Overview
Prices permeate contemporary life. From the cost of basic foodstuffs in developing countries to the pay of CEOs in rich ones, the question of the politics and ethics of pricing everything through the market dominates public life. At the same time, we know that dilemmas about how to value fairly, but also efficiently, goods and services have been with us for more than two thousand years, since the times of Aristotle in Ancient Greece. Through the course of the centuries, important thinkers like Thomas Aquinas, Adam Smith and Karl Marx all devoted considerable effort to try to understand how prices could reflect the intrinsic worth of the objects workers produce and exchange with other people. This is the question of the ""just price."" This volume represents the first systematic attempt to address this ancient debate through the use of qualitative empirical research, particularly ethnography. The volume comprises a substantial introduction that sets out the terms of the debate, proposing four different approaches to the just price, plus eight case studies based on fieldwork carried out in four different continents (Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America), ranging from topics such as fair trade, human rights and recycling, to organic agriculture, the rose oil industry, rural and urban marketplaces. Bringing together the most recent scholarship in economic anthropology and associated fields to investigate the social, political and ethical consequences of market prices on ordinary people, this book is of interest to researchers in anthropology, sociology, history and geography.
Full Product Details
Author: Peter Luetchford (University of Sussex, UK) ,
Giovanni Orlando (University of Turin, Italy)
Publisher: Emerald Publishing Limited
Imprint: Emerald Publishing Limited
Volume: 39
Dimensions:
Width: 15.20cm
, Height: 1.90cm
, Length: 22.90cm
Weight: 0.452kg
ISBN: 9781787435742
ISBN 10: 1787435741
Pages: 240
Publication Date: 19 June 2019
Audience:
College/higher education
,
Professional and scholarly
,
Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
,
Professional & Vocational
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: In Print
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Author Information
Peter Luetchford is Senior Lecturer at the University of Sussex, UK. He has carried out fieldwork in Costa Rica, Spain and the UK, and published on fair trade, ethical consumption, and political cultures of food. He is currently researching historical experiences and practices of work and crisis in Andalusia, Spain. Giovanni Orlando is Marie Curie Fellow at the University of Turin, Italy. He has done research and written on aspects of the Italian food economy, especially organic and fair trade foods, both in the north and south of the country. He is also interested in labor movements and industrial democracy.
