Moral political economy and poverty: four theoretical schools compared

Working paper

This paper explores a pluralist approach to moral economy. Firstly, four schools of thought on the rental of land in India are described. The normatic and ontic assumptions of each school are described. Then I look closely at a debate between two feminist authors, Agarwal and Jackson. The advantage of the social researcher doing a meta-review of normatic positions in this instance is that we can compare and contrast meta-criteria for improvements and progress. Five moral reasoning strategies for meta-normative economic research are described and discussed. These suggest a need for more research on complex moral reasoning strategies.

Authors: Olsen, W

• Publication status: Published
• Publisher: University of Oxford
• Series: Department of Economics Discussion Paper Series
• Publication date: 2005-11-01
• Paper number: GPRG-WPS-031
• Keywords: schools of thought; norms; moral reasoning; moral economy; pluralism; feminist economics; tenancy