Performing the State The Politics of Bread in Hashemite Jordan - Stanford Studies in Middle Eastern and Islamic Societies and Cultures

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:	9781503631328
Publisher:	Stanford University Press
Imprint:	Stanford University Press
Published date:	12 Apr 2022
DEWEY:	338.476647523095695
DEWEY edition:	23
Language:	English
Number of pages:	360 .
Weight:	562g
Height:	151mm
Width:	228mm
Spine width:	25mm

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