Moral economy

The term moral economy (of English. Moral economy ) was coined in 1971 by the English social historian Edward Palmer Thompson and later by German historians (eg Dieter Groh ) and social scientists assumed (eg Elmar Altvater ). The cultural scientist Nico Stehr speaks of the " moralization of the markets ".

According to Thompson, there is a " moral economy " of conceptions of legitimacy and moral assumptions that make relative the lower classes in the 18th century their motives to the price of bread and food rebellions. Contrary to popular in the social sciences method to explain their rebellions reactive out of need and hunger ( " rebellions of the belly " ), he emphasizes as its moral drive the defense of "traditional rights and customs ," referring to prices of essential commodities, especially based on the price of bread, as a direct protest against the liberal market economy, which authorizes that 'll pulled out of the plight of others profit.

The enclosed therein core idea of subsistence JC Scott, in 1976 in his publication "Moral Economy of the Peasant: Rebellion and Subsistence in Southeast Asia" will continue to develop.

Today the term is often used in relation to issues of business ethics, sustainability and ecology issues.