On any given day in Jordan, more than nine million residents eat approximately ten million loaves of khubz 'arabi-the slightly leavened flatbread known to many as pita. Some rely on this bread to avoid starvation; for others it is a customary pleasure. Yet despite its ubiquity in accounts of Middle East politics and society, rarely do we consider how bread is prepared, consumed, discussed, and circulated-and what this all represents. With this book, José Ciro Martìnez examines khubz 'arabi to unpack the effects of the welfare program that ensures its widespread availability.
Drawing on more than a year working as a baker in Amman, Martìnez probes the practices that underpin subsidized bread. Following bakers and bureaucrats, he offers an immersive examination of social welfare provision. Martìnez argues that the state is best understood as the product of routine practices and actions, through which it becomes a stable truth in the lives of citizens. States of Subsistence not only describes logics of rule in contemporary Jordan-and the place of bread within them-but also unpacks how the state endures through forms, sensations, and practices amid the seemingly unglamorous and unspectacular day-to-day.
| ISBN: | 9781503630369 |
| Publication date: | 12th April 2022 |
| Author: | José Ciro Martínez |
| Publisher: | Stanford University Press |
| Format: | Hardback |
| Pagination: | 368 pages |
| Series: | Stanford Studies in Middle Eastern and Islamic Societies and Cultures |
| Genres: |
Cultural studies: food and society Comparative politics Politics and government |
On any given day in Jordan, more than nine million residents eat approximately ten million loaves of khubz 'arabi-the slightly leavened flatbread known to many as pita. Some rely on this bread to avoid starvation; for others it is a customary pleasure. Yet despite its ubiquity in accounts of Middle East politics and society, rarely do we consider how bread is prepared, consumed, discussed, and circulated-and what this all represents. With this book, José Ciro Martìnez examines khubz 'arabi to unpack the effects of the welfare program that ensures its widespread availability.
Drawing on more than a year working as a baker in Amman, Martìnez probes the practices that underpin subsidized bread. Following bakers and bureaucrats, he offers an immersive examination of social welfare provision. Martìnez argues that the state is best understood as the product of routine practices and actions, through which it becomes a stable truth in the lives of citizens. States of Subsistence not only describes logics of rule in contemporary Jordan-and the place of bread within them-but also unpacks how the state endures through forms, sensations, and practices amid the seemingly unglamorous and unspectacular day-to-day.
States of Subsistence features in the following genres: Cultural studies: food and society, Comparative politics, Politics and government
States of Subsistence is available in Hardback
States of Subsistence was written by José Ciro Martínez and published by Stanford University Press
States of Subsistence has 368 pages
Yes it is part of Stanford Studies in Middle Eastern and Islamic Societies and Cultures series