Abstract

BERNSTEIN, Henry. Class dynamics of agrarian development in the era of globalization. Sociologias [online]. 2011, vol.13, n.27, pp. 52-81. ISSN 1517-4522.  http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/S1517-45222011000200004.

The paper first suggests a shift from farming to agriculture generated by the advent of industrial capitalism, and its dominance on a world scale from the nineteenth century, and a second shift from the 1970s with the advent and trajectories of contemporary globalization. The paper then argues that debate of the (final?) 'death of the peasantry' in the era of globalization is misconceived and anachronistic, and that the theorization of 'small farmers' as petty commodity producers within capitalism, and subject to its tendency to class differentiation, provides a more satisfactory approach to agrarian questions today.

Keywords : Agriculture; Capitalism; Class dynamics; Globalization; 'Peasantry'; Petty commodity production.