Author: Publisher:
ISBN: 9789463434256
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 162
Book Description
The State, Capital and Peasantry in the Agrarian Transition of China
Author: China's Agrarian Transition
Author: René TrappelPublisher: Lexington Books
ISBN: 0739199374
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 223
Book Description
More than thirty years ago the political turn that brought the dismantling of agricultural collectives and exclusive rights to small plots of farmland for rural families initiated a historic return to smallholding in the People’s Republic of China. Today, agriculture in China is changing again. In many villages smallholder farming is giving way to large agricultural enterprises. This book explores this latest transformation of Chinese agriculture. It traces how the peasantry’s frustration with the farming conditions, the priorities of national and local political agents and the changes in the management of collective land since the return to family-based farming have paved the way for a unique Chinese agrarian transition. The argument is based on careful analysis of agricultural politics since the early 1980s and data gathered in three field trips to Shandong, Sichuan, and Guizhou Provinces between 2008 and 2010. The findings highlight the importance of institutional path-dependencies and strategic government intervention (or its absence) for economic transformation. China’s Agrarian Transition is one of the first comprehensive accounts of the latest developments in agriculture in the People’s Republic and will provide a stimulating read for political scientists, sociologists, economists, and experts on China interested in the ongoing transformation of China’s countryside.
Peasantry, Capitalism and State
Author: Anil VaddirajuPublisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 1443866490
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 95
Book Description
In large parts of the developing world, peasant to industrial worker and rural to urban transition is a huge question mark on the face of the political economies of these societies. In India alone, nearly seventy percent of its 1.2 billion population lives in rural areas dependent on agriculture and allied activities. Though the context is different, the magnitude of the transition is similar in present day China. In many parts of Latin America and Africa, this transition is incomplete. Rural populations continue to persist, even in the times of globalisation – a so called shrinking world – and the digital age. In the context of developing countries in general and India in particular, it is difficult to find this transition in the lines of European history. Hence, the main concern of this book is with the large, independent self-cultivating peasantry and the agriculture-associated, non-landowning peasantry. In the present and in these contexts, the process of the growth of towns, merchandise, cities and industry, does not occur in a sequence of succession – characteristic to European development – owing to colonial backdrops and historical specificities. Whatever urbanisation happens in these countries, too, does not seem to be inclusive and facilitative of the rural to urban transition. The variance with the European context also appears to be the reason for the often observed non-absorption of the peasantry. These large differences across spatial, historical and structural contexts also indicate that one should consider the processes in non-Euro-centric terms. The processes of the transformation from agrarian to non-agrarian society – rural to urban societies, therefore – are inevitably plural in nature and, while retaining their specificities, push us into considering the point that the European model, or the English model, of transition is only one important variant of the possible modes of transition to capitalism, which necessitates close empirical study and a considered generalization; a point illuminated by the diversities that characterise European history itself. However, we need to urgently address this problem, as overwhelmingly large sections of the developing world not only persist in rural bewilderment, but they also aspire to urban modernity, as does the rest of the world. This book is written with a certain empathy towards rural societies, that they too, while transcending the ascriptive particularities and backwardness, should access all the benefits of civilised urban modernity; that the increasingly globalising humanity can offer and, yes, bask in the ‘bright lights of the city’.
Rural Transformations and Development - China in Context
Author: Norman LongPublisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
ISBN: 1849806993
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 409
Book Description
Rural Transformations and Development China in Context is a thoughtful book in both senses penetrating and packed with ideas. True to its title, it takes the reader through the main socio-economic and political changes of Chinese rural society. The book brings together a selected group of authoritative, international experts on agricultural development with particular reference to China. It is a good read for everyone, and an eminently recommendable text for professionals and students interested in issues of China s rural change. Peter Ho, University of Groningen, The Netherlands This is an insightful and excellent theoretical and empirical collection about China s contemporary agrarian transformation critically studied not in isolation from either the urban sector or the broader world, but in relation to these. It is a must-read for academics and development policy practitioners who are interested in agrarian and development issues in China in particular and the world more generally. Saturnino M. Borras Jr, Saint Mary s University, Canada Bringing together contributions by some of the leading Western scholars working on paths of rural transformation with studies by their counterparts in China, this book examines the value of contemporary development theories for understanding the specificities of China s trajectory of change. It is a first-class contribution both to Modern China studies and to the renaissance of international research on agrarian change that is now going on. It deserves a wide readership. John Harriss, Simon Fraser University at Vancouver, Canada Interesting comparative perspectives are coupled to extensive on-the-ground research in this exploration of the vast changes underway in China s villages. This book by 19 specialists pushes forward our knowledge of the circumstances and challenges faced by an eighth of humankind. Jonathan Unger, Australian National University This unique book explores the varied perspectives on contemporary processes of rural transformation and policy intervention in China. The expert contributors combine a critical review of current theoretical viewpoints and global debates with a series of case studies that document the specificities of China s pathways to change. Central issues focus on the dynamics of state peasant encounters; the diversification of labour and livelihoods; out-migration and the blurring of rural and urban scenarios; the significance of issues of value and capital and their gender implications; land ownership and sustainable resource management; struggles between administrative cadres and local actors; and the dilemmas of participatory development. Rural Transformations and Development China in Context will prove a fascinating and stimulating read for academics and researchers in the areas of Asian studies, development and agriculture, and public policy.
Peasants and Globalization
Author: A. Haroon Akram-LodhiPublisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0415446295
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 370
Book Description
This book explores the historical and contemporary process of agrarian transformation in developing countries and its impact upon peasant livelihoods, examining contemporary processes of rural change through an historically-informed analytical lens.
How China Became Capitalist
Author: R. CoasePublisher: Springer
ISBN: 1137019379
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 268
Book Description
How China Became Capitalist details the extraordinary, and often unanticipated, journey that China has taken over the past thirty five years in transforming itself from a closed agrarian socialist economy to an indomitable economic force in the international arena. The authors revitalise the debate around the rise of the Chinese economy through the use of primary sources, persuasively arguing that the reforms implemented by the Chinese leaders did not represent a concerted attempt to create a capitalist economy, and that it was 'marginal revolutions' that introduced the market and entrepreneurship back to China. Lessons from the West were guided by the traditional Chinese principle of 'seeking truth from facts'. By turning to capitalism, China re-embraced her own cultural roots. How China Became Capitalist challenges received wisdom about the future of the Chinese economy, warning that while China has enormous potential for further growth, the future is clouded by the government's monopoly of ideas and power. Coase and Wang argue that the development of a market for ideas which has a long and revered tradition in China would be integral in bringing about the Chinese dream of social harmony.
Class Dynamics of Agrarian Change
Author: Henry BernsteinPublisher: Kumarian Press
ISBN: 1565493567
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 161
Book Description
Henry Bernstein argues that class dynamics should be the starting point of any analysis of agrarian change. Providing an accessible introduction to agrarian political economy, he shows clearly how the argument for "bringing class back in" provides an alternative to inherited conceptions of the agrarian question. He also ably illustrates what is at stake in different ways of thinking about class dynamics and the effects of agrarian change in today's globalized world. CONTENTS: Introduction: The Political Economy of Agrarian Change. Production and Productivity. Origins of Early Development of Capitalism. Colonialism and Capitalism. Farming and Agriculture, Local and Global. Neoliberal Globalization and World Agriculture. Capitalist Agriculture and Non-Capitalist Farmers? Class Formation in the Countryside. Complexities of Class.
The Peasant in Postsocialist China
Author: Alexander F. DayPublisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107435293
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 243
Book Description
The role of the peasant in society has been fundamental throughout China's history, posing difficult, much-debated questions for Chinese modernity. Today, as China becomes an economic superpower, the issue continues to loom large. Can the peasantry be integrated into a new Chinese capitalism, or will it form an excluded and marginalized class? Alexander F. Day's highly original appraisal explores the role of the peasantry throughout Chinese history and its importance within the development of post-socialist-era politics. Examining the various ways in which the peasant is historicized, Day shows how different perceptions of the rural lie at the heart of the divergence of contemporary political stances and of new forms of social and political activism in China. Indispensable reading for all those wishing to understand Chinese history and politics, The Peasant in Postsocialist China is a new point of departure in the debate as to the nature of tomorrow's China.
The Peasant Economy and Social Change in North China
Author: Philip HuangPublisher: Stanford University Press
ISBN: 9780804780995
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 400
Book Description
The author presents a convincing new interpretation of the origins and nature of the agrarian crisis that gripped the North China Plain in the two centuries before the Revolution. His extensive research included eighteenth-century homicide case records, a nineteenth-century country government archive, large quantities of 1930's Japanese ethnographic materials, and his own field studies in 1980. Through a comparison of the histories of small family farms and larger scale managerial farms, the author documents and illustrates the long-term trends of agricultural commercialization, social stratification, and mounting population pressure in the peasant economy. He shows how those changes, in the absence of dynamic economic growth, combined over the course of several centuries to produce a majority, not simply of land-short peasants or of exploited tenants and agricultural laborers, but of poor peasants who required both family farming and agricultural wage income to survive. This interlocking of family farming with wage labor furnished a large supply of cheap labor, which in turn acted as a powerful brake of capital accumulation in the economy. The formation of such a poor peasantry ultimately altered both the nature of village communities and their relations with the elites and the state, creating tensions that led in the end to revolution.
The Dragon and the Elephant
Author: Ashok GulatiPublisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
ISBN: 9780801887864
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
China and India are the most extraordinary economic success stories of the developing world. Both nations’ economies have grown dramatically over the past few decades, elevating them from two of the world’s poorest countries into projected economic superpowers. As a result, the numbers of Chinese and Indians living in poverty have rapidly fallen and per capita incomes in China and India have quadrupled and doubled, respectively. This book investigates the reasons for these staggering accomplishments and the lessons that can be applied both to other developing nations and to the problem of poverty that remains in these two countries. The contributors pay particular attention to agriculture and the rural economy, examining how initial conditions and investments and the prioritization and sequencing of different policies and strategies have led to successes, and how the agricultural and rural sectors connect to overall economic expansion. They also emphasize the importance of anti-poverty programs and safety nets in helping poor people escape poverty. The book offers a set of policy and strategic options for future growth and poverty reduction. These include setting the right priorities for public spending, identifying trade and market reforms, building social safety nets for the poorest of the poor, and building accountable institutions that can provide public goods and services effectively. The book concludes by examining future challenges to China and India’s economic development, such as the need to ensure growth that is sustainable, equitable, and environmentally friendly. The Dragon and the Elephant offers valuable insights to development specialists anxious to multiply the benefits experienced by two of the greatest economic successes in recent times.