Showing papers in "The Journal of Peasant Studies in 1991"
TL;DR: In this article, a gendered analysis of class formation calls for a major rethinking of James Scott's notion of everyday forms of peasant resistance, and how gender meanings shape the struggles on these interconnected sites.
Abstract: Labour relations, forms of resistance, and class consciousness in the Muda region of Malaysia have become increasingly differentiated along gender lines: women have come to define and prosecute their interests as workers, whereas men continue to adopt a far more deferential stance vis‐a‐vis their employers. To explain these patterns, this article shows how struggles within the labour process intersect with those in the local community and the household, and how gender meanings shape the struggles on these interconnected sites. This gendered analysis of class formation calls for a major rethinking of James Scott's notion of ‘everyday forms of peasant resistance’.
165 citations
TL;DR: This paper examined the way in which peasant movements in both India and Latin America have been reinterpreted by the postmodern and politically revisionist project of the subaltern studies series on India and the new social movements theory on Latin America.
Abstract: This article examines the way in which peasant movements in both India and Latin America have been reinterpreted by the postmodern and politically revisionist project of the subaltern studies series on India and the new social movements theory on Latin America. It is suggested that much of the conceptual analysis embodied in both these frameworks is prefigured in the earlier ‘moral economy’ approach, incorporating the middle peasant thesis of Wolf and Alavi, an epistemological lineage in which the work of J.C. Scott discharges a pivotal role. An additional claim made here is that such frameworks implicitly provide Chayanovian neo‐populist economic theory with its missing politico‐ideological dimension.
106 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors focus on gender differentials in the distribution of poverty, using a conceptual framework of basic needs and resource entitlements to distinguish between the state and process of poverty.
Abstract: Highly aggregated measures of poverty overlook inequalities in the distribution of poverty among sub‐groups of the poor. This article focuses on gender differentials in the distribution of poverty, using a conceptual framework of basic needs and resource entitlements to distinguish between the state and process of poverty. Empirical material from rural Bangladesh offers strong evidence that women experience the state of poverty differently to, and often more acutely than, men and become impoverished through different processes. Key indicators are more likely to pick up these gender dimensions of poverty than the conventional single index approach.
73 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that to prevent the outbreak of famine in the rural sector of underdeveloped countries, it is necessary, first, to identify the classes and groups which are vulnerable to starvation in the event of an economic shock.
Abstract: This article argues that in order to prevent the outbreak of famine in the rural sector of underdeveloped countries, it is necessary, first, to identify the classes and groups which are vulnerable to starvation in the event of an economic shock. The identification of the build‐up to a ‘pre‐famine conjuncture’ requires careful monitoring (a) of the long‐run trends in per head food availability (which can fall owing to the commercialisation of production even when overall growth in agriculture outstrips population growth), particularly on a regional basis, and (b) of the terms of trade for agriculture both vis‐a‐vis the domestic non‐agricultural sector as well as the rest of the world, when trade is important. These propositions are illustrated with reference to the Bengal famine of 1943–44, and to the trends in per head food production in India from 1960 to 1987.
38 citations
TL;DR: The authors examines the hypothesis that while the above inverse relation may hold in the static context of a relatively backward agriculture, it breaks down with advancing levels of technological innovation, and to show, using primary data from village surveys, that this latter process has indeed been taking place in the context of rural Egypt.
Abstract: A major component of the economic rationale for redistributive land reform is the empirically observed inverse relation between farm size and farm productivity. A major policy implication of this statistical relationship, frequently suggested, is for a small farm bias in agricultural development strategy. This article examines the hypothesis that while the above inverse relation may hold in the static context of a relatively backward agriculture, it breaks down with advancing levels of technological innovation, and to show, using primary data from village surveys, that this latter process has indeed been taking place in the context of rural Egypt. The article points out some of the conceptual and methodological confusion of earlier studies.
35 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that over a period of three decades, British bankers attempted to create lending facilities which were to be directly aimed at extending credit to West African smallholders, but were prevented from doing so by the establishment in colonial law of "customary" forms of land tenure overtly hostile to the recognition of African private property in land.
Abstract: It has been consistently argued by development practitioners that the absence of rural credit from banks is one of the most debilitating aspects of African rural life. It has also been argued by historians that European bankers in Africa deliberately discriminated against rural African credit seekers. In this article we argue that, over a period of three decades, British bankers attempted to create lending facilities which were to be directly aimed at extending credit to West African smallholders. Bankers were prevented from doing so by the establishment in colonial law of ‘customary’ forms of land tenure overtly hostile to the recognition of African private property in land. The fear on the part of colonial officialdom was that bank credit, extended on the basis of a legal recognition of private property, would have a corrosive effect upon the African ‘community’. In the place of bank credit, officials promoted co‐operatives which were seen as more in keeping with African society. By failing to understan...
27 citations
25 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the search for the peasant in Western and Turkish history/historiography is discussed, and a new approach to state and Peasant in Ottoman history is proposed.
Abstract: (1991). The search for the peasant in Western and Turkish history/historiography. The Journal of Peasant Studies: Vol. 18, New Approaches to State and Peasant in Ottoman History, pp. 109-184.
23 citations
20 citations
19 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors re-examine a number of features of the historical Javanese village in the light of these publications, and connect this debate with the international discussion on closed corporate peasant communities and the moral economy.
Abstract: Recently, in a number of publications the communal and corporate character of Javanese villages in and before the nineteenth century has been all but denied. This article re‐examines a number of features of the historical Javanese village in the light of these publications, and connects this debate with the international discussion on ‘closed corporate peasant communities’ and the ‘moral economy’.
TL;DR: In this paper, the role of the state in the transformation of traditionally inalienable tribal lands into alienable private property is examined. And the implications of heavy dependence on a small class of high caste Hindus who are now their landlords, creditors and employers is outlined.
Abstract: This article's context is the distinction inform and meaning of land tenure systems as between tribes and peasants, and the role of the state in the transformation of traditionally inalienable tribal lands into alienable private property. The historical circumstances which have shaped and transformed the economy and culture of a particular tribal population ‐ the Limbus of east Nepal ‐ are examined. There is analysis of the programme of land reform introduced by the Nepalese state, whose chief outcome for the Limbus was the abolition of their kipat tenures and the conversion of their lands into private property. The implications in terms of land and identity are considered, and the outcome of heavy dependence on a small class of high caste Hindus who are now their landlords, creditors and employers is outlined.
TL;DR: In this paper, two particular groupings, cane farmers and market gardeners in the urban periphery, are considered in explaining the rise and fall of this peasant stratum, and the lessons of this history for the prospects of post-apartheid society in South Africa.
Abstract: Between the phase of indentured labour and the emergence of a large class of industrial workers, much of the Indian population of Natal went through a peasant phase of production, characterised by intense market commitment and family labour exploitation. Two particular groupings, cane farmers and market gardeners in the urban periphery, are considered in explaining the rise and fall of this peasant stratum. Its fortunes under segregation and then apartheid, and under the changing face of South African capitalism are considered. A brief conclusion tries to consider the lessons of this history for the prospects of post‐apartheid society in South Africa.
TL;DR: Theorists of the peasantry should at least have their feet on the ground: A response to Banaji as mentioned in this paper, who argued that the majority of the peasants do not have the means to defend themselves.
Abstract: (1991). Theorists of the peasantry should at least have their feet on the ground: A response to Banaji. The Journal of Peasant Studies: Vol. 19, No. 1, pp. 138-141.
TL;DR: In this paper, the conservation and restructuring of Taiwanese family farms in the course of capitalist and colonial incorporation is analyzed, with insufficient participation of Japanese private capital at the outset of colonial rule, a congruence of interest between indigenous peasant producers and the colonial state resulted in policies that fostered the survival of family farms.
Abstract: This article analyses the conservation and restructuring of Taiwanese family farms in the course of capitalist and colonial incorporation. With insufficient participation of Japanese private capital at the outset of colonial rule, a congruence of interest between indigenous peasant producers and the colonial state resulted in policies that fostered the survival of family farms. These family farms constituted a formidable obstacle to the expansion of a labour‐hiring capitalist agriculture. Under such conditions, Japanese capital pursued vertical concentration resting on a highly productive family farming agriculture. Through contractual arrangements within exclusive territories awarded by the government, Japanese sugar corporations obtained supplies of sugarcane at favorable prices from family farms. While peasant households retained command of their labour power and contested the terms of exchange, Japanese sugar capital controlled the commanding heights of the lucrative sugar industry and determined the ...
TL;DR: The degree of poverty and immiseration among China's rural population prior to 1949 has been a subject of much debate for many years as discussed by the authors, and three authors have rekindled the debate by their diverse conclusions in their new books.
Abstract: The degree of poverty and immiseration among China's rural population prior to 1949 has been a subject of much debate for many years. Three authors ‐ Brandt (1989), Faure (1989) and Huang (1990) ‐ have rekindled the debate by their diverse conclusions in their new books. While each of the studies have their conceptual and argumentative flaws, taken as a group they reveal that conditions in pre‐Liberation China were extremely complex and varied. As a result, the notion of making categorical statements regarding pre‐Liberation China loses credibility. Commercialization and Agricultural Development: Central and Eastern China 1870–1937, by Loren Brandt. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989. Pp.xiii + 232. £30.00/$42.50 (hardback). ISBN0521 371961 The Peasant Family and Rural Development in the Yangzi Delta, 1350–1988, by Philip C.C. Huang. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1990. Pp.xiv + 421. $49.50 (hardback); $16.95 (paperback). ISBN 0847 1787 and 1788 5 The Rural Economy of Pre‐Liberation Chi...