Improving the Inside: Gender, Property and the 18th-Century Self

Brace, Laura

doi:10.1111/j.1467-856x.2009.00396.x

Cited by 5 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 18 publications

(27 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The pursuit of wealth was only laudable where the intention was virtuous. 64 The slave trade, by contrast, was speculative, risky and dissipated, based on nothing but the maximization of profit. Like gaming, it unleashed uncontrollable passions which rendered it suspect, corrupting, dishonourable and corrosive of the self.…”

Section: Brandy and Baublesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Inhuman commerce: Anti-slavery and the ownership of freedom

Brace

2013

European Journal of Political Theory

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This article explores the British anti-slavery writings of the mid-to late 18th century, and the meanings which they gave to the idea of owning a property in the person. It addresses the construction of a particular moral and political landscape where freedom was understood as both a kind of property and as non-domination, and slavery was constructed as a form of theft, and as the exercise of arbitrary power. This created a complex moral space, where possession, commerce, savagery, tyranny and the emergence of race were all caught up with each other and entangled with the concept of consent. The article concludes with the suggestion that our current understandings of slavery continue to be informed by our notions of contract and consent, and so by conceptions of freedom and ownership that take us back to the tensions and debates of the 18th century.Keywords abolitionism, antislavery, consent, freedom, property in the person, race, slaveryThe antislavery writings of the late 18th century were famously, and significantly, saturated with sentiment. 1 They were also central to the success of the abolitionist movement, and to 'the unfolding of history in personalized terms'. The story of abolition was told as the triumph of good over evil, and in the process the abolitionists captured and held on to the moral high ground. 2 This was a complex moral space, and the antislavery movement colonized it through their Quakerism, through a brilliant propaganda campaign and through the mobilization of sentiment and sensibility. Antislavery writers addressed their readers' humanity through sentiment, and focused on sharing the suffering of others. 3 This means that antislavery is read as a moral movement, driven by Enlightenment ideals, and by

show abstract

Section: Brandy and Baublesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Inhuman commerce: Anti-slavery and the ownership of freedom

Brace

2013

European Journal of Political Theory

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Western consumer societies have instead been attracted towards anti-industrial, feminized ideals. In Marxist terms, analogies exist with the idealist character of the German middle classes (Marx & Engels, 1960) or the British 18th-century consuming middle-class women anguishing over the ethics of the new consumer goods produced by slave labour (Brace, 2010;Sussman, 2000).…”

Section: Recurring Romantic Critiques Of Modernity and Consumer Capitalismmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Consumerism-Development-Security Nexus

Pupavac

2010

Security Dialogue

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Critics of global governance have been influenced by Foucault’s analysis of modern total institutions disciplining both the mind and the body. However, Foucauldian biopolitics may present global governance too smoothly. This article takes critiques arguing that consumer capitalism’s divorce from industrial production encourages romantic understandings of global problems and applies them to development aspects of the development—security nexus. It discusses three influential economists each of whose work is emblematic of consumer capitalism’s international development vision at particular historical junctures. The article outlines how Rostow’s The Stages of Economic Growth, arising during the postwar economic growth boom, envisages developing countries becoming consumer societies at the highest stage of development, but also anticipates consumer society’s romantic critiques of modernity. It next examines Schumacher’s Small Is Beautiful and his Buddhist economics, arising in the post-Bretton Woods crisis period, as symptomatic of re-emerging romantic critiques of society. Finally, it discusses Sen’s human development approach as a market romance illustrating consumer capitalism’s individual-orientated development strategies. The article concludes that the contemporary development romance addresses neither people’s basic needs nor their aspirations, and it problematizes global governance’s ability to secure and govern populations.

show abstract

From Victims of Trafficking to Freedom Fighters: Rethinking Migrant Domestic Workers in the Middle East

Johnson

2018

Revisiting Slavery and Antislavery

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Throughout the Middle East migrant women are employed to work in people's homes. While some experience good working relations with employers, others experience forms of abuse and labour coercion. This chapter evaluates critically different ways that system of unfree labour has been variously described and analysed as a form of 'contract slavery', 'debt bondage' and 'trafficking'. It also shows how migrant women who describe themselves as 'freelancers' exit their original employer's home both to escape that relation and in hopes of securing a better situation outside of the regular system of employment. Freelancing is more than simply a form of resistance. Rather, women who work as freelance migrant domestic workers challenge directly that state enforced control over their mobility and are on the vanguard of those migrants who are seeking through their own actions to effect social change.

show abstract

Improving the Inside: Gender, Property and the 18th-Century Self

Cited by 5 publications

References 18 publications

Inhuman commerce: Anti-slavery and the ownership of freedom

Inhuman commerce: Anti-slavery and the ownership of freedom

The Consumerism-Development-Security Nexus

From Victims of Trafficking to Freedom Fighters: Rethinking Migrant Domestic Workers in the Middle East

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About