【Report】States of Subsistence: The Politics of Bread in Contemporary Jordan

Presenter: Dr. José Martínez (York University)
Discussant: Prof. Walid Alkhatib (the University of Jordan)

October 12, 2023

On October 12, 2023, Dr. José Martínez of York University gave a presentation on his recently published book State of Subsistence: The Politics of Bread in Jordan (Stanford University Press, 2022) at Ritsumeikan University. Prof. Walid Alkhatib of the University of Jordan was invited as a discussant.

Dr. Martínez mentioned that the research method used for this study is ethnography, which is highly unusual in political science research. Because of this, his presentation style was composed of storytelling of his experience working at bakeries in Jordan and analyses of what he observed.

Dr. Martínez first justified that studying Jordanian politics through Jordan’s bread subsidization program is possible and sheds a crucial light since bread is an essential staple food in the country.

As an analysis of his participatory observation, Dr. Martínez argued that the routinized process of distributing government-subsidized bread—the process that involves bakeries purchasing subsidized wheat flour for bread, making bread, and selling it to people, and people purchasing and eating it—contributes to the creation and recreation of the Jordanian state and its welfare program of bread subsidization.

He emphasized that traditional political science research that relies on verifiable numerical data—such as documents showing the amount of subsidized wheat flour sold to bakeries—is flawed since such records may not reflect what is actually happening on the ground. For instance, Dr. Martínez witnessed a bakery owner bribing local government officials to purchase more subsidized flour than he was allowed to, as there was more demand for subsidized bread than anticipated. This demonstrates that more subsidized flour was sold in the area than indicated by official records.

Moreover, Dr. Martínez noted that his observations made it clear that people’s political agency often defy a binary categorization of political behaviors—such as domination and resistance. His observations of acts of bribery by a bakery owner and a protest by bakery workers did not indicate their resistance against the Jordanian regime. There exists no word to aptly describe their actions. Ethnography is an effective method to study politics and be more attentive to people's everyday lives.

After the presentation, Prof. Alkhatib reinforced Dr. Martínez’s argument that bread is central to Jordanian food security. Additionally, he explained why the Jordanian government subsidizes wheat flour solely for the purpose of making bread—and not for other purposes. Subsidizing flour for every purpose would be too costly, considering the government also subsidizes fuel, water, and electricity. Moreover, he argued that the government cannot freely intervene in bread prices because it is an essential staple food for people living in Jordan and constitutes most of their calorie consumption.

The presentation concluded with a Q&A session. Audience members raised many interesting questions, including those regarding Jordanian politics, Dr. Martínez’s experiences of fieldwork in Jordan, and how he connected his ethnographical observation to his research aim.

Written by Daichi Morishige (PhD student at Ritsumeikan University)