States of Subsistence : The Politics of Bread in Contemporary Jordan Hardback

by Jose Ciro Martinez

Part of the Stanford Studies in Middle Eastern and Islamic Societies and Cultures series

Hardback

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Description

On any given day in Jordan, more than nine million residents eat approximately ten million loaves of khubz 'arabiâ€”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 circulatedâ€”and what this all represents.

With this book, JosÃ© Ciro MartÃnez 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, MartÃnez probes the practices that underpin subsidized bread.

Following bakers and bureaucrats, he offers an immersive examination of social welfare provision.

MartÃnez 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 Jordanâ€”and the place of bread within themâ€”but also unpacks how the state endures through forms, sensations, and practices amid the seemingly unglamorous and unspectacular day-to-day.