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Let’s Clean Up and Bring Some Order Here! Moral Regulation of Markets in Yaoundé, Cameroon

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 June 2021

Aurélie Toivonen  and
Ignasi Martí
Aurélie Toivonen
Affiliation:
Tampere University
Ignasi Martí
Affiliation:
Universitat Ramon Llull
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Abstract

This study examines activities and processes through which projects of moral regulation are implemented as well as lived, transformed, and resisted by their targeted actors. Our ethnographic study focuses on discourses and practices of civic duty for orderly and hygienic conduct in the rehabilitation of marketplaces in Yaoundé, Cameroon. By drawing on the inhabited institutions approach and the literature on ethics as practice, our analysis extends research on moral work to put forward a perspective on moral regulation as a situated practice. We show how moral work is built on individual reflections but is simultaneously negotiated through actors’ relationships, that is, responsibilities to family, interactions within the community, and personal history.

Keywords

moral regulationmoralitymoral workinhabited institutionsethics as practicestreet vendors
Type
Article
Information
Business Ethics Quarterly , Volume 32 , Issue 1 , January 2022 , pp. 136 - 168
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Society for Business Ethics

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