The paper uses the concept of moral economy to clarify relations between the increase of food prices and Algerian riots in 2008 and 2011. Following E. P. Thompson, it demonstrates that riots “are not mechanical answers to the stimuli of prices, but are generated by feelings of injustice related to the transgression of norms and moral obligations.” The increase in food prices is attributed to speculation, seen as iniquitous, amoral, and undertaken at the expense of the poor which the state should regulate. The paper complements Marxist approaches maintaining that neoliberal reforms promoted by the IMF and World Bank put populations into difficulty and fueled grievances. These approaches problematize relations between markets and social movements but suffer from determinist biases that detach protest from the meanings and representations of agents. Using the concept of moral economy the paper will try to connect meanings and material conditions.
