indicator of success in creating a fair and beneficial social impact on society. However, there are challenges in the form of moral conflicts between maximizing short-term profits and maintaining the principles of social justice. The implications of this research confirm that the application of moral economics in finance can be the foundation for building a more inclusive and sustainable business and financial system that supports collective welfare.

To get a job as a seafarer in the global maritime industry, thousands of male Filipino youths work for free as ‘utility men’ for manning agencies that supply seafarers to ship operators around the world. Based on ethnographic fieldwork and approached from a moral economy perspective, this article examines how manning agencies and utility men differentially rationalize this exploitative work (utility manning). Manning agencies use it as a technology of servitude that, through physical and verbal abuse and other techniques, enforces docility to prepare utility men for the harsher conditions on-board a ship. In contrast, utility men use it as a technology of imagination, gleaning from it a capacity to shape their future. Faced with few social possibilities in the Philippines, they deploy servitude as a strategy for attaining economic mobility and male adulthood.

‘Normative power’ is an increasingly popularised concept in the study of EU external relations in fields including military policy, human rights, and international trade. Defined by Manners, it acknowledges the normative foundations of the European project, examines how Europe acts to (re)shape internationally accepted norms, and makes the claim that Europe ought to influence external partners' conception of ‘normal’ behaviour in pursuit of a just global order. This article, however, argues that a moral economy perspective is central to a critical reorientation of the concept of normative power towards appraisal of discrepancies between nominal EU norms and material EU policy outcomes. Examining Europe's ‘normative power’ in its relations with the African, Caribbean, and Pacific (ACP) countries, it demonstrates how a moral economy of ACP–EU ties has been instituted in negotiation with European ethical norms as to solidarity with ‘the poor’. Nevertheless, the moral economy of ACP–EU ties is seen not to be ‘moral’ in terms of outcomes for vulnerable citizens in ACP countries. Rather the embedding of moral norms concerning pro-poor ‘development’ has rationalised asymmetric economic ties. ‘Normative power’ is understood as the EU's utilisation of moral norms in the public legitimisation and self-rationalisation of geopolitical interest and commercial gain in its relations with external ‘partners’.

Most academic work in the related domains of religion, faith and crime theorise the religion-crime nexus to facilitate social conformity. Additionally, empirical research attends to the efficacy of religion to reduce or prevent crime in the community, during and following release from custody. In other words, the orthodox theoretical and empirical enterprise is largely directed towards individual offenders and instrumental reductions in offending behaviour. Contrastingly, the purpose and scope of this chapter proceed beyond a narrowly constructed theoretical and empirical individual metanoia (change of heart and mind) to the system of criminal justice itself. This more unorthodox approach from the other end is pursued by directing attention towards the complex and contested conceptual lens of moral economy (Whitehead 2015a) in its relevance for, and application to, the functioning of the criminal justice system primarily in England and Wales.

We analyze economic elites’ perceptions and beliefs about meritocracy from a moral economy perspective. A moral economy perspective considers how norms and beliefs structure socioeconomic practices through the constitution and expression of what is considered acceptable, proper, and legitimate. Our study explores how economic elites make sense of the roles of talent and effort in the distribution of resources and how they reconcile the idea of meritocracy within a rigid social order. The site of our study is Chile, a country with fluid mobility between low and middle classes, but with high and persistent disparities and strong barriers to elite positions. We conducted 44 semistructured interviews with shareholders, board members, and high-level executives of large or high-turnover companies in three major Chilean cities. We find that the economic elite strongly support meritocracy but explain access to top positions based on talent rather than effort. The economic elite define talent in terms of business and leadership skills. They attribute upward mobility in the private sector to meritocratic practice. At the same time, they view the public sector as the epitome of nonmeritocratic practices, incompetence, and inefficiency. They profess empathy with the poor, but they reject redistributive policies. The economic elite believe in the primacy of competition in economic life and the necessity of continual economic growth, and thus, they understand meritocracy as both the means to survive in a market economy and a responsible approach to lead national development.

This study examines the effects of socializing activity of the owned family in family firms in order to find out if the special characteristics of the socializing processes in this type of firm can contribute to defining a climate that favors employees’ commitment to the organization. For this purpose, this study uses the main arguments of the sociological approach known as moral economy. The data required for this analysis was collected using a self-administered postal questionnaire and the results show that the special type of socialization that takes place in the family firm, and particularly the emotional mediation that this type of socialization tends to entail, favors the appearance of noneconomic links between employers and employees. Thus, in family firms the climate favors the management of the affective, normative, and symbolic aspects. The authors consider that this provides an explanation for the higher levels of identification, involvement, and loyalty – and consequently organizational commitment – that they find empirically among the employees of such firms.

Is Market Capitalism Possible Under the Moral Economy of Africa: How the IFIs Can Help