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The political economy of part-time farming

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Abstract

This paper seeks to root the analysis of part-time farming in the political-economic structure of agriculture and the larger economy. While part-time farming is not a new phenomenon, the growing prevalence of part-time farming in the US and other advanced industrial societies bears a strong relationship with the emergence of dualistic agrarian structures. Part-time farming has also been connected with the deconcentration of industry and employment. The political implications of the trend toward part-time farming are explored, with a conclusion that multiple jobholding, while nominally a “proletarianization” process, may in fact reinforce political conservatism in the countryside. The paper concludes by suggesting that future research on the political economy of part-time farming should place particular emphasis on the political implications of and sexual division of labour on multiple jobholding.

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Buttel, F.H. The political economy of part-time farming. GeoJournal 6, 293–300 (1982). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00240530

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