Working Paper 81

Title
Trade's Reason

Author
Stephen Gudeman

Department
Department ‘Resilience and Transformation in Eurasia’

Year of publication
2006

Number of pages
25

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Working Paper 81

Abstract
Why is calculative reason so dominant in high market societies? Is it an inherent tendency that is manifested in all economies both ethnographic and historical, or is it culturally produced? If it is a cultural practice, how do we explain it? In this essay, I argue that calculative reason expands through competitive trade. It becomes prominent not through changes in beliefs and ideologies, economic scarcity, or the influence of economic theories but by the practice of impersonal exchange. Even if competitive trade is interwoven with social and personal ties, it induces calculated selection, which reverberates across other trades, cascades into the realm of mutuality, and becomes a satisfying practice itself. Taking on a life of its own, calculative reason is reified as the rational actor, although its subjective entrenchment varies by market, context and individual. As this practice expands, space for the expression of other forms of reason, other modes of allocation and ties of mutuality narrows.