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Article
Publication date: 8 January 2020

Clement Chipenda and Tom Tom

The purpose of this paper is to provide a contemporary perspective on post land reform Zimbabwe with special focus on the youth. It uses the social reproduction conceptual…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to provide a contemporary perspective on post land reform Zimbabwe with special focus on the youth. It uses the social reproduction conceptual framework to show that two decades after land reform, there are generational questions which are now arising in the new resettlement areas which need deeper, empirical and more nuanced analysis to comprehend. In a context where some countries in Southern Africa are grappling with the best ways of dealing with their land questions, it shows that from a youth perspective, the Fast Track Land Reform Programme (FTLRP) has important lessons.

Design/methodology/approach

The study was largely qualitative and grounded in an interpretive research paradigm. It employed various data gathering instruments and solicited for responses from 151 young people as well as 11 key informants. The study used the social reproduction perspective as a conceptual and evaluative tool to ascertain the outcomes of the FTLRP from a social reproduction perspective with special focus on young people.

Findings

The study showed that there are some young people in the resettlement areas who blame the land reform programme for the challenging socio-economic situation which they are facing. It also shows that for the youth, the FTLRP has had multi-dimensional impact; while some are complaining, others have managed to use their agency to access natural resources and land, which has seen them “accumulating from below”. For some young people, land reform has positively transformed their lives, while others feel that it has limited their opportunities.

Originality/value

The paper provides new and contemporary insights on post land reform Zimbabwe. This is an area which is increasingly gaining traction in scholarship on the FTLRP. In addition, the paper provides a unique perspective of looking at the issue of the youth from a social reproduction perspective; this is a unique academic contribution. Lastly, the paper is useful insofar as it transcends the debates on the FTLRP to proffer a unique analysis on the social reproduction dimensions of the FTLRP.

Details

African Journal of Economic and Management Studies, vol. 11 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2040-0705

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 January 1982

Mats Lundahl

The article questions a recent interpretation of increased intergenerational sharecropping in Haiti as a labour‐mobilising device and offers a re‐interpretation based on the…

Abstract

The article questions a recent interpretation of increased intergenerational sharecropping in Haiti as a labour‐mobilising device and offers a re‐interpretation based on the increasing relative price of land.

Details

Journal of Economic Studies, vol. 9 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0144-3585

Article
Publication date: 10 October 2016

Elias Andersson and Peter Lundqvist

The agricultural sector has undergone extensive changes in the 20-30 years since the peak academic debate on family farming. Still today, the understanding and concept of family…

Abstract

Purpose

The agricultural sector has undergone extensive changes in the 20-30 years since the peak academic debate on family farming. Still today, the understanding and concept of family farming has political implications in the processes of rural and agricultural policy. The purpose of this paper is to study the development of agrarian structure by analysing the gendered and family relations of family farming.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper examines the concept of the family farm and its utilisation and diversity in the current Swedish agricultural sector from a gender perspective, using empirical data from the Farm Accountancy Data Network. The paper operationalises a situated agrarian typology and examines the gendered position and temporalities of family farms in Sweden, based on patterns of labour use.

Findings

A workable, fruitful typology of the agrarian structure suitable for future comparative studies is revealed. It also demonstrates the gendered time in the farm labour process, the different temporalities involved and their interconnection between gender, family and various spheres. The spatial and geographical implications, as well as the increased dependence on family and hired labour in different farm types, are emphasised.

Originality/value

The focus of this study contributes to the understanding of spatial-temporal relations of family farm business and organisation in general and in Sweden particularly. It also provides empirical basis for developing and gender mainstreaming rural and agricultural policies.

Details

Journal of Family Business Management, vol. 6 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2043-6238

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 11 September 2007

Ravi Bhandari

The purpose of this paper is to gain a better understanding of the role of culture in general, and social distance in particular, in influencing the choice and efficiency of…

1022

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to gain a better understanding of the role of culture in general, and social distance in particular, in influencing the choice and efficiency of various contractual modes in developing country agriculture. It aims to focus on sharecropping, but the model of social distance can be applied to any contract, mainly those in close‐knit village societies.

Design/methodology/approach

Principal components analysis (PCA) is used in the study to develop a social distance index for all sharecroppers, which is included as an independent variable in land productivity ordinary least squares (OLS) regressions.

Findings

Findings indicate social distance is a key determinant in sharecropping efficiency for marginal tenant farmers in rural Nepal. Specifically, social distance is found to be a significant factor in explaining land productivity differentials between owned land and sharecropped land.

Research limitations/implications

Future research hopes to see whether social distance is also a significant factor in the efficiency and choice of bonded labor contracts. It intends to use simple OLS regressions for sharecroppers and bonded laborers separately in which: input use and land productivity are separate dependent variables, and the various factors or proxies of social distance are independent variables to test for their particular impact; each type of contract is the dependent variable to see the extent to which social distance affects the choice of tenancy; and social distance is the dependent variable so one can see the specific impact of different proxies. Given the small sample (although representative), the strong results in this paper are limited.

Practical implications

From a policy standpoint, the results suggest that a relatively egalitarian agrarian structure, insofar as it results in lower social distances among parties to land and labor contracts, would have a positive impact on productivity. Therefore, the object of agrarian reforms should not be to alter or constrain the form of contracts (for example by banning sharecropping) but rather to improve the social relations among contracting parties.

Originality/value

This paper is original and provides value in three ways: a conceptually and theoretically innovative model that explains sharecropping efficiency independent of standard explanations of market imperfections, transaction costs, and risk; in developing a new measure of social distance that allows the data to determine the weights of the independent variables in constructing social distance; and to see the need to more importantly study the changing social relations on which contracts are based and are often only one element of.

Details

Journal of Economic Studies, vol. 34 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0144-3585

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 March 1990

Mustafa Koc

State policies have played a significant role in shaping the structure of agrarian economy in both advanced and under‐developed capitalist societies.(1) The influence of the state…

Abstract

State policies have played a significant role in shaping the structure of agrarian economy in both advanced and under‐developed capitalist societies.(1) The influence of the state over the rural sector is not simply confined to its agricultural policies but covers a large array of policies and actions that may have direct as well as indirect effects on the rural population. This paper deals with the factors that influence agricultural policies of the state in the specific case of state policies towards Oriental tobacco production in Turkey.

Details

International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, vol. 10 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0144-333X

Article
Publication date: 1 July 1987

John E. Elliott and Joanna V. Scott

This article examines relationships between capitalism and democracy as perceived by contending perspectives within the liberal capitalist‐liberal democratic tradition(s). Bentham…

Abstract

This article examines relationships between capitalism and democracy as perceived by contending perspectives within the liberal capitalist‐liberal democratic tradition(s). Bentham and the Mills are taken as initiating both this tradition and the core elements of the debate within it. Pre‐Benthamite theories are first reviewed. Then, after discussion of Bentham and James Mill and of John Stuart Mill, Mill's late nineteenth and early twentieth century successors are examined. We then go on to consider hypotheses concerning the “exceptional” quality of relationships between capitalism and democracy in the United States. The penultimate section of the article adumbrates the main contours of mid‐twentieth century pluralist‐elitist theories. We conclude with a summary.

Details

International Journal of Social Economics, vol. 14 no. 7/8/9
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0306-8293

Article
Publication date: 1 March 1998

Thangchungmunga

Reports the upheavals occurring in Mizo society as it moves from being agrarian based to being a monetised, capitalist economy. Claims that a great deal of poverty has been caused…

419

Abstract

Reports the upheavals occurring in Mizo society as it moves from being agrarian based to being a monetised, capitalist economy. Claims that a great deal of poverty has been caused by the change from the tradition of communal ownership of relatively abundant land to the individual right to land ownership, brought about by the 1955 Agricultural Land Act. As a consequence, title rights to much of the easily accessible, fertile land has come under the permanent possession of an élite, so forcing the tribal communities into villages and towns. Despite the massive efforts of the government to develop the rural areas, a centrally controlled, unresponsive and inflexible administration that is preoccupied with status, has wasted much of its energy and effort on bureaucratic procedures rather than development. Concludes that the present trend of social change indicates that the tribal communities are heading towards acute social stratification and that the society requires an institutional hierarchy which is responsive to its needs if it is to be safeguarded.

Details

International Journal of Social Economics, vol. 25 no. 2/3/4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0306-8293

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 27 March 2009

Chandana Alawattage and Danture Wickramasinghe

This paper aims to report on subalterns' emancipatory accounting (SEA) embedded in transformation of governance and accountability structures (GAS) in Ceylon Tea.

2721

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to report on subalterns' emancipatory accounting (SEA) embedded in transformation of governance and accountability structures (GAS) in Ceylon Tea.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper draws on James Scott's political anthropology to examine how subalterns' resistance and emancipatory accounting triggers structural transformations.

Findings

An attempt is made to theorise subaltern resistance as a form of emancipatory accounting. Concerning the commentaries that accounting has been to suppress or hegemonise the subalterns and appreciating the analysis of indigenous resistance implicated in emancipatory potential, this paper examines how a distinct subaltern group in Ceylon Tea deployed their own weapons towards the changes in GAS.

Originality/value

The accounting literature neglects how subalterns reconstruct governance and accountability structures: this paper introduces a social accounting perspective on resistance, control and structural transformations. Also, it introduces to accounting researchers James Scott's political anthropology as an alternative framework.

Details

Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, vol. 22 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0951-3574

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 17 January 2020

Bruno Varella Miranda and Anna Grandori

The purpose of this paper is to provide a multidimensional framework for the identification, description and comparative analysis of alternative farm structures and their…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to provide a multidimensional framework for the identification, description and comparative analysis of alternative farm structures and their properties for economic development.

Design/methodology/approach

Integrating previous typologies and considering a large set of examples, the authors identify six attributes that are necessary to characterize and compare farm structures: size; strategy; organizational form; legal form; who the owners are; and degree of separation of ownership and control. They also discuss potential complementarities between those organizational attributes and specific features of the institutions of developing and emerging countries, such as contract enforcement and property rights protection regime, and developed capital markets and corporate law.

Findings

Conceptually and empirically, effective farm structures can deviate from the templates traditionally considered – “small family-owned farm” or “large factory-like corporate farm,” combining structural attributes in diverse ways. The dimensionalization of farm structures also helps in revealing complementary institutional traits at the regional or larger system level that may foster development processes.

Research limitations/implications

The paper is limited to theory building and case-based evidence. Nevertheless, it provides dimensions that can be measured on a larger scale and by quantitative studies.

Originality/value

This paper sheds light on organizational diversity in agriculture and on a wider set of feasible development paths.

Details

Journal of Agribusiness in Developing and Emerging Economies, vol. 10 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2044-0839

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 20 November 2019

Khairul Anwar

This paper aims to find the pattern of interaction of political actors in situations of tenurial conflict in the watershed through a review of cases of social conflicts of…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to find the pattern of interaction of political actors in situations of tenurial conflict in the watershed through a review of cases of social conflicts of plantation villages around Siak watershed 2009-2014.

Design/methodology/approach

In harmony with the Research Master Plan (RIP) of Riau University, the socio-political of Riau Malay society and the fundamental scientific pattern of Riau university, the development of the resources of area and waters and Malay culture, since 2001, the writer has conducted a study related to the issues of natural resources policy, especially oil palm in the era of regional autonomy and decentralization. This is in line with the umbrella of research developed by the University of Riau namely studying various aspects of natural resources (especially oil palm) and human resources of Watershed (DAS). The writer's review is; first, the dynamics of politics in relation to the issue of oil palm plantation policy in Riau. This study shows that there are many central policies when implemented at the local level including watersheds clashing with local interests such as forests and land ownership. Second, the writer has also reviewed the policy issues and problems of oil palm plantations in Riau watershed in 2000. This study shows there are many issues and problems formulated differently by different people.

Findings

Mapping and strategy are examined through the study of political strategies on oil palm plantations and use them to answer the following two questions: what kind of political model which can be used to manage the watershed conflict since regional autonomy is implemented. Economic factors are influential in mapping and management strategies for the emergence of tenurial conflicts in the Siak River Rivershed 2009-2014. The tenurial conflict management model of Siak rivershed, which is considered relevant, is a conflict-based model of cooperation with a partnership pattern between local government, watershed civil society and plantation business actors. The change of agrarian structure is directed to the effort to open the space for the accesibility of society in decision-making.

Originality/value

Some of these studies have not reached the tenurial conflicts in the watershed areas, especially Siak watershed. In fact, about 80 per cent of Riau province region consists of watershed. This becomes the originality and gap of this study with previous studies. This research was conducted further as an effort to synergize Riau's development policy with Riau University's research in harmony with RIP that was created and aimed to find the pattern of interaction of political actors in situations of tenurial conflict in Watershed through a review of cases of social conflicts of plantation around Siak watershed in 2009-2014.

Details

Journal of Science and Technology Policy Management, vol. 10 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2053-4620

Keywords

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