Towards a new social justice agenda: understanding political responses to crises
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Date
2009-10Author
Chambers, Robert
Hossain, Naomi
Bishop, Kate
Eyben, Rosalind
Richard, Jolly
Melamed, Claire
Sabates-Wheeler, Rachel
Carroll, Kate
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Abstract
Food riots across the developing world in 2008 sent powerful messages about the limits to people’s
tolerance of acute economic insecurity. Yet political responses of this kind are mainly treated as the
inevitable social convulsions after economic shocks – as natural, almost physiological responses to hunger.
This briefing proposes that these political responses to crises can provide insights into popular perspectives
on the global political issues of the day: global economic uncertainty, the moral limits to market
freedom, and responsibilities of governments to protect against risk. Understanding such perspectives
could inform emerging debates within development and help shape a new social justice agenda.