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-~~DECKJS~~
-# The moral economy #
-## The moral economy ##
-Ryan Schram
-Mills 169 (A26)
-ryan.schram@sydney.edu.au
-Wednesday, August 24, 2015
-Available at: http://anthro.rschram.org/1002/5.2
-## The informal sector ##
-* Illegal forms of trade: Liquor sales, gambling, counterfeit goods,
-  pirated movies
-* Illegal places of business: On the street, out of one's home
-* Outside of the banking system
-* Not subject to the moral requirements of kin and community either
-## On the black market ##
-During Papua New Guinea's colonial period, indigenous people were not
-allowed to buy alcohol. Homemade intoxicants, like gamada (kava), were
-also banned
-Liquor sales today require a license, which most people can't afford
-to get. Reselling liquor is still a pretty good way to make money.
-The government of Port Moresby recently banned chewing and selling
-betel nut in public. This cut off a steady source of income for many
-poor people.
-## Painim wok ##
-For a long time during the colonial period, indigenous people were not
-allowed to stay overnight in towns, unless they were formally employed
-by a white person, and then only in their *banis* (compound).
-People set up little settlements on the outskirts of towns, built
-their own houses where they could live and seek opportunities,
-including paid work.
-These settlements also became gateways to the city for other rural
-residents from the same places, or wantoks.
-This is not a clash of market principles and communal morality, but
-a combination of two different moral systems.
-## Women's work ##
-* Informal enterprise looks different when we apply gender as a lens.
-* Informal enterprises are often "women's work," done alongside or part of women's roles in families.
-* Both labor markets and gift systems are male dominated.
-* Women fill in the gaps and make the whole system hang together, but don't get recognized for this.
-## The breakdown of the Fordist social contract ##
-* Fordism is a method of organizing production, but Fordism also sustained a social contract between the ruling class and society: High wages and general affluence in exchange for private profits through mass production.
-* When Fordism fades, women must work a "second shift" - first wage labor then housework and child care (Hochschild 1989).
-* Hence, informal economies matter more for making ends meet.
-* Poor single mothers have to find work and care for children, so they exchange labor with each other (Stack 1974).
-* Welfare activism has often argued that women's informal exchanges of care are unpaid labor and should be supported (e.g. Mazelis 2017).
-## A middle-class informal economy ##
-* The gig economy: Is it also partly sustained by informal support?
-* Family-based aged care?
-* Can you think of other examples of needs which middle-class wage-earners could once meet through the market, but now involve gifts and informal support?
-## Conclusions
-* The encounter between social forces and market forces is not simply collective constraints on individual behavior. (That's a false dichotomy!) Rather, social forces and market forces are driven by two distinct value systems.
-* These value systems conflict, but they also interact in not-so-obvious ways.
-* The formation of informal economies is not a breakdown of capitalism. It's an unintended, but inevitable, side effect of the contradictions in capitalism
-* The value created by informal ties not only helps people survive, but can be exploited by global capital. We shall discuss this in detail next week.
-## References
-Hochschild, Arlie Russell, and Anne Machung. 1989. The Second
-Shift. New York: Penguin Books.
-Mazelis, Joan Maya. 2017. Surviving Poverty: Creating Sustainable Ties
-among the Poor. New York: New York University Press.
-Stack, Carol B. 2008 [1974]. All Our Kin: Strategies For Survival In A
-Black Community. New York: Basic Books.
-## A guide to the unit ##
-{{page>1002guide}}

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