Towards a New Social Justice Agenda IN FOCUS POLICY BRIEFING Research and analysis from the Institute of Development Studies ISSUE 11 REdISTRIBUTIoN aNd BEyoNd: ExploRINg THE BaSICS SEPTEMBER 2009

Towards a New Social Justice Agenda: understanding Political r esponses to crises

Food across the developing world in 2008 sent powerful messages about the limits to people’s tolerance of acute economic insecurity. Yet political responses of this kind are mainly treated as the inevitable social convulsions after economic shocks – as natural, almost physiological responses to . This briefing proposes that these political responses to crises can provide insights into popular perspectives on the global political issues of the day: global economic uncertainty, the moral limits to market freedom, and responsibilities of governments to protect against risk. understanding such perspectives could inform emerging debates within development and help shape a new social justice agenda.

to the poor South. For instance, Food riots are not just about Popular perspectives on the hunger protestors outside the April G20 meeting The global financial crisis has highlighted urged us to ‘eat the rich’. limits to markets the need and created an opportunity for a In 2008, a wave of political protest, most The world became less peaceful last year progressive new social justice agenda. For notably a series of food riots, swept according to the global Peace index report those concerned with development and across developing countries. This was no for 2009, as intensified conflict, food and fuel economic justice, it has driven questions surprise given the economic downturn price rises, and global economic downturn of markets and morals to the fore. What and high on top chronic struck (institute for economics and Peace should the limits to market freedom be? poverty and insecurity. But the scale of 2009). it may be inevitable that social and Who should set those limits? How should these riots, some in defiance of powerful political upheaval accompany economic moral questions of needs and rights enter state forces, signal something more shock. But while macroeconomic indicators are painstakingly, regularly analysed, the these political debates? serious and profound than a simple angry political signals are harder to read. Food response to hunger, writ global. Popular perspectives have coloured these riots may signal the limits to popular tolerance political debates. In the US, financial But how are the political responses to of a politics that leaves people unprotected sector excesses have been the subject of global economic uncertainty in the against these economic tsunamis. Popular ‘populist rage’ in the mass media, developing world being read – if at all? perspectives on the limits to markets and famously on Jon Stewart’s The Late Show This briefing argues that those interested the purpose of development could and in March 2009. Popular anger has in crafting a new social justice agenda should contribute to a sharper debate about the rightful limits of markets and the satirised the trail of connections that could gain grounded perspectives from responsibilities of governments to protect transmit commodity, financial and an understanding of the political against economic uncertainty. environmental crises from the rich North response to crises.

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Political responses to crises can provide insights into popular ‘‘perspectives on the global political issues of the day. dominant readings of food riots round baladi – the staple of (parties, elections) than around ‘bread- Mass demonstrations and food riots took the Egyptian diet. and-butter’ (the price of basic food) concerns (Thompson 1991). place between 2007 and 2009 in an For Asma, who has to feed her ’’ estimated 30 countries. Credible family, including four children and 2. Food riots have often featured ideas about references can easily be found online to two in-laws, from her husband’s social justice demonstrations, protests and food riots in monthly salary of £200, ‘bread is Thompson’s well-known analysis of food Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, Bolivia, everything’. riots in eighteenth century England Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Egypt, Ethiopia, identified a legitimising notion behind (The Telegraph (8 April 2008) Guinea, Haiti, India, Indonesia, Mauritania, food riots: the ‘moral economy’, a set of ‘Egyptians over bread crisis’) Madagascar, Mexico, Morocco, ideas to do with justice, ‘just prices’, Mozambique, Pakistan, Philippines, ‘Food riots’ are recognisable as such people’s rights to subsistence, and the Senegal, Somalia, Uzbekistan, and Yemen. everywhere. The food riot is known by its responsibilities of authorities to protect Two West African countries and Haiti saw focus – access to food staples – and the those rights. governments topple as a result of the forms it takes: un-mediated popular These ideas had their roots in older moral food and/or financial crises in the last year. protests, local groups commandeering principles, but they are not so much In Bangladesh, the siege of barracks and food supplies for distribution or to sell on ‘natural’ rights as they are politically gruesome massacre of army officers by at a ‘fair’ price, or looting. Many feature negotiated, in response to the predations their subordinates in February 2009 was women, highlighting the domestic of the market on people’s rights to food. initially explained by frustrations around urgency of basic food. They can be loosely If anything, these ideas were brought into inadequate pay in a time of food inflation. organised or spontaneous, but also existence in opposition to ideologies of sometimes violent and violently repressed. To date, the dominant reading of these market, and had no independent life The widespread nature of food riots fuels food riots has been as knee-jerk, almost before then (Thompson 1991). When a uni-dimensional, physiological physiological responses to need. For framed in opposition to free market explanation of why they occur, suggesting example, a leading New York University forces, the ‘moral economy’ is a political something universally human (natural) economic forecaster in the blogosphere statement, commenting on fairness in about the impulse to riot in response to described the financial crisis as a ‘contagion’: rights to food, its distribution, and on food insecurity. But as we know from accountability for food supply failures. The If cargo trade stops, the doesn’t , active protest is not the Indian Right to Food campaign is possibly get exported. If the wheat doesn’t automatic response to even serious food the most advanced contemporary political get exported, the mill has nothing shortages, just as the absence of protest is articulation of such opposition within the to grind into . If there is no unsafe evidence that people are passive chronically food insecure poor countries. flour, the bakeries and food processors (Thompson 1991). can’t produce bread and and other foods. If there are no foods popular protest and the Accounts of crisis: rapid shipped from the bakeries and political landscape research on crisis in five factories, there are no foods in the What can we learn from a closer reading countries shops. If there are no foods in the of food riots? European social and The origins of this briefing are in rapid shops, people go hungry. If people economic history reveals two themes of research conducted in early 2009 into go hungry their children go hungry. current relevance: the impacts of and responses to the food, When children go hungry, people riot 1. The timing of food riots has often been fuel and financial crises in ten poor and governments fall. (Roubini 2008) communities in Bangladesh, indonesia, linked to changes in economic policy Other accounts of food riots are similar Jamaica, Kenya and Zambia. in February European food riots peaked in the 2009, the reverberations of the food and stories of people being driven to violent eighteenth century during rapid moves action by desperate hunger. A Telegraph fuel crises were still being felt, as food towards market orientation; in England, prices had yet to return to 2007 levels. newspaper story situated the Egyptian the classic moments were during the Some reported the nutritional and social bread riots of March and April 2008 passage of laws like the English Corn symptoms of acute food insecurity; within this personal account: Laws, intended to free up grain markets. farmers painted a picture of uncertainty. ‘I’ve been here since six this morning, Until this point markets had been in the more globally integrated it is now nine o’clock and still no subordinate to society but from this point economies, there were job losses in some bread,’ Asma Rushdi shouts in front the imperatives of the market began to export industries amidst reports of declining labour standards in others. of a tiny state-owned bakery in the take increasing precedence over societal needs (Stewart 2006). And as the nature early signs of social fragmentation and overcrowded and impoverished area rising insecurity included people getting of Bulaq Dakrur in Cairo. of the relationship between markets and people changed, so did relationships together less to celebrate, mourn and She is only allowed to spend one between people and the authorities (the save than pre-food crisis, and more livelihoods on the margins of legality, Egyptian pound (9p), which will get state, the local lord, the parish). Protest including some rising crime rates. her 20 pieces of the subsidised flat tended to erupt less around ‘political’

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Those interested in crafting a new social justice agenda could gain grounded perspectives from ‘‘an understanding of the political response to crises.

Similar trends can be seen today. conflict, all visible, known factors that Indonesia, people connected to the Developing countries have been have caused food price rises historically. rubber’’ trade, had experienced the embracing free market forces since at But the extreme nature of the food price impacts of dropping global demand or least the 1980s. This has been rises with no evidence of physical food prices. International remittances to accompanied by an unprecedented era of shortages left a sense of unease about Jamaican communities had been hit by popular protest against structural how food markets were working. Some economic downturn in the -North adjustment programmes. But the speed people clearly stated they did not Awareness of global economic of change in current times is significant: understand what was going on. They integration does not mean acceptance or the pace at which agricultural producers were aware that industrialised countries consent. No doubt citizens of rice- shifted into bio-fuel production; the were experiencing economic downturn, exporting countries supported policies to suddenness with which smaller countries’ anticipated a worsening situation, and restrict external sales when food prices inability to protect national food staple wanted to learn more. peaked. And there is awareness that supplies was revealed; and the rapid rise in markets may not work well.in Zambia and interlinked fuel and food prices that Uncertainty about the economic future Indonesia, people explained that food followed. Together these factors emerged clearly from farmers. In Kenya, a prices were ‘sticky’. In Bangladesh, a amounted to an instant emergency. Yet farmer explained that conditions history of famine and relief led to people the causes of the food crisis were barely leading to crop theft to feed hungry believing that the innate venality of predicted; the scale of the shock, and the families discouraged the effort of grain-dealers was keeping food prices sense that is not over, mean it remains planting. In Zambia and Bangladesh, high. People also cited failures to regulate difficult to fully comprehend. access to fertilizer was unpredictable. In Indonesia, rubber farmers, and in Zambia grain markets to explain why food prices Evidence of a contemporary and Bangladesh maize and rice farmers failed to return to ‘normal’. moral economy were uncertain about which way prices We did not find strongly ‘traditional’ or were going to move. This uncertainty These reflections on the crucially political parochial attitudes towards the economy around agricultural production tallies with nature of food riots as responses to (although this does not mean they do not the Food and Agriculture Organization’s economic shock were prompted by a exist). For many, global markets are not glimpse into how people were responding concerns about volatility in agricultural strange worlds or abstract concepts, but to the food, fuel and financial crises in a product markets. People are right to feel daily realities. It is possible that for some five-country rapid research project in uncertain, because globally, it seems, the in these countries, global integration has 2009 (see Box 2 Accounts of Crisis). This future of food is uncertain. meant new economic opportunities, was participatory and qualitative research, A sense of global economic however skewed towards the rich. Where but not designed specifically to explore connectedness welfare states or social protection systems people’s political responses. At the time are limited, economic opportunities There was a sense of the connectedness of the field research, in February 2009, through entry into global markets may of markets, signalling awareness of global the ten communities studied were feeling well be welcomed. economic integration. A Kingston the effects of the financial crisis. Global policy priorities ranked the financial crisis shopkeeper said: A sense that governments failed to protect against economic risk over the food crisis. Yet in these Bread, butter, buns [are] sold here, communities, the financial crisis was even though the price of flour gone There was a widespread (not universal) overshadowed in day-to-day life by the up. The dollar is up so the prices are sense that government had failed to act grinding effects of unimaginably high food up. Margarine etc goes up every to protect people against food price rises. prices. Three findings emerged from this week, though its not mentioned in Where governments had acted, coverage rapid research process, which add to the the press. Things don’t go like by was often limited, or missed those in notion of a contemporary moral economy. $50 anymore. It’s like $500, $300 greatest need. In some places, there was no visible official support whatsoever. In A sense of economic uncertainty each week. Increase by 400 per cent each week. most cases, support from local informal There was a palpable sense of uncertainty charity, family and neighbours, and informal about the economic future. The food In Jakarta and Dhaka, where export local credit were the most reliable and price crisis had been a literal shock to industries were important employers, regular sources of support. But these had many. Repeatedly, people gave detailed local livelihoods were linked to global been undermined by the universal nature accounts of changes so large and sudden markets for toys, electronics and clothes. of the crisis. The urban ‘non-poor’ that clear explanations remained elusive. In rural Bangladesh, men noted that high countries seem to have been hit In some cases, currently high food prices food prices internationally had pushed particularly hard by the food price hikes could be explained in part through local food prices up. In Zambia, people (Evans 2008), an experience they will have seasonality, drought, cyclones and political connected with copper mining and in shared with their poorer compatriots.

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we need a way to monitor not only what shocks are ‘‘coming, but also the political context. ’’

Implications for policy and practice Further reading Credits Times of crisis evoke political responses which This In Focus Policy Briefing was merit closer inspection. While the politics of food evans, Alex (2008) ‘rising food prices: written by Naomi Hossain of insecurity differ across national contexts there are drivers and implications for development’, the institute of development reasons to read food riots not as the angry Food Ethics 3.2: 3-7 Studies with inputs and advice from Kate Bishop, Robert automatic response of hunger, but as grounded Hossain, N. (2009) ‘Accounts of crisis: Chambers, Kate Carroll, political expressions of the urgent need for a poor people’s experiences of the food, fuel Rosalind Eyben, Richard Jolly, response to economic uncertainty. and financial crises in five countries’, Claire Melamed and Rachel mimeo, Brighton: institute of Insights into popular perspectives on the global Sabates-Wheeler. The series development Studies political issues of the day could usefully inform editor is Carol Smithyes. roubini, N. (2008) ‘Systemic risk thinking behind a new progressive social justice The Accounts of crisis research contagion and Trade Finance: Back to the agenda. The current global crises present champions involved the institute of Bad old days’, Blog on Finance and of social justice with a real opportunity to shape development Studies in the uK, Markets, rge Monitor (www.rgemonitor. such an agenda based on issues that people living in BrAc development institute com/financemarkets-monitor/) poverty are already mobilising around. To achieve in Bangladesh, SMeru in this we need a way to monitor not only what Thompson, e. P. (1991) Customs in Common: indonesia, Mpereeza Associates shocks are coming, but also their political context. Studies in Traditional Popular Culture, in Kenya, Joy Moncrieffe, Any mechanisms for monitoring need to take into london: Penguin Paulette griffiths-Jude and account: Nellie richards in Jamaica, and Mwila Mulumbi and wala • people’s sense of economic uncertainty about Mubitana in Zambia. it was the future funded by the uK department • people’s sense of their connectedness to global for international development. markets and how this affects their economic For other briefs on the crisis see security www.ids.ac.uk/go/infocus11 • how people feel about the capacity and This In Focus Policy Briefing series willingness of their government to act responsibly has been joint-funded by to protect them against economic shocks. ActionAid and idS. This briefing does not necessarily reflect the position of ActionAid. readers are encouraged to quote and reproduce material from issues of In Focus Policy Briefing in their own publications. in return, idS requests due acknowledgement and a copy of the publication. © institute of development Studies, 2009, iSSN 1479-974X

Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex Brighton BN1 9RE UK T +44 (0) 1273 606261 F + 44 (0) 1273 621202 E [email protected] W www.ids.ac.uk

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