The role of family farming in agrarian change

The 1980s were a period of intense theorizing over the organization of rural production, notably the persistence of family farming in the face of continuing penetration of capitalist production into land-based industry. More recently, some of the social scientists who were instrumental in reviving & developing the theory of simple commodity production & the incorporation of political economy approaches into the analysis of Western agriculture have suggested a move beyond some of the narrow theoretical debates that dominated the literature of the 1980s. It is contended here that any premature devaluation of the theory of simple commodity production would limit the possibilities that it offers to inform the empirical work needed in the 1990s. Three themes require improved specification & empirical research before the relationships between capitalist agriculture & family farming can be understood: (1) the nature of employment relations within family farming, (2) better understanding of the relationships between family farms & organizations in the agrocommodity chain, & (3) the need to refocus on the importance of life & enterprise course as influences on the decisions of farm families. The last two themes are developed using examples from recent New Zealand research. 1 Table, 83 References. AA