Beyond Morality: The Moral Economy Framework and the Fisheries in Mumbai

Abstract

The notion of the moral economy has shifted widely in interpretation over the years. Beginning as a concept to understand shifts in political economy, it has increasingly focused on the role that morality and values play in non-capitalist economies. Resource-dependent communities are viewed as exemplifying moral economies, embodying morals that are based on notions of equality and reciprocity and thus seen to be the anti-thesis of modern capitalist societies. Such a formulation shifts the focus from social change—the foundation of the earlier moral economy framework—to a focus on morality and participants in ‘moral’ economies. This article argues for a return to the older conceptualization of the ‘moral economy’ where class remains an important determinant of action such that different political economic regimes represent different kinds of moral economies. Based on a study of the Koli caste community of fishers in Mumbai, this article explores the messy ways in which community and class identities intersect in response to a capitalist transformation. A return to the older moral economy framework offers an opportunity to critically analyse community values and class politics and the role they play in shaping collective action without reducing capitalism as the ‘amoral’ other to older livelihood practices.