The Other Moral Economy

• In Event: 3110 - Between Moral Economies and Economic Moralities

Abstract

From E. P. Thompson and James Scott to Samuel Bowles, moral economies, however distinct the meaning that they are given, refer to actual economies, that is, the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services, the adjective moral implying to varying degrees the norms, values and affects attached to these processes. But what if moral economies involved instead the creation, circulation, and appropriation of norms, values and affects themselves, whether they are related or not with the world of goods and services? Such an approach to moral economies offers the possibility of analyzing the variations with time and differences within society, the competition and conflicts, the adoption and resistances, which make prevail certain norms, values and affects around certain social facts, in particular those constructed as social issues. One can think, for instance, of the moral economies of punishment, of orphanhood, or of trauma, to limit myself to a few subjects I have been working on. A study of the moral economy of immigration and asylum over the past half century in France will serve as an illustration, showing that it is a necessary complement to the usual analyses in terms of political economy.

Author

• Didier Fassin, Institute for Advanced Study