Toward a class analysis of midwestern agriculture [USA]

Extract: This paper applies recent developments in the neo-Marxist theory of class to the specific problem of class analysis of midwestern agricultural production. The works of Braverman and Wright are brought together to identify four indicators of class location. Three "pure" class locations are identified by these relations. Their imperfect coincidence in the articulation of simple commodity and capitalist modes of production make Wright's concept of "contradictory class location" particularly appropriate for the analysis of class in agricultural production. Five social relations in agricultural production are examined with respect to the specified indicators of class location.