Class Dynamics of Agrarian Change
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: Bernstein, Henry, PUBLISHER: Kumarian Press, Development processes are never neutral. They impact various groups and classes of people differently. A high food price may benefit some rich peasants who produce and sell food surplus, but it may disadvantage landless rural laborers. A project on irrigation may benefit those who own the land, but not the landless tenants. Nowadays, official documents by governments and development agencies tend to lump different groups of people into vague categories like 'rural poor'. This might be useful in some cases, but in large part this thinking can harm the poorest of the poor. "Agrarian Change Today" demonstrates the continuing relevance of class analysis in understanding development processes and outcomes. It shows clearly and accessibly how the argument for 'bringing class back in' provides an alternative to inherited conceptions of the agrarian question on one hand, and to widespread notions of 'people of the land', 're-peasantization', and so on, on the other. It illustrates what is at stake in different ways of thinking about class dynamics and the effects of agrarian change in today's globalized world.