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ICAS Book Series on Agrarian Change and Peasant Studies
Class Dynamics of Agrarian Change (Agrarian Change and Peasant Studies) by Henry Bernstein (15-Oct-2010) Paperback
Agrarian political economy investigates the social relations of production and reproduction, property and power in agrarian formations, and how they change. Using Marx’s theory of capitalism the book argues that class dynamics should be the starting point of any analysis of agrarian change. As an introduction to agrarian political economy, this book includes explanations and applications of its key concepts, a glossary of analytical terms, and a historical approach and framework for examining agrarian change in capitalism. The author assumes no prior knowledge of political economy on the part of readers but aims, through this stimulating introduction, to encourage them to study it further. Class Dynamics of Agrarian Change is the first volume in a new series called Agrarian Change and Peasant Studies, developed by Initiatives in Critical Agrarian Studies.
- GenresNonfictionAgriculture
Unknown Binding
First published January 1, 2010
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April 24, 2011
This short little brown book offers what seems to be a programmatic statement of what the study of social change in the agrarian world can look like, and stands to gain, from a (certain kind of) Marxist political economy perspective.
The target audiences for this book (the first edition in a forthcoming series on rural development - http://j.mp/h7Kls3) are university classrooms, social movement activists and development industry practitioners.
The book is structured as follows:
Introduction: The Political Economy of Agrarian Change
Chapter 1. Production and Productivity
Chapter 2. Origins and Early Development of Capitalism
Chapter 3. Colonialism and Capitalism
Chapter 4. Farming and Agriculture, Local and Global
Chapter 5. Neoliberal Globalization and World Agriculture
Chapter 6. Capitalist Agriculture and Non-Capitalist Farmers?
Chapter 7. Class Formation in Countryside
Chapter 8. Complexities of Class
There is A LOT packed within this book, though this is probably also reflective of my own relative unfamiliarity with the topics within. Credit must therefore be given for the elegance of the writing and the plain English used.
The introductory chapter sets out the terms, debates and concepts that will be used throughout the book. It provides a brief sketch how the terms such as ‘peasant’, ‘small-scale farming’ and ‘family farming’ have been used in often conflicting and confusing ways. HB restricts the usage of these terms in the book to a materialist approach, ie. based on methods, scale and relations of production. A series of five interesting vignettes of rural life in different places and times is then provided to confront general readers with the vast array of social conflicts and concerns that populate rural development. The Marxist political economy approach is then introduced and justified on instrumental grounds (“try and it and see what you think”), laying the path for the largely world-historical approach to social change that is to follow in the rest of the book.
Chapter 1 introduces and unpacks the concepts of production, productivity, divisions of labour, exploitation, surplus value, capital accumulation and reproduction (in their Marxist incarnations) and explains how they might apply to rural development, both in the past and in modern times. HB then suggests that readers may want to pay constant attention to four key interrelated questions in any political economy query: (i) Who owns what? (ii) Who does what? (iii) Who gets what? (iv) What do they do with it? The queries are transferable across time, space and scale and can help provide the initial ground to situate a study of class conflict (ie. try and map out the material foundations of the ‘social relations of production’).
Chapter 2 introduces the concepts of commodity production, the logic of accumulation, the M-C-M’ cycle, the importance of labour power for generating surplus value, ‘free’ vs ‘unfree’ labour and primitive accumulation. It first tries to locate these ideas in well-established histories of agrarian change and transformation in the framework of individual nation-states (England, Prussia, America, Japan, South Korea). The same ideas are then applied to a different framework encompassing change whose roots lie in world systems theory (citing some recent work of Jairus Banaji, Arrighi, and Jason Moore). The analytic tensions between these two kinds of frameworks and the implications they raise for different interpretations of capitalism’s historical origin, expansion into the non-Western world and subsequent consolidation are then discussed.
Chapter 3 develops the analytic questions raised by the previous chapter further, by unpacking capitalism’s complex relationship with agrarian change in three different non-Western regions (Latin American and the Caribbean, South Asia, and sub-Saharan Africa) between the 16th to the 20th Centuries. The significance of colonial encounters for labour systems in the colonies, and the different ways in which these modified (and sometimes destroyed) existing local social arrangements is explored. HB then introduces the concept of a ‘labour regime’ to outline the vast range of ways in which the social relations of production can be said to have developed in the colonies, without any clear formation of a classic rural proletariat. The relevance of these concerns for contemporary readers is that they provide a set of tools to discuss the necessity of colonialism for the emergence of capitalist development in the non-Western world, as well as where one should situate the ethics, direction and strategies for current development ‘interventions’ in the South today.
Chapter 4 brings the historical narrative closer to the present day, discussing the gradual global shift from ‘farming’ (‘localized’ production) to ‘agriculture’ (‘commodity production for the world’). The increasingly complex nature of agrarian production’s division of labour is seen in the proliferation of ‘agri-business’ upstream and downstream players, financial markets and the increasing reliance of the farmer on commodity exchange for his survival and success. Industrial farming now becomes a key aspect of agricultural production and the division of labour is reformed at a global level. These changes are charted in several historical phases, from the relative ‘liberal’ First International Food Regime (IFR) (1870s-1914), to the protectionism of the interwar years, to the Second IFR (1940s-1970s), as well as the period of developmentalism up til the 1970s.
Chapter 5 discusses the impact of contemporary ‘neoliberal globalization’ on the agricultural system. Comparisons and contrasts are made with previous eras. At this juncture, issues concerning the ‘Agrarian Question’ ie. the prospects and implications for the destruction of the peasantry as a class, are finally introduced, problematized and discussed at some length.
The remaining three chapters of this book seek to answer the agrarian question in their own ways. Chapter 6 asks, and tries to answer the question, why have ‘peasants’ remained a ‘persistent’ element in farming, despite the spread and penetration of capitalism? The chapter reviews and assesses a number of past attempts to answer this question, both from the point of view of capitalists as well as those ‘below’.
The last two chapters are more straightforward and dwell less on concepts than previous ones. Chapter 7 focuses on the difficulties of presenting the idea of peasants as a singular class in its relations with ‘capital’ and maps out a number of different examples that illustrate these complications. As a response to these empirical and analytical complexities, chapter 8 reviews a number of recent arguments made in support of class as the master category for conceptualising social change (as a foundation from which rural studies of gender structures, the state, intergenerational conflicts, ethnicity, religion should proceed).
HB concludes the book by suggesting that those who see and propagate social movements as an answer to the problems of rural capitalist development should re-examine their assumptions in the light of some hard questions that political economy can pose; not least how ‘low-input’ small-scale family farming will be able to provide enough food for an exponentially more populated and urbanised world than at any other time in human history.
All in all, the book reads very much like a series of introductory-level lectures held over one ten-week term. To get a more rounded picture of agrarian change, however, the interested reader will have to read much more both within and outside the genre, such as with regards to non-Marxist theories of the state, the international economy and commodity chain analysis. To all this, HB’s little brown book provides what seems to me to be a useful and succinct summary of a ‘classic’ Marxist political economy approach to rural change.
Now, if only Das Kapital was as short…
The target audiences for this book (the first edition in a forthcoming series on rural development - http://j.mp/h7Kls3) are university classrooms, social movement activists and development industry practitioners.
The book is structured as follows:
Introduction: The Political Economy of Agrarian Change
Chapter 1. Production and Productivity
Chapter 2. Origins and Early Development of Capitalism
Chapter 3. Colonialism and Capitalism
Chapter 4. Farming and Agriculture, Local and Global
Chapter 5. Neoliberal Globalization and World Agriculture
Chapter 6. Capitalist Agriculture and Non-Capitalist Farmers?
Chapter 7. Class Formation in Countryside
Chapter 8. Complexities of Class
There is A LOT packed within this book, though this is probably also reflective of my own relative unfamiliarity with the topics within. Credit must therefore be given for the elegance of the writing and the plain English used.
The introductory chapter sets out the terms, debates and concepts that will be used throughout the book. It provides a brief sketch how the terms such as ‘peasant’, ‘small-scale farming’ and ‘family farming’ have been used in often conflicting and confusing ways. HB restricts the usage of these terms in the book to a materialist approach, ie. based on methods, scale and relations of production. A series of five interesting vignettes of rural life in different places and times is then provided to confront general readers with the vast array of social conflicts and concerns that populate rural development. The Marxist political economy approach is then introduced and justified on instrumental grounds (“try and it and see what you think”), laying the path for the largely world-historical approach to social change that is to follow in the rest of the book.
Chapter 1 introduces and unpacks the concepts of production, productivity, divisions of labour, exploitation, surplus value, capital accumulation and reproduction (in their Marxist incarnations) and explains how they might apply to rural development, both in the past and in modern times. HB then suggests that readers may want to pay constant attention to four key interrelated questions in any political economy query: (i) Who owns what? (ii) Who does what? (iii) Who gets what? (iv) What do they do with it? The queries are transferable across time, space and scale and can help provide the initial ground to situate a study of class conflict (ie. try and map out the material foundations of the ‘social relations of production’).
Chapter 2 introduces the concepts of commodity production, the logic of accumulation, the M-C-M’ cycle, the importance of labour power for generating surplus value, ‘free’ vs ‘unfree’ labour and primitive accumulation. It first tries to locate these ideas in well-established histories of agrarian change and transformation in the framework of individual nation-states (England, Prussia, America, Japan, South Korea). The same ideas are then applied to a different framework encompassing change whose roots lie in world systems theory (citing some recent work of Jairus Banaji, Arrighi, and Jason Moore). The analytic tensions between these two kinds of frameworks and the implications they raise for different interpretations of capitalism’s historical origin, expansion into the non-Western world and subsequent consolidation are then discussed.
Chapter 3 develops the analytic questions raised by the previous chapter further, by unpacking capitalism’s complex relationship with agrarian change in three different non-Western regions (Latin American and the Caribbean, South Asia, and sub-Saharan Africa) between the 16th to the 20th Centuries. The significance of colonial encounters for labour systems in the colonies, and the different ways in which these modified (and sometimes destroyed) existing local social arrangements is explored. HB then introduces the concept of a ‘labour regime’ to outline the vast range of ways in which the social relations of production can be said to have developed in the colonies, without any clear formation of a classic rural proletariat. The relevance of these concerns for contemporary readers is that they provide a set of tools to discuss the necessity of colonialism for the emergence of capitalist development in the non-Western world, as well as where one should situate the ethics, direction and strategies for current development ‘interventions’ in the South today.
Chapter 4 brings the historical narrative closer to the present day, discussing the gradual global shift from ‘farming’ (‘localized’ production) to ‘agriculture’ (‘commodity production for the world’). The increasingly complex nature of agrarian production’s division of labour is seen in the proliferation of ‘agri-business’ upstream and downstream players, financial markets and the increasing reliance of the farmer on commodity exchange for his survival and success. Industrial farming now becomes a key aspect of agricultural production and the division of labour is reformed at a global level. These changes are charted in several historical phases, from the relative ‘liberal’ First International Food Regime (IFR) (1870s-1914), to the protectionism of the interwar years, to the Second IFR (1940s-1970s), as well as the period of developmentalism up til the 1970s.
Chapter 5 discusses the impact of contemporary ‘neoliberal globalization’ on the agricultural system. Comparisons and contrasts are made with previous eras. At this juncture, issues concerning the ‘Agrarian Question’ ie. the prospects and implications for the destruction of the peasantry as a class, are finally introduced, problematized and discussed at some length.
The remaining three chapters of this book seek to answer the agrarian question in their own ways. Chapter 6 asks, and tries to answer the question, why have ‘peasants’ remained a ‘persistent’ element in farming, despite the spread and penetration of capitalism? The chapter reviews and assesses a number of past attempts to answer this question, both from the point of view of capitalists as well as those ‘below’.
The last two chapters are more straightforward and dwell less on concepts than previous ones. Chapter 7 focuses on the difficulties of presenting the idea of peasants as a singular class in its relations with ‘capital’ and maps out a number of different examples that illustrate these complications. As a response to these empirical and analytical complexities, chapter 8 reviews a number of recent arguments made in support of class as the master category for conceptualising social change (as a foundation from which rural studies of gender structures, the state, intergenerational conflicts, ethnicity, religion should proceed).
HB concludes the book by suggesting that those who see and propagate social movements as an answer to the problems of rural capitalist development should re-examine their assumptions in the light of some hard questions that political economy can pose; not least how ‘low-input’ small-scale family farming will be able to provide enough food for an exponentially more populated and urbanised world than at any other time in human history.
All in all, the book reads very much like a series of introductory-level lectures held over one ten-week term. To get a more rounded picture of agrarian change, however, the interested reader will have to read much more both within and outside the genre, such as with regards to non-Marxist theories of the state, the international economy and commodity chain analysis. To all this, HB’s little brown book provides what seems to me to be a useful and succinct summary of a ‘classic’ Marxist political economy approach to rural change.
Now, if only Das Kapital was as short…
May 22, 2024
Why hasn't capitalism been successful in eliminating the small farmer? Does it suggest an incomplete process that will eventually finish its course? Or does it highlight the inherent contradictions in capitalism? Or does it underline the persistence of the peasant?
Excellent primer of curious readers and aspirational scholars looking to understand existing literature for a theoretical framework to understand the state of farming and farmers, especially small and marginal. The book does a great job at defining what exactly this transition means, how it has been ignited in (modern) history, the extent of the transition in different parts of the world, its contradictions and puzzles, the response(s) to this transition and what this entails.
Appreciate Bernstein for keeping his own views on 'agrarian populist movements' at bay and give an overview of the persistence of the peasant without either recommending the elimination or romanticism (hate this word). Much better than most statist (urban) marxists and their contradictory prescriptions on deepening commodification in agriculture. The nudge into exploring interplay with sociology and political science is also quite helpful.
Excellent primer of curious readers and aspirational scholars looking to understand existing literature for a theoretical framework to understand the state of farming and farmers, especially small and marginal. The book does a great job at defining what exactly this transition means, how it has been ignited in (modern) history, the extent of the transition in different parts of the world, its contradictions and puzzles, the response(s) to this transition and what this entails.
Appreciate Bernstein for keeping his own views on 'agrarian populist movements' at bay and give an overview of the persistence of the peasant without either recommending the elimination or romanticism (hate this word). Much better than most statist (urban) marxists and their contradictory prescriptions on deepening commodification in agriculture. The nudge into exploring interplay with sociology and political science is also quite helpful.
February 19, 2012
Class Dynamics of agrarian change is a useful tool for those who wish to understand the agrarian political economy. Henry Berstein combines decades of scholarship in as he terms it " a little book on a big idea. What makes this a significant contribution is his insistence that class dynamics should be the starting point of any analysis of agrarian change. The books provides us with good insights into the historical development of capitalism in relation to agrarian change. It is here where he challenges arguments or simplistic formulations about the "peasantry or people of the land", masking the complexity of the class dynamics and differentiation. Bernstein demonstrates his academic aversion for agrarian social movement like La Via Campesina, particularly their insistence on the peasant way. Bernstein critique's this as agrarian populism and advance his argument for agrarian classes of labour or as he terms it the agrarian question of labour. This is a good introduction to agrarian political economy and for anyone who wants to understand the complexity, nuances of agrarian change and the food justice movement today.
July 30, 2020
Membaca buku ini tidak membuat saya merasa seperti di kelas suatu pelajaran yang membosankan hingga akhirnya saya tertidur. Kajiannya padat dan - benar kata sinopsis di belakang buku - membuat pembaca tertarik untuk menyelami lebih jauh isu agraria yang diangkat. Di awal pembaca akan disuguhi terlebih dahulu sejarah dan pengertian kapitalisme secara umum, kemudian perlahan dikaitkan dengan isu agraria.
Setelah pembaca diberikan teori-teori terkait, di bab akhir pembaca disajikan suatu studi kasus tentang gerakan-gerakan yang ada di dunia, salah satunya India. Terdapat pula 5 pertanyaan inti yang membantu pembaca mengkritisi keadaan konflik agraria saat ini.
Catatan: saya membaca versi edisi revisi
Setelah pembaca diberikan teori-teori terkait, di bab akhir pembaca disajikan suatu studi kasus tentang gerakan-gerakan yang ada di dunia, salah satunya India. Terdapat pula 5 pertanyaan inti yang membantu pembaca mengkritisi keadaan konflik agraria saat ini.
Catatan: saya membaca versi edisi revisi
December 17, 2017
An excellent Marxist summary of the long-run history of agriculture, its modern transformation by colonialism and capitalism, as well as contemporary debates in development studies covering topics such as contemporary agrarian class structures in the Global North and South, agriculture's integration into neoliberal globalisation, and viable alternatives to the latter.
November 7, 2014
Superb Marxist based summary of current and historical debates around Agrarian Change.
January 28, 2020
Agrarian life is far from simple as U think. This small but highly theoretical book provides the concise framework to understand well political economic of agrarian change.
January 10, 2021
Bagian Pendahuluan "Ekonomi Politik Perubahan Agraria", ada pengantar ringkas mengenai kapitalisme, pengertian petani subsistensi, dan lain-lain secara garis besar. Bab-bab setelahnya masih sering merujuk bagian ini. Di sini, saya menemukan pernyataan bahwasanya periodisasi sejarah memunculkan bahaya yang dapat mengaburkan kompleksitas akibat adanya keterputusan, dan saya pikir ini sangat penting untuk terus diingatkan.
Bab I "Produksi dan Produktivitas" memberikan perspektif yang saya suka luput kalau membayangkan kerja-kerja petani. Pada aspek-aspek mana ada produksi maupun reproduksi. Saya belajar soal "pekerja kolektif"-nya Marx kalau "keseluruhan lebih besar dari penjumlahan bagian-bagiannya". Lalu soal tingkatan kategori dalam masyarakat, yakni masyarakat subsisten, masyarakat agraris, dan kapitalisme, yang secara berurutan punya kedekatan pada surplus, eksploitasi, dan akumulasi.
Catatan ringkasan Bab II "Asal Mula dan Perkembangan Awal Kapitalisme" adalah yang terpanjang. Di sini saya dikenalkan istilah "paksaan samar dari kekuatan-kekuatan ekonomi", yang akan dielaborasikan lebih lanjut di bab ini maupun bab-bab kemudian, dan makin lama saya menyadari betapa besar dampak paksaan samar itu pada para petani. Revolusi Industri dibahas di sini, tentu, tapi ada bahasan negara-negara lain yang baru bagi saya. (Bahkan, saya dibuat sadar bahwa transisi ke kapitalisme dari jalur Inggris itu justru disebut pengecualian!) Lalu, ada empat rezim akumulasi, yakni Genoa-Iberia, Belanda, Inggris, dan Amerika, yang bisa "berurutan" dan menarik sekali bagi saya.
Bab III "Kolonialisme dan Kapitalisme" masihlah sejarah yang merunut dari feodalisme hingga imperialisme modern, bagaimana kapitalisme sebagai sistem berkembang di sana, disertai dengan perubahan agraria berikut para tenaga kerjanya pula. Ada pula soal "paksaan samar dari kekuatan ekonomi" yang saya sebut sebelumnya, bahwasanya inilah metode pengganti kekerasan dalam kekuasaan yang diterapkan pada negara-negara merdeka di Asia Afrika. Oh ya, dan strategi yang ampuh dalam kolonialisme tentu adalah berkomplot dengan struktur kekuasaan lama. Dengan inilah mereka bisa membentuk ekonomi kolonial.
Istilah usaha tani 'farming' dan budidaya pertanian 'agriculture' dimunculkan di Bab IV "Usaha Tani dan Budidaya Pertanian, Lokal dan Global". Selain definisi keduanya, ada pembahasan ringkas mengenai Rezim Pangan Internasional Pertama dan Kedua, lalu kebijakan-kebijakan dalam perdangangan global yang berubah-ubah mengikuti perubahan dunia, baik perang maupun momen pembangunan.
Selanjutnya, Bab V "Globalisasi Neoliberal dan Pertanian Dunia" mulai memasuki topik persaingan internasional dan masalah-masalah yang muncul, seperti tipisnya kendali negara dan ditinggalkannya pembangunan pasar domestik karena lebih memilih impor. Perspektif petani skala kecil terhadap sistem dunia yang dijabarkan di Bab 5 dibahas dalam Bab VI "Pertanian Kapitalis dan Petani Nonkapitalis?" bahwa mereka mengeksploitasi diri sendiri dengan menanggung risiko selama proses produksi.
Sekalipun sudah disinggung sebelumnya, baru Bab VII "Pembentukan Kelas di Pedesaan" dan Bab VIII "Kompleksitas Kelas" yang membahas kelas. Bahwa ada diferensiasi kelas sekalipun itu "sama-sama petani". Bahkan ada pertarungan kelas di pedesaan, misalnya mengenai golongan tua-muda atau laki-perempuan. Tapi buku ini melantangkan ambisi membentuk satu kelas tunggal, yakni perlawanan agraria global, sebagai tandingan globalisasi neoliberal dan objek eksploitasi kapital korporat. Semangat itu tersampaikan kepada saya.
Membacanya begitu berat, tapi lama-lama mudah dipahami. Sepertinya punya masalah terjemahan, tapi ini sudah disinggung juga pada bagian Prakata Penerjemah. Sebagai pembaca yang suka kasih highlight ke perincian, saya pernah menemukan poin-poin yang dinarasikan, dimulai dari kata "Pertama" yang dicetak miring, tapi disambung dengan "Selanjutnya" atau "lalu". Jadinya malah tidak ada kata "Kedua, Ketiga" dst bercetak miring yang mengikuti "Pertama" tadi.
Tapi, terima kasih untuk buku ini. Saya belajar banyak.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 4, 2021
This is an introduction into the study of the development of agriculture from a Marxist PoV. The first 5chapters were especially interesting, cover much of the fundamentals -- from production & productivity, to origins of capitalism, to colonialism & the development of international food regimes regulating the distribution of agriculture, etc. and at least the neoliberal stage of capitalism and its consequences.
The last chapters, chapters 6-8 I did not find too interesting, they started a too in-depth discussion with not enough space for them -- for example discussing the class differentiation & the complexities of classes.
Still, it was a very good introduction into the topic and has made me interested into the topic. Worth a read.
The last chapters, chapters 6-8 I did not find too interesting, they started a too in-depth discussion with not enough space for them -- for example discussing the class differentiation & the complexities of classes.
Still, it was a very good introduction into the topic and has made me interested into the topic. Worth a read.
September 10, 2020
A quick read, Marxist take on development and class dynamics present within global agriculture. Some parts feel underdeveloped, particularly around the contemporary situation — referred to as the 'globalized neoliberal order.' But meant as a broad overview, and definitely gives plenty to chew on. It had me pulling out my copy of Capital to think more about the dull compulsion of economic relations, the declining rate of profit, overproduction, and more.
November 5, 2019
Berat, tapi betul-betul membuka mata. Buku ini benar-benar mengantar saya menyelami dinamika kelas petani, di mana saya sebetulnya tidak tahu sama sekali. Yang menarik, penjabaran dan analisa Henry Bernstein sangat dapat diaplikasikan juga dalam analisa kelas pekerja yang lain. Sangat direkomendasikan untuk yang tertarik dengan isu seperti ini.
September 11, 2020
Oof. Heavy theory but a good foundational text. Have to admit my political economy/political sociology understandings are quite limited, and so that in and of itself made this challenging to fully comprehend. Lots to dig thru again & return to.
June 22, 2021
Dalam edisi revisinya, buku ini membantu pembaca mengasah ketajamannya terhadap isu kelas dan agraria. Sedari awal, penulis sudah memberikan alat berupa empat pertanyaan kunci yang dapat digunakan pembaca agar kritis terhadap bacaan. Kemudian ketika masuk pada duduk permasalahan, penulis benar-benar tertib menggunakan definisi. Sembari membaca buku, tidak jarang pembaca diminta kembali pada bab sebelumnya agar tetap berada pada titik pancangnya. Tapi tidak hanya berfokus pada pemikirannya, penulis juga merekomendasikan berbagai pemikiran kawan-kawan terdahulunya. Pembaca yang berniat mendalami isu agraria, dituntun ke pada sumber-sumber pemikiran sejenis.
Secara kesuluruhan (mempertimbangkan ketertiban penggunaan definisi, glosarium, dan studi kasus) buku ini sepertinya didesain untuk para pemula yang ingin mulai kritis terhadap isu kelas dan agraria. Saya tidak dapat katakan buku ini mudah dipahami bagi pemula (yang awalnya tidak tertarik isu agraria), mungkin sedikit memusingkan dilempar-dilempar dengan argumentasi penulis. Tapi menurut saya, ini dapat menjadi start yang bagus bagi para pemula dan bagus untuk menjadi pegangan para SJW.
Secara kesuluruhan (mempertimbangkan ketertiban penggunaan definisi, glosarium, dan studi kasus) buku ini sepertinya didesain untuk para pemula yang ingin mulai kritis terhadap isu kelas dan agraria. Saya tidak dapat katakan buku ini mudah dipahami bagi pemula (yang awalnya tidak tertarik isu agraria), mungkin sedikit memusingkan dilempar-dilempar dengan argumentasi penulis. Tapi menurut saya, ini dapat menjadi start yang bagus bagi para pemula dan bagus untuk menjadi pegangan para SJW.
June 11, 2023
A very complex book
April 8, 2025
sufrí mucho pero estoy segura de que habría interesante si lo hubiese terminado de entender. qué pena.
April 6, 2025
Classic orthodox Marxist analysis grid applied to the peasant agrarian world, Leninist dogma at its finest. It’s funny to read those academics writing about peasant society and actually not recognizing the factual anthropological reality of subsistence, peasant moral gift economy and millennial reciprocity social relations. The author just simply relegate peasant struggle to their everyday way of life against commodity fetichism, value form and the state as “populism ”. Total cliché books. Also the evolution of the peasant society in a linear evolutionist way like Bernstein is doing in this book is the clear heritage of Engels European-centrist historical materialism in is purest form. Don’t read this one and go directly to the amazing second one of the series about Chayanov legacy, way more pertinent. I also recommend reading : the subsistence perspective by Maria Mies and Veronika Bennholdt-Thompson and The Gift by Marcel Mauss.
July 8, 2014
victim of high expectations. struck me as a clunkily written literature review of marxist perspectives on agriculture in the global south.
October 14, 2024
Read for class. Simply written yet poignant application of Marxist political economy to agricultural history and class relations.
Read
December 25, 2016Buku ini wajib dibaca untuk menganalisis bagaimana Kelas yang terbangun ditengah perubahan agraria.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews