Small-scale agricultural producers in the peripheral world are often condescendingly assumed to be a single social class ('the peasantry') to be pitted against the state or corporation. This book challenges this rather idealistic view by demonstrating that under current capitalist social relations (competition, efficiency and productivity, and profit maximisation), these agricultural producers have been differentiated into different agrarian classes by exploitation. By comparing two different contexts of local agrarian change in Indonesia - rice cultivation. in Java and oil palm in Sumatra - this book exposes the different class location of the agrarian classes among petty agricultural producers and the class relations between them. These are often inextricably linked to gender, clanship and generational issues. The power of class dynamics crucially shapes how agricultural production in both rice and oil palm is organised. The share received by different agrarian classes from the production site then prominently shapes the different nature of class reproduction for each agrarian class. This analysis demonstrates that the different agrarian classes possess different capacities and responses in their relation to the state or corporations. Any real emancipation attempt in the Indonesian countryside (and beyond) must start from a proper understanding of these class dynamics. This book marks a significant contribution to the literature on agrarian change, the political economy of development, rural development and Marxist political economy.

Book Information
ISBN 9781032212173
Author Muchtar Habibi
Format Hardback
Page Count 288
Imprint Taylor & Francis Ltd
Publisher Taylor & Francis Ltd
Weight(grams) 156g