Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Caste, class and agrarian'

This research is an empirical investigation into the experience of citizenship at the intersections of social inequalities in India: caste, class and gender. Through the working of the state in one ward of a panchayat in Kerala, South India, I try to understand how social inequalities influence the practice of citizenship, with particular focus on the Marshallian social citizenship. Mixed methodologies, including ethnography, and quantitative data collection were employed. Since Kerala is often seen as an exception in India due to its remarkably high Human Development Index (HDI), and also in development discourses due to its radical communist mobilizations and democratic decentralization, this work has wider relevance to development debates. The key argument made is that social citizenship rights are not upheld in the local state bodies, whose working often contradicts constitutional provisions for group-differentiated citizenship rights. This is illustrated by several simultaneous outcomes of state working in the field site: a geography of caste evidenced locally, caste-gendered ordering of public spaces, the seamlessness between the personal and the political for the elite, and disempowering discourses facilitated through state bodies. The framework within which the state operates, I argue, is patriarchal, upholding upper caste interests. I also show that academic conceptualization of intersections, in limiting caste to SC/Dalits and focusing on Dalit patriarchy, do not sufficiently address the graded nature of caste inequalities and patriarchal relations embedded within them. I propose that caste-gender roles need to be examined in more detail. This work also argues that caste is not static, and reconfigures itself while upholding endogamy. All of this impact the experience of citizenship. This work shows that structural inequalities need to be accounted for while empirically examining citizenship gains, and that for newly formed states, social citizenship rights is an ideal worth aspiring for. In offering a new lens to view Kerala's claims of development, this work points to lacunae in the conceptualization of development not just in Kerala, but also in India where the structural nature of caste is not acknowledged.

The management of irrigation water and other resources, as practiced by traditional farming communities in developing countries, is often presented as a model of an equitable system – especially when compared to systems managed by states. This study demonstrates that the resource management practices in two Himalayan farming communities are, in fact, inequitable in terms of local gender, caste and class roles. This thesis examines inequalities in the social organization of irrigation systems in two villages in Spiti Valley in India’s Himachal Pradesh state. Its key finding is that the social organization of irrigation management, particularly in terms of farmers’ gender, class and caste backgrounds, is best understood as part of a broader division of labor for farming and related resources (such as for the management of fodder, dung and firewood), which are all embedded in the local socio-economic structure. This finding, which is based on participatory observation and interviews with farmers, as well as an analysis of historical and legal documents, underlines the importance of studying management of different resource sectors relationally rather than compartmentally. In particular, this study identifies key functional linkages between the social organization of farming and different resource sectors and develops theoretical approaches to the study of resource management in rural communities.
Science, Faculty of
Resources, Environment and Sustainability (IRES), Institute for
Graduate

This thesis analyses the nexus between caste, class and social mobility in rural India over the last half-century of profound transformations. The increase of demographic pressure on land has reduced agriculture to a subsidiary source of livelihood for the rural population. The transition from farming to informal and irregular forms of labour which require the working population to commute to small and medium towns, have become the predominant patterns of occupational transition in rural India. This thesis investigates the nature and magnitude of these changes and their implications for the reconfiguration of the social structures - caste hierarchy and class stratification - and aims at verifying whether the caste membership continues to prevail as a factor of social stratification. Using unique data at the individual level on the full population of Palanpur, a village in Uttar Pradesh, surveyed seven times from 1958 to 2015, we provide a longitudinal analysis of the trends, the patterns and the determinants of the social mobility of three generations of individuals. We combine the statistical and econometric analysis of the social mobility with a qualitative analysis of more than a hundred interviews carried out during six-months in-depth fieldwork. We find evidence of the opportunities for social mobility to increase but prevalently downward toward manual workers’ class. The advantage of the upper castes to access high salariat positions persists over time, however, with the modernization, the educational attainment plays an equalising role on the chances of upward mobility irrespective of the caste and the class of origin. Moreover, we find that the caste disadvantage for upward mobility from low to middle and top-class decreased over time for some of the castes at the bottom of the hierarchy. While much social stratification research has been and still is carried out in Western countries, this thesis is an original contribution to the emerging literature concerning social stratification and mobility in developing countries.

Waiting time for non-emergency medical care in developing countries is rarely of immediate concern to policy makers that prioritize provision of basic health services. However, waiting time as a measure of health system responsiveness is important because longer waiting times worsen health outcomes and affect utilization of services. Studies that assess socioeconomic inequalities in waiting time provide evidence from developed countries such as England and the United States; evidence from developing countries is lacking. In this paper, we assess the relationship between social class i.e. caste of an individual and waiting time at health facilities - a client orientation dimension of responsiveness. We use household level data from two rounds of the Indian Human Development Survey with a sample size of 27,251 households in each wave (2005 and 2012) and find that lower social class is associated with higher waiting time. This relationship is significant for individuals that visited a male provider but not so for those that visited a female provider. Further, caste is positively related to higher waiting time only if visiting a private facility; for individuals visiting a government facility the relationship between waiting time and caste is not significant. In general, caste related inequality in waiting time has worsened over time. The results are robust to different specifications and the inclusion of several confounders.

Based on 17 months ethnographic research carried out in a medium sized village in North West Rajasthan, this thesis explores the relationship between status, security and social change in a context of extreme economic uncertainty. Through changes in tenancy laws, the redistribution of land after the abolition of Zamindars in the 1950s, the withdrawal of high castes from the village, success through affirmative action policies, and caste mobilisation via Sanskritisation an extended family of the untouchable leatherworking caste Meghval in the village of Mudharamsar have risen to be the new village elites. Their unusual position as wealthy landowners and political agents has caused conflicts, alternative commensalities, and 're-traditionalised' practices amongst other villagers. This was further exacerbated by the temporary closure of mines in the area that provided the bulk of employment for other villagers causing many of the lower castes to search for alternative means of income and status-making. Some returned to their traditional caste occupations, others organised as a 'labour class' and Meghvals drew on kinship obligations in search of solidarity and security. I argue that social mobility and change amongst the rural poor involves both confluence and variance of what Betielle (1974) termed the 'ideas of caste' and the 'interests of class' underpinning agrarian relations. In doing so, I extend Beteille's analysis to situate my informants' ideas of caste, class and religion within their broader interests in constructing, claiming and using identity and status as mechanisms for coping with economic uncertainty, social change and inequality. I highlight the contradictions between normative ideals concerning caste, kinship and religion on the one hand, and changing class and power relations on the other. I am concerned to look at the spaces between these oppositions wherein alternative discourses and identities are generated, which at times bring unlikely actors together and at others reaffirm pre-existing relations.

Drawing on twelve months of fieldwork in suburban Hyderabad, India, this thesis contributes to emerging debates on the Indian new middle classes and postcolonial middle classes more generally. I challenge images of a homogenous middle class enjoying the benefits of liberalization by highlighting the diversity in wealth, lifestyle and access to opportunities within this class sector. Contrary to the pervasive image of a hedonistic and morally corrupt new middle class, I assert the centrality of moral discourses to the construction of middle-class identity in Hyderabad. Middle-class Hyderabadis engage in moral discourses of ‘respectability’ and ‘open-mindedness’ in relation to caste, consumption, education, and women’s public and domestic roles. These discourses of morality are central to the reproduction of class and gender inequality as successfully balancing the demands of respectability and open-mindedness is particularly difficult for those with fewer resources such as the lower middle class and for women who are expected to embody authentic Indianness in their demure comportment, ‘traditional’ attire and commitment to ‘Indian’ family values, but are also liable to being judged ‘backward’ if their clothing and lack of education and paid employment are seen to be in conflict with fashion and open-mindedness. The focus on balance and compromise in middle-class Hyderabadis’ narratives echoes other work on postcolonial middle classes that has emphasised people’s efforts to adhere to local notions of respectable behaviour that are central to national identities while also attempting to align themselves with a ‘modern’ global consumer culture. In contrast to much of this literature, however, I challenge the notion that modernity and tradition, the local and the global are objects of desire in and of themselves and instead argue that they function as important reference points in discourses that legitimate the dominant position of men and those of upper class-caste status.

The paper aims to investigate the failure of the American Dream in the novel The Grapes of Wrath and the factors that affect it. Thus, the thesis of the paper is that it is the classes and castes of Californian that prevent the Joad family from fulfilling the American Dream. The thesis will be discussed from four focal points of the American Dream: Freedom, Equality, Individualism and Family and Ideal Home. The novel takes place during the Great Depression, a time when many Americans were homeless and unemployed. An attempt will be made to define the American Dream and give a background to it. Furthermore, the binary pair of “self” and “other” will be used as an instrument of analysis.

This thesis examines traders' strategies of accumulation in agricultural commodity markets in Pakistani Punjab. It contributes to the literature on markets as social and political institutions as well as to broader debates on patronage, informality, urbanization, and class formation in South Asia. The principal aim of the thesis is to identify the institutions and ideologies facilitating exchange and study how they function in the market. It also aims to account for the increased political importance of traders, understood as members of Pakistan's intermediate classes, and reflect on the nature of their political participation. Non-programmatic, functional alignments are shown to be the norm and compatible with both military and democratic regimes. Through a close look at activities in one agricultural commodity market - or mandi, as it is known in Punjab - the present work explores the practices and linkages traders cultivate to bolster their economic and political power. Plunging into everyday mandi life in small-town Punjab, it illustrates how customary institutions articulate with the state and capital to co-regulate economic activity and create conditions for durable domination. Enmeshment in patron-client relations, links with the local state, associational activity, ownership and control of capital, and thick social ties are demonstrated to be key means by which wealth and power are accumulated. Class is shown to articulate closely with caste and kinship while being irreducible to them, and the role of dominant social institutions is demonstrated to be highly variable across the many processes ongoing in the market.

This research study explores how future educational and occupational aspirations are constructed by young Sikh adults. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with ten young Sikh adults, both their parents, and their teachers at one school in West London to investigate how future aspirations are constructed, which resources are employed, and why certain resources are used over others. In some previous research on aspirations and future choices, Sikhs have either been ignored or, instead, subsumed under the umbrella category of ¿Asian¿ and this study seeks to address this. Furthermore, the study seeks to shed light on how British-Sikh identities are constructed and intersected by social class, caste and gender. This is important to explore since it can have an impact upon how young adults are structured by educational policy. A ¿syncretic¿ social constructionist framework which predominantly draws upon Pierre Bourdieu¿s notions of habitus, capital and field, along with the cultural identity theories of Avtar Brah and Stuart Hall, is employed to investigate the construction of identities and aspirations. In addition, the study contains ethnographical elements as it is conducted on my ¿own¿ Sikh group and at my former secondary school. Consequently, I brought a set of assumptions to the research which, rather than disregard, I acknowledge since they highlight how I come to form certain interpretations of phenomena over others.

This research study explores how future educational and occupational aspirations are constructed by young Sikh adults. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with ten young Sikh adults, both their parents, and their teachers at one school in West London to investigate how future aspirations are constructed, which resources are employed, and why certain resources are used over others. In some previous research on aspirations and future choices, Sikhs have either been ignored or, instead, subsumed under the umbrella category of 'Asian' and this study seeks to address this. Furthermore, the study seeks to shed light on how British-Sikh identities are constructed and intersected by social class, caste and gender. This is important to explore since it can have an impact upon how young adults are structured by educational policy. A 'syncretic' social constructionist framework which predominantly draws upon Pierre Bourdieu's notions of habitus, capital and field, along with the cultural identity theories of Avtar Brah and Stuart Hall, is employed to investigate the construction of identities and aspirations. In addition, the study contains ethnographical elements as it is conducted on my 'own' Sikh group and at my former secondary school. Consequently, I brought a set of assumptions to the research which, rather than disregard, I acknowledge since they highlight how I come to form certain interpretations of phenomena over others.

Orientador: Edmundo Fernandes Dias
Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas
Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-22T15:08:51Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Farias_LuizFelipeFerrariCerqueirade_M.pdf: 4578712 bytes, checksum: 74320b4456fdeabb5c554c44aee94d81 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013
Resumo: O objetivo deste texto é investigar as diferentes frações da classe trabalhadora subordinada ao capital agroindustrial no complexo citrícola paulista: pequenos produtores familiares de laranjas, assalariados rurais e assalariados industriais. Propomo-nos analisar as continuidades e descontinuidades sociais e políticas existentes entre estas diferentes frações, com o propósito de apreender a classe trabalhadora que compõe este complexo enquanto uma totalidade concreta. Para tanto, destacaremos e analisaremos trechos de entrevistas com múltiplos sujeitos que têm seu sobre trabalho explorado pelo capital agroindustrial citrícola no estado de São Paulo: pequenos produtores de laranjas que mantêm seu modo de vida e trabalho familiares; pequenos produtores de laranjas em acentuado processo de proletarização; pequenos proprietários ou posseiros migrantes que se assalariam periodicamente em lavouras paulistas; assalariados rurais manuais com e sem registro em carteira; operadores de máquinas agrícolas e transportadores de laranjas às agroindústrias; trabalhadores de chão de fábrica terceirizados ou efetivos, safristas ou permanentes. A partir da reprodução de citações o mais próxima possível à fala destes trabalhadores entrevistados, buscaremos analisar as tendências e contra-tendências de sua consciência a respeito das contradições a que estão submetidos e as múltiplas estratégias coletivas e individuais por eles acionadas para contorná-las
Abstract: The aim of this dissertation is to investigate different fractions of the working class subordinated to capital within the citric agroindustrial complex in São Paulo. We intend to analyze the social and political continuities and discontinuities among family citriculturists, rural wage workers and industrial wage workers. To do so, we will transcribe and examine interviews with multiple subjects exploited by the citric agroindustrial capital: small citriculturists who maintain their family way of work and life; small citriculturists in intensive process of proletarianization; squatters who periodically migrate to become wage earners in São Paulo; rural laborers and agricultural machine operators; truck drivers who transport oranges into the industries; industrial workers hired permanently or temporarily, etc. We will analyze the tendencies and counter-tendencies of their speech regarding the contradictions to which they are submitted, as well as the collective and individual strategies which they mobilize in response
Mestrado
Sociologia
Mestre em Sociologia

Magister Philosophiae - MPhil
Dynamics of Social Reproduction and Differentiation among Small-Scale Sugarcane Farmers in Two Rural Wards of KwaZulu-Natal A. Dubb M.Phil thesis, Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape. Outgrower or contract-farming schemes have long been considered an important „pro-poor‟ method of incorporating small-scale farmers into agro-commodity chains, oft defined by their capital intensity and consequent high barriers of entry. Nonetheless, critics have observed that such schemes often operate under highly imbalanced relations of power between farmers and processors, generate substantial inequality, and negatively impact on household food security. In the province of KwaZulu-Natal, home to much of South Africa‟s sugar industry, the number of small-scale sugarcane outgrowers increased rapidly from near nothing in the late 1960s to around 50,000 in the early 2000s; an increase born out of industry-subsidized miller initiatives, disguised as micro-credit, to bring commercially inalienable Bantustan land under cane production. However, in the past decade small-scale sugarcane growers have faced a precipitous decline following the restructuring of the sugar industry in the 1990s and the onset of drought in the 2000s. This study seeks to trace the origins and shifting structural foundations of small-scale sugarcane production and investigate its impacts on dynamics of social reproduction and accumulation in two rural wards of the Umfolozi region, in the wake of the sale of the central mill by the multinational corporation Illovo to a consortium of largescale white sugarcane growers. Utilizing survey data from 74 small-scale grower homesteads and life-history interviews, it is argued that regulatory restructuring resulted in deteriorating terms of exchange and the retraction of miller oversight in production, cane-haulage and ploughing operations, hence devolved to commercially unstable local contractors. Growers have subsequently struggled to compensate for consequent capital inefficiencies through intensified exploitation, largely due to the successful impact of social grants in mitigating the desperation of family and hired labour, and further face considerable barriers to expansion in land. While proceeds from sugarcane continue to represent an additional source of coveted cash-income, sparse off-farm income opportunities have gained prominence as a basis for stabilizing consumption and some re-investment in cane. The centrality of incomediversification for simple reproduction and limited accumulation has rendered the dynamics of social differentiation to be both unstable and reversible, and has closely tied sustained cane production to the labour content of non-cane income sources. Meanwhile, with less direct oversight in production, millers face the challenge of retaining their implicit „grab‟ on customary land, throwing into relief the contradictions inherent in attempts „from above‟ to foster a nominal „peasant‟ class „from below‟.

A presente pesquisa aborda o processo de construção do assentamento agroambiental PDS Alves, Teixeira e Pereira, localizado no bairro do Guapiruvu (Sete Barras-SP), a partir da análise do processo de redefinição dos usos da terra e da floresta nesse território. Para isso, analisa as diferenças de interesse quanto ao uso da terra e da mata do assentamento existentes entre os grupos (comunidade, associação local e Estado) envolvidos na construção do mesmo e os fundamentos de tais diferenças. A pesquisa se apóia em extenso trabalho de campo, desenvolvido com base na observação participante e em entrevistas abertas, além de levantamento bibliográfico e documental. Localizado no Vale do Ribeira-SP, o bairro do Guapiruvu é vizinho ao Parque Estadual Intervales, Unidade de Conservação de Proteção Integral. Após 40 anos de luta pela terra, a comunidade do Guapiruvu teve os seus direitos sobre a terra reconhecidos, porém sob a condição de vê-la transformada em um assentamento agroambiental e, com isso, tem tido que se submeter a novas orientações e restrições em relação aos sistemas agrícolas e de manejo adotados. A combinação entre luta pela terra e ambientalismo mostrou-se decisiva para assegurar a permanência da comunidade em seu território. Mas a relação entre a espacialização das políticas agrárias e ambientais, que se desdobram no Plano de Desenvolvimento Sustentável do assentamento, e a territorialidade dos assentados desencadeou novas contradições e desafios que se somaram a outros já existentes. Esta situação tem revelado a necessidade de refletirmos sobre os limites apresentados pela solução da questão agrária pela via ambiental. Tal procedimento desloca do centro do embate político a questão da terra, conflito em torno do qual delimitam-se claramente diferentes posições de classe, e a submete à ideologia ambientalista. Neste contexto, a comunidade camponesa do Guapiruvu passa a ter o dever de assegurar o manejo sustentável de seu território, segundo parâmetros definidos externamente, em nome do interesse geral da sociedade, enquanto continua a ser assegurada aos capitalistas a liberdade para degradar a natureza em outras áreas.
This current study deals with the process of establishment of the agro-environmental settlement PDS Alves, Teixeira and Pereira, located in the Guapiruvu community (Sete Barras, São Paulo, Brazil), through an analysis of the process of redefinition of the uses of the land and the forest in this territory. In order to do this, the differences of interest that exist, with regard to land and forest use, among the groups (community, local association, and State) involved in the establishment of the settlement are analyzed, as are the foundations for such differences. The research is based on extensive fieldwork developed through participatory observation and open interviews, in addition to bibliographical and documental research. Located in the Ribeira Valley of the state of São Paulo, the Guapiruvu community neighbors the Intervales State Park, a conservation unit with integral protection. After forty years of struggling for the land, the rights of the Guapiruvu community over the land were recognized, but under the condition of seeing the land transformed into an agro-environmental settlement. With this, the community has had to submit to new guidelines and restrictions in relation to the agricultural and management systems adopted. The combination of struggle for land and environmental activism proved decisive in guaranteeing the permanence of the community in their territory. However, the relationship between the spatialization of agrarian and environmental policies, which are reflected in the settlement\'s Sustainable Development Plan, and the territoriality of the settlers brought about new contradictions and challenges that joined others already in existence. This situation has revealed the need to reflect on the limitations presented by resolving the agrarian question through an environmental route. Such a procedure displaces the question of land a conflict around which different positions of class are clearly demarcated from the center of the political debate and submits it to environmental ideology. In this context, the rural community of Guapiruvu thus has the responsibility of assuring the sustainable management of its territory, in accordance with externally defined parameters, in the name of the general interest of society, while capitalists continue to be assured the freedom to degrade nature in other areas.

The thesis entitled “Territories in conflict in Alto Sertão Sergipano” proposes a critical reflection as the study objective, of two distinct and conflictive social-territorial processes, based in land appropriation: on one hand, the territory expansion and monopolization by capital, hegemonic and linked to capital accumulation in a national and international scale, understood as an unequal and combined development; and, on the other hand, the resistance and landing recreation as the alternative expansion; analyzing the State’s contradictory role regarding the conflictive territoriality, which spatially demonstrates the conflicts between classes in the fields. Adopting Critical Geography as theoretical and methodological reference, the social space is understood as the place where production social relationships happen, which is a result of the production process of the space by capital confronting the social-territorial movements, with a relative approach of the creation of territory, which emphasizes the T-D-R geographical processes; regarding the social conflicts, as a geographical version of the agrarian matter. This study aimed to analyze the empirical processes that were historically developed in the production and transformation of the agrarian landscape in Sergipe’s most arid area. This thesis defends three main ideas: the first one is the land acquisition by social-territorial movements, mainly the MST (acronym for Landless Workers Movement) and the massive agrarian redistribution which highlights the experience of agrarian reform in this geographical space, a point of inflection in the territorial dispute, reverting the capital advance, it enabled the reconstitution of landless workers by establishing them in their place as peasants; the second one is the configuration of the reformed area and the alliances between the established agrarian workers and the traditional peasants, through their social movements, starting to demand, as a group, their acknowledgement as political subjects and economic agents who manage a comprehensive and significant agrarian territory; the third idea discussed is that this alternative territory questions and also interferes in the predominant space of the social and political supreme order. Results from the research show that 6,092 families organized by the MSTR, religious pastoral groups, MST, in addition to the Xocó indigenous group and the African Quilombola communities (Mocambo and Serra da Guia), between 1979 and 2014, conquered 104,612.28 hectare. The agrarian structure has been radically altered: from the figure of 12,728 properties and 390,716 hectare registered (INCRA, 2013), only 5 land properties of 1,000 hectare each (0.03% of the total area) have remained, which covered 6,392 hectare (1.6% of the total area). In 48 settlements 1,575 families keep fighting for the democratization of the land. In the dispute for water supplies control, the business watered perimeter Jacaré-Curitiba was converted into the agrarian reform and there are settlements in the future perimeter Nova Califórnia and the region of the Xingó Canal. In conclusion, the social-territorial movements were successful in expanding territories for most part of the non-productive and productive properties, making it possible for land, wealth and income to be properly distributed.
La Thèse intitulée “Territoires en conflit au Haut Sertão Sergipano” vise une réflexion critique de deux processus socio-territoriaux distincts et conflictuels, fondés sur la possession de la terre: d’une part, la territorialité et le monopole du territoire par le capital, hégémonique, liée à l’accumulation du capital dans une échelle nationale et internationale, et qui est comprise comme un dévéloppement inégal et combiné ; et de l’autre part, la résistence et la récréation campagnarde comme alternative; tout en analysant le rôle contradictoire de l’Etat face à des territorialités conflictuelles qui traduisent l’espace de la lutte de classes sociales à la campagne. Par l’adoption de la Géographie Critique comme référentiel théorique et méthodologique, on comprend « l’espace social », comme “lócus des relations sociales de production », c’est-à-dire, comme résultat du processus de production de l’espace par le capital en conflit avec les mouvements socio-territoriaux, et ceci dans un abordage relationnel de la conception de territoire qui met en valeur les processus géographiques du T-D-R ; en tant que luttes sociales et représentation géographique du cas agraire. L’objectif fut d’ analyser les processus empiriques qui se sont déroulés, historiquement, dans la production et transformation de l’espace agraire du « Haut Sertão Sergipano », région de l’Etat de Sergipe, marquée par le manque d’eau et par la sécheresse. Cette Thèse défend trois idées centrales: premièrement, la conquête de la terre par les mouvements socio-territoriaux, en particulier, par le MST- Mouvement de Sans-Terre, et la redistribution foncière massive qui a marqué l’expérience de la reforme agraire dans cet espace géographique, il en résulte un point d’inflexion à la dispute territoriale ce qui a ralenti le pouvoir du capital; et qui a pu favoriser la reprise du savoir-faire de ces travailleurs ruraux qui n’avaient pas de terre ; deuxièmement, la configuration de la superficie réformée par les mouvements sociaux. Des alliances ont été établies entre ceux qui ont gagné leurs terres et les autres, autrement dit, les paysans traditionnels, les deux parties exigeant ensemble, leur reconnaissance en tant que sujets politique et agents économiques gérant ainsi un grand et significatif territoire paysan ; troisièmement, ce territoire alternatif remet en question et intervient aussi dans l’espace hégémonique de l’ordre social et politique dominant. Les résultats de la présente recherche montrent que les 6.092 familles organisées par le MSTR - Mouvement Syndical des Travailleurs Ruraux, Pastorales sociales, MST, ainsi que par les indigènes Xocó et « Quilombolas » - Natifs des communautés organisées autrefois par les esclaves noirs « Mocambo » et « Serra da Guia » ont conquis 104.612,28 hectares entre 1979 et 2014. La structure foncière a complètement été modifiée. En effet, du montant de 12.728 immobiliers et 390.716 hectares inscrits (selon les sources de l’INCRA, 2013), Il ne reste que 05 Grande propriété foncière, mesurant plus de 1.000 hectares (0,03% du total), et qui correspondaient avant à 6.392 hectares (1,6% de la superficie total). Dans 48 campements,1.575 familles continuent leur lutte pour la démocratisation de la terre. Dans cette bataille pour le contôle de l’eau, le périmètre irrigué privé Jacaré-Curituba a été adressé à la reforme agraire et il y a des établissements des MST à périmètre Nova Califórnia et tout au long du canal Xingó. Nous pouvons en conclure que les mouvements socio-territoriaux ont réussi auprès du processus politique de redistribution de la terre des grandes propriétés improductives et productives, en assurant le partage de la richesse, des revenus et du pouvoir.
A Tese intitulada “Territórios em conflito no Alto Sertão Sergipano” tem como objetivo a reflexão crítica de dois processos sócioterritoriais distintos e conflitivos, fundados na apropriação da terra: de um lado, a territorialização e a monopolização do território pelo capital, hegemônica e vinculada à acumulação do capital em escala nacional e internacional, compreendido como desenvolvimento desigual e combinado; e, de outro lado, a resistência e recriação camponesa como territorialização alternativa; analisando o papel contraditório do Estado em face das territorialidades conflitantes que traduzem espacialmente a luta de classes no campo. Ao se adotar a Geografia Crítica como referencial teórico-metodológico, compreende-se o espaço social, como “lócus das relações sociais de produção”, resultante do processo de produção do espaço pelo capital em confronto com os movimentos sócioterritoriais, em uma abordagem relacional da concepção de território, que enfatiza os processos geográficos de T-D-R; enquanto lutas sociais, como versão geográfica da questão agrária. Objetivou-se analisar os processos empíricos que se desenrolaram, historicamente, na produção e transformação do espaço agrário do Alto Sertão Sergipano. Esta Tese defende três ideias centrais: 1ª) A conquista da terra pelos movimentos sócioterritoriais, sobretudo o MST, e a redistribuição fundiária massiva que marcou a experiência de reforma agrária nesse espaço geográfico, um ponto de inflexão na disputa territorial, reverteu o avanço do capital, e propiciou a recampenização dos trabalhadores rurais sem terra ao serem assentados; 2ª) A configuração da área reformada e as alianças entre assentados e os camponeses tradicionais, por meio de seus movimentos sociais, passando a exigir, em conjunto, seu reconhecimento enquanto sujeitos políticos e agentes econômicos gestam um abrangente e significativo território camponês; 3ª) Esse território alternativo questiona e também interfere no espaço hegemônico da ordem social e política dominante. Os resultados da pesquisa mostraram que as 6.092 famílias organizadas pelo MSTR, Pastorais Sociais, MST, além dos índios Xocó e dos Quilombolas (Mocambo e Serra da Guia), entre 1979 e 2014, conquistaram 104.612,28 hectares. A estrutura fundiária foi radicalmente alterada: do universo de 12.728 imóveis e 390.716 hectares cadastrados (INCRA, 2013), restaram apenas 05 latifúndios de mais de 1.000 hectares (0,03% do total), que abrangiam 6.392 hectares (1,6 % da área total). Em 48 acampamentos 1.575 famílias continuam lutando pela democratização dua terra. Na disputa pelo controle da água, o perímetro irrigado empresarial Jacaré-Curituba foi revertido para a reforma agrária, e há assentamentos dentro do futuro perímetro Nova Califórnia e ao longo do canal Xingó. Concluiu-se que os movimentos sócioterritoriais tiveram sucesso na desterritorialização da grande propriedade improdutiva e produtiva, atuando no sentido da redistribuição de riqueza, renda e poder no Alto Sertão Sergipano.

This thesis examines the relationship between the Communist Party of India (Marxist)-led Left Front Government and the media in the provincial state of West Bengal, India, during the thirty four years (1977-2011) period when the party was in government. The main aim of the thesis is to investigate the relation between the CPI (M) led Left Front Government and the media in West Bengal (1977-2011), the role of the media in stabilising or destabilising the Left Front Government, the impact of neoliberalism on the Left Front Government and their relation with the media, the role of the media in communicating developmental policies of the LFG to the public and finally the role which the mainstream and the party controlled media played in the public sphere. These questions are addressed through document research of CPI (M)’s congress and conference reports, manifestos, press releases, pamphlets, leaflets, booklets; and interviews with the CPI (M) leadership and the Editors and Bureau Chiefs of the key newspapers and television channels in West Bengal. The findings are contextualised within a broader discussion of the political and historical transitions India and West Bengal have gone through in this period (chapter 4). This is the first study looking at the relationship between the media and the CPI (M) led Left Front Government over a period of thirty four years (1977-2011). The thesis finds that neoliberalism in India had considerable effects on the CPI (M), the media and their relationship. The research finds a continuous effort from the mainstream and the party-controlled media to dominate the public sphere leading debates in order to seek some form of political consensus in order to govern. The media in West Bengal were politically divided between the left and the opposition. The research finds that this generated a market for political advertisements and political news contributing to a politically polarised media market in West Bengal that assisted in generating revenue for the media. The findings also suggest that the media contributed to rather than played a determining role in destabilising the Left Front Government. Finally the research finds that the CPI (M) had an arduous relation with the media since 1977 when the party decided to participate in the parliamentary democracy. The LFG and the mainstream media entered into an antagonistic relationship post 1991 contributing to a politically polarised media market in West Bengal.

This thesis analyses the role of smallholder livestock production within mixed farming practices in the agrarian society of Nepal based on a detailed analysis by gender, class, caste, and ethnicity from six communities representative of the three agro-ecological regions-Mountain, Hill and Terai. Over the past decade, farmers have gradually integrated market based small scale livestock enterprises into subsistence farming systems for livelihood enhancement which has generated alternative livelihood opportunities for the reduction of poverty among poor and disadvantaged people. Specific attention is given to both the assumptions that surround the promotion of livestock development as a poverty alleviation programme, and the investigation of complex society-livestock development-environment relations through the incorporation of 'everyday' interactions at different scales. Moreover, in such a mixed farming system there is a dynamic relationship between livestock, crop and common property resources (e.g. forest, pastureland) whereby, depending on the agro-ecological region, livestock production depends to a certain extent on fodder and grass from common property resources (CPRs). The thesis uses a theoretical framework derived from political ecology to critically analyse how society, development and environment orthodoxies influence livestock production and management practices. The research used multiple methods (qualitative and quantitative methods) including participatory research techniques which were conducted in six communities from Mustang, Lalitpur and Chitwan representative of the three agro-ecological regions respectively. Socio-economic and gender analysis, and cross comparative analytical tools were used to discover the main factors influencing current livestock production and inequitable benefit sharing of livestock development across gender, class, caste, and ethnic groups. The discussion of the results of the research begins with a consideration of rural livelihood diversity from an historical context and from empirical investigations that were conducted in order to explore the vulnerability of diverse caste and ethnic groups across agro-ecological regions of Nepal. This thesis then examines the specific roles of livestock production and changes over the time. The effects and consequences of both pre-existing socio-cultural values of livestock, and agro-ecological circumstances on the current market based livestock production and consumption preferences are examined in South Asia generally, and more specifically in Nepal. Following this, the thesis addresses gender roles and relations and also the gendered effects of market based livestock production and management systems across the three agro-ecological regions, and class, caste and ethnic groups are described and analysed. Finally, there is examination of the relevance of environmental problems and challenges that are associated with the current market based livestock production systems based on the farmers views and perceptions. The findings reveal that over the past decade, farmers from various socio-economic groups have integrated small scale market based livestock production into their subsistence agricultural systems to generate cash income. There is also evidence that the preference for particular livestock enterprises is influenced by socio-cultural values, characteristics of the agro-ecological region, and availability of livestock feed resources. In the process of developing market based livestock production and management systems, gender roles and relations have changed and a greater income inequality has been created among the rural poor, differentiated by class, caste, and ethnicity. The findings also reveal that, in contrast to the general assumption that livestock has degraded natural resources, farmers views/perceptions indicate that current livestock enterprise practices in the hill and Terai regions have not impacted negatively on common property resources (mainly forests). This is due to the introduction of community forestry programmes, along with stall feeding practices and the use of alternative feed resources (e.g., private cultivated land and other feed resources). However, according to the farmers, these regions have been facing new environmental challenges from livestock processing and wastes; a finding that requires further investigation. In contrast to hill and Terai regions, the pastureland areas of the mountain region, are being degraded due to the lack of alternative feed resources/options. The study concludes that there is a critical need to prioritise and combine three key elements/factors in order to formulate an inclusive livestock development framework to address the issues of vulnerability and social exclusion in rural livestock development. They are: i) address pre-existing livestock based socio-cultural values in order to include the poorest of the poor, such as the Dalit group and other disadvantaged ethnic groups, ii) introduce livestock which are suitable to the agro-ecological conditions, and iii) consider the availability of and access to livestock feed resources. The positive implications that potentially emanate from social inclusion include the maintenance of rural income equality across household, community and regional levels, and livestock management and production systems that are environmentally sustainable across the three agro-ecological regions of Nepal.

M.A. Faculty of Humanties, University of the Witwatersrand
The racial discrimination under colonialism and apartheid culminated to the dispossession of black people from their land, and to unequal land distribution between black and white people. Territorial segregation during this period was not only about the displacement of black people from their land and their deprivation to equal access to land compared to their white counterparts, it was also about economic deprivation, eradication of subsistence agriculture and the transformation of blacks into wage labourers (Hall, 2004; Walker, 2008).The post-apartheid land reform process was initiated to redress the injustices and inequalities of the past. It took a market-driven approach to blend the objectives of land reform with those of national reconciliation and maintenance of food security (DLA, 1997). The land reform process took a form of restoring land to its original owners who were forcefully removed from it after June 1913 or compensation if land could not be restored. It was also aimed at securing tenure rights for farm workers, labour tenants, farm dwellers and people residing in communal areas. The aims of the third part of the land reform programme was to redistribute 30% of commercial farms in white hands to black people with the view of redressing racial disparities in landholding. As early as in the initial stages of the development of South Africa’s land policy in the early 1990s, scholars and civil society groups warned about the ineffectiveness of the market to deliver on land reform objectives. This paper adopts a case study approach to study the South African land reform process in relation to the notion of empowerment. It focuses on the Land Reform for Agricultural Development (LRAD) sub-programme by looking at the intersection between race, gender and class. Bambanani Fruits (Pty) Ltd, an LRAD project based in the Gauteng province is used as a case study. This is an LRAD Equity Scheme project, meaning that its beneficiaries (who are former workers on the farm) acquired an LRAD grant to purchase equity shares to be co-owners of the project. Bambanani Fruits is a successful project considering its productivity and access to the market. This paper investigates how much LRAD beneficiaries are part of this success i.e. whether they have agency, whether they feel a sense of ownership and control of the project, and the extent at which they take part in decision making in the project. This task is carried out through the application of Kabeer’s (1999) instrumentalist model of measuring empowerment. Kabeer states that empowerment is measured by looking at three aspects, namely; resources, agency and achievement. Kabeer’s model is applied to the data which was collected through various means including in depth interviews with Bambanani LRAD beneficiaries and land officials from the province, document analysis and review of existing scholarly work on land reform. It is well documented that South Africa’s land reform process has been very slow in delivering to its objectives, and departmental reports used in this paper also confirm this assertion. The research results reveal that even though more land was transferred under LRAD, the sub-programme also encountered some of the challenges and hindrances faced by its predecessor Settlement/Land Acquisition Grant (SLAG). It faced budgetary constraints, complexities of the land market such as price restrictions and resistance by land owners to cede land, and so on. Generally, it was found that LRAD tended to entrench race, gender and class disparities in landholding. At Bambanani, I discovered that LRAD has affected beneficiaries differently. The sub-programme has stratified these beneficiaries into competing class factions. Divergent interests have emerged to distort the actual meaning of empowerment. I have labelled this tension a ‘dichotomous factionalism’. The struggle and conflict is caught up between beneficiaries themselves, and their disunity has left the hegemony of the farm’s management unchallenged. I argue that, their empowerment is firstly condemned from within and this internal condemnation limits their negotiating power with the management. Secondly, their empowerment is curtailed by the farm’s management in such as way that it sometimes uses its majority shares to justify unilateral decision making. According to Kabeer, empowerment ought to encompass egalitarian decision making. Respondents have reported this is not always being the case at Bambanani. One group of participants complained about how things have remained the same on the farm despite the acquisition of LRAD shares to co-own the farm. Another group which is mostly comprised by trust members argued that things have changed for the better compared to the period prior to the attainment of these equity shares. In doing so, this group blames the discontent group for the lack of commitment to the project and for being after money over the interest of the project. The discontent group has also complained that the trust is not representing their interests to the management, and whenever they lay complaints there are often threats of expulsion. Apart from the above mentioned conflict of interests amongst Bambanani beneficiaries, positive elements were also discovered where beneficiaries agreed on some areas of dissatisfaction. I have labelled this a Collective Discontent Spectacle. The plight of beneficiaries is caused by the lack of adequate exposure to the business side of the farm’s operation and the lack of delivery on houses which were promised to them by the management as part of the shareholding package. Having considered the Bambanani case and other literature on LRAD, I concluded that LRAD has failed to fulfil empowerment requirements as per Kabeer’s model.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1990.
Typescript. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 208-219).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2009.
Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 70-06, Section: A, page: . Adviser: Alejandro Lugo. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 191-208) Available on microfilm from Pro Quest Information and Learning.

This dissertation examines the role state-society dynamics play in influencing how people negotiate inequality. In particular, I analyze the interdependent relationship between state policies and the frames people use to interpret unequal access to food and care. While state policies shape people’s frames, people also negotiate with state policies to deploy frames that either challenge or adapt to inequality. Using in-depth observations, policy documents, and 50 semi-structured interviews with mothers, Anganwadi workers (childcare workers), union leaders, and state representatives associated with the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS), a welfare program in India, I show that state-society dynamics are central to how inequality is sustained and challenged. When welfare policies encourage collectivization, disadvantaged groups appropriate policy frames to strengthen entitlement frames and in the process, challenge inequality. I refer to this mechanism as frame appropriation. In contrast, policies such as privatization encourage individualization, particularly in economically mobile groups, who then adopt neoliberal frames such as personal responsibility and choice, to weaken entitlement frames through a mechanism I call reactive adoption. Thus, alongside social movements that has made possible historically significant policy reforms, the path to social change also comes alive in daily interactions where policies mediate people’s everyday lives.

This dissertation analyzes how cultural and behavioral frictions affect decision-making in labor markets of developing economies. It studies factors that have received relatively little attention in economics—namely concerns about preserving identity, cognitive strain from financial stress, and gender norms—and examines their impacts on labor supply and productivity. Field experiments in the state of Odisha, India are used to provide direct empirical evidence on these relationships. Chapter 1 investigates how identity—one's concept of self—influences economic behavior in the labor market, focusing on the effect of caste identity on labor supply. In the experiment, casual laborers belonging to different castes choose whether to take up various real job offers. All offers involve working on a default manufacturing task and an additional task. The additional task changes across offers, is performed in private, and differs in its association with specific castes. Workers' average take-up rate of offers is 23 percentage points lower if offers involve working on tasks that are associated with castes other than their own. This gap increases to 47 pp if the castes associated with the relevant offers rank lower than workers' own in the caste hierarchy. Responses to job offers are invariant to whether or not workers' choices are publicized, suggesting that the role of identity itself—rather than social image—is paramount. Using a supplementary experiment, I show that 43% of workers refuse to spend ten minutes working on tasks associated with other castes, even when offered ten times their daily wage. Results indicate that identity may be an important constraint on labor supply, contributing to misallocation of talent in the economy. Chapter 2—joint work with Supreet Kaur, Sendhil Mullainathan, and Frank Schilbach—tests for a direct causal impact of financial strain on worker productivity. The experiment randomly varies timing of income receipt among laborers who earn piece rates for manufacturing tasks: some workers receive their wages on earlier dates, altering when cash constraints are eased while holding overall wealth constant. Workers increase productivity by 5.3% on average in the days after cash receipt. The impacts are concentrated among poorer workers in the sample, who increase output by over 10%. This effect of cash on hand on productivity is not explained by mechanisms such as gift exchange, trust in the employer, or nutrition. The chapter also presents positive evidence that productivity increases are mediated through lower attentional errors in production, indicating a role for improved cognition after cash receipt. Finally, directing workers’ attention to their finances via a salience intervention produced mixed results—consistent with concerns about priming highlighted in the literature. Results indicate a direct relationship between financial constraints and worker productivity and suggest that psychological channels mediated through attention play a role in this relationship. Chapter 3 examines whether gender norms lead women to hold back their potential in the labor market. While the existing literature has shown that women tend to earn less than their husbands, there is limited direct evidence on whether women actively avoid earning more than their spouses and the determinants of such behavior. The experiment engages married couples working as casual laborers in a short-term manufacturing job that pays piece-rate on output. The experiment provides women an extra hour to work without this difference being salient, making it likely that they could earn more than their husbands. After husbands finish piece-rate production, women are randomized into one of three conditions in which 1) the wife is informed of her husband’s production and expects both spouses to learn how much each spouse has produced, 2) the wife is informed of her husband’s production and expects that only she will learn how much each spouse has produced, or 3) both spouses are only informed of their joint total production. Results show that women in the last two conditions achieve on average one hour’s worth of production more than that of their husbands, suggesting that women do not face intrinsic concerns about earning more than their husbands. However, this productivity gap substantially decreases when husbands are expected to learn about individual production. This finding suggests that norms in marriage may be an important factor contributing to gender inequality in the labor market.