TY  - BOOK
AU  - José Ciro Martínez
TI  - States of Subsistence: The Politics of Bread in Contemporary Jordan
T2  - Stanford Studies in Middle Eastern and Islamic Societies and Cultures
SN  - 9781503631328
PY  - 2022///
CY  - Stanford
PB  - Stanford University Press
KW  - Bread industry
KW  - Political aspects
KW  - Jordan
KW  - Subsidies
KW  - Bread
KW  - Government policy
KW  - Public welfare
KW  - Politics and government
N1  - Includes bibliographical references and index; A new style of administration -- Sensing the state -- State-craft -- Echoes, absences and reach -- Tactics at the bakery -- Leavened apprehensions -- Conclusion -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index
N2  - "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 Martínez 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, Martínez probes the practices that underpin subsidized bread. Following bakers and bureaucrats, he offers an immersive examination of social welfare provision. Martínez 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. "Performing the State" 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 amidst the seemingly unglamorous and unspectacular day-to-day"--
ER  -