Abstract
Understanding what brokers do and what happens to them in the doing is a
way of understanding highly uneven processes of market-making and value
distribution. This article explores the production and functioning of brokers’
moral ambiguity as a necessary and enabling feature of market exchange in a
liberalized agricultural market. It focuses on tensions that have their origins
in contradictory ideologies and the intertwining of instrumentality and affec-
tion. Through a close look at two different types of brokers — one closely
linked to his client base through horizontal ties of mutual interdependence
and one more socially distant — the article argues that how brokers respond
to these tensions is constitutive of social power, the distribution of value
between market actors, and the transformational processes at the heart of
political economy.
way of understanding highly uneven processes of market-making and value
distribution. This article explores the production and functioning of brokers’
moral ambiguity as a necessary and enabling feature of market exchange in a
liberalized agricultural market. It focuses on tensions that have their origins
in contradictory ideologies and the intertwining of instrumentality and affec-
tion. Through a close look at two different types of brokers — one closely
linked to his client base through horizontal ties of mutual interdependence
and one more socially distant — the article argues that how brokers respond
to these tensions is constitutive of social power, the distribution of value
between market actors, and the transformational processes at the heart of
political economy.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Number of pages | 24 |
| Journal | Development and Change |
| Early online date | 16 Apr 2025 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 16 Apr 2025 |
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Muhammad Ali Jan and Joe Devine for feedback on earlier drafts of this article and the anonymous referees and editors of the journal for their constructive critiques and helpful suggestions. A version of this article was presented at the University of Liverpool’s‘Transformations of Land, Labour, and Meaning in South Asia’ seminar, and the Higher Education Commission Pakistan and St Catherine’s College Oxford generously funded the research. Finally, I record my gratitude to Chairman, without whom this work would not have been possible and who is — and always will be — missed.Keywords
- Brokerage
- Markets
- Informality
- Agriculture