Rural Economies and Transitions to Capitalism: Germany and England Compared (c.1200–c.1800)

Based on a synthesis of the empirical scholarship on England and Germany, this paper demonstrates that in both regions, rural socio‐economic developments from c.1200 to c.1800 are similar: this period witnesses the rise to numerical predominance and growing economic significance of the ‘sub‐peasant classes’, which had a growing impact on the market as a result of their increasing market dependence, and from which – towards the end of the period – a rural proletariat emerged. Against the influential theory of Robert Brenner, it is argued that the period c.1200–c.1400 cannot really be categorized as ‘feudal’ according to Brenner's definition; and ‘agrarian capitalism’ does not adequately describe the socio‐economic system that obtained by the end of the sixteenth century. A genuine transition to capitalism is only evident from after c.1750, and can be found in Germany as well as in England; it is predicated both on ideological shifts and on the evolution of the rural proletariat, which is only found in large numbers by or after c.1800.     

农户参与小型农田水利设施管护行为的影响因素分析——基于对河南省方城县农户的调查

利用河南省方城县192个样本农户的调查数据,运用博弈模型逻辑和二元Logistic回归分析,分别从理论和实证上探究农户参与小型农田水利设施管护行为的影响因素。研究表明:农户拥有耕地数量、家庭劳动力短缺状况、种粮补贴占种粮投入比例、种粮收入占家庭总收入比重、政府对小型农田水利设施管护投入情况、小型农田水利设施管护对农业生产的重要程度等因素对农户参与小型农田水利设施管护行为正向影响显著,而村庄农户数量对农户参与小型农田水利设施管护行为负向影响显著。最后基于实证分析结果提出了相关政策建议。     

农户视角的农民专业合作社评价及发展对策--基于云南省保山市隆阳区调查结果的分析

以45个样本农户对9个农民专业合作社的评价和加入合作社后的感知变化调查数据为依据,从农户的视角对合作社发挥管理、服务、示范作用予以评价和肯定,也从中发现合作社在生产供给服务、产品深度经营、管理职能等方面不能有效满足农户需求,并依此提出促进农民专业合作社发展的对策建议。     

Three books,two movements,one story

These three books take different approaches to analysing the transformative potential of the Landless Workers Movement (MST) in Brazil. Vergara‐Camus' book also examines the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN). Carter solicited essays from numerous specialists and sees his book as contributing to existing efforts to overcome inequality. Mészáros emphasizes the influence of power relations on the law, determining that it takes an organized pressure group such as the MST to ensure that authorities implement policies that challenge the status quo. Vergara‐Camus' grassroots approach, which involved periods of living with peasant families, concludes that the MST's strategies for building alternative, autonomous rural communities is more realistic – more universalistic – than that of the Zapatistas, whose military tactics tend to reinforce the group's isolation in the forests of Mexico's southernmost state. The review evaluates these arguments, the authors and their evidence from the perspective of a researcher experienced with the objects studied.     

The Class Dynamics of Food Sovereignty in Mexico and Ecuador

This paper examines the class dynamics of food sovereignty in Mexico and Ecuador. It argues that the nature of contemporary demands for food sovereignty is heavily influenced by the outcomes of peasant movements’ historical and ongoing internal class dynamics. Processes of class differentiation within peasant organizations in both countries have led to the interests of certain classes predominating over or at the expense of others. Despite La Vía Campesina's projection of ‘unity in diversity’, incorporating sometimes conflicting class interests into the movement is particularly challenging. As such, class analysis must be brought back into debates around food sovereignty in order to gauge (and potentially further) the movement's transformative potential.     

Peasant agency in Ghana's oil palm sector: The impact of multiple markets on food sovereignty

This paper contributes to the debate on peasant differentiation and market integration in the food sovereignty literature by examining the smallholder‐oriented oil palm sector in Ghana's eastern region. Against the background of loosening entry barriers in global value chains, and through an analysis of farmers' different positions in palm oil's multiple markets, we witness peasant‐like patterning of production and strategic market participation among well‐situated non‐contract farmers. We propose that such interface settings where commodity relations are present, but do not penetrate fully offer valuable entry points for revisiting the role of global markets in peasant reproduction in the Global South. We consequently argue the need to replace the idealized category of “peasant” with an analytical category that can recognize social differentiation and reproduction through partial engagement with commodity markets.     

Rodney Hilton (1916–2002): In Memoriam

This essay is written in memory of Rodney Hilton (1916–2002), who died on 7 June 2002. He was one of the towering historians of medieval England. Along with the Russian scholar, E. A. Kosminsky, of a previous generation of historians, he provided a formidable Marxist treatment of English feudalism, at once empirically rich, through extensive archival research, and theoretically informed. His work, while displaying a particular vision of the nature of feudal society, and embracing certain recurring themes, is broad in its scope and varied in the issues it covers. The essay is offered as a tribute to the particular tradition of Marxist historical scholarship represented by him, and which he did so much to foster. A brief account of his career and writing is given. There is, in the present issue, a companion essay in which his views on peasant differentiation and the transition to capitalism in England are considered at length.     

Pro‐Poor Tourism as a Strategy to Fight Rural Poverty: A Critique

Pro‐poor tourism (PPT) is a development methodology that aims to use tourism as a tool for poverty reduction. PPT has been adopted by multilateral institutions, official development agencies and non‐governmental organizations (NGOs). PPT assumes an absolute definition of poverty that is based on net income. This definition allows the consideration of a tourism initiative as ‘pro‐poor’ even though the income earned by the poor population may be marginal. This paper analyses whether PPT's concept of poverty adequately addresses the issues in rural poverty. We analyse one case of unequal distribution of income generated from tourism in the 1990s (Amantaní Island, Perú). The paper concludes that PPT's concept of poverty circumvents the fact that an unequal distribution of income could imply a loss in the quality of life for the majority of a rural population: the high‐income social sector tends to increase its economic and political power to the detriment of other social sectors.     

Build a people-oriented urbanization: China’s new-type urbanization dream and Anhui model

Since 2014, the Chinese government has initiatednew-type urbanization under the guidance of ‘the National New-type Urbanization Plan (2014–2020)’, which embarks on a significant transformation of the model of urbanization in post-reform China. To understand the origin and outputs of this policy, this article demonstrates the context of China’s new-type urbanization. The paper proposes a conceptual framework of new-type urbanization, which mainly includes four aspects: humanism, people-oriented urbanization; inclusivism, benefits sharing for urban and rural; sustainability, development without sacrifice of resources and environment; and harmonism, coordination. This is followed by an examination of the case of Anhui province, as a pilot province of China’s new-type urbanization. Anhui has performed a lot of related work to promote citizenization of peasant workers and has made great progress on the reform of the household registration system. The study found that despite a special emphasis on people-oriented urbanization, the pressures and costs of citizenization of peasant workers are growing fast, accompanied by rising housing prices in cities. This insight suggests there are benefits and costs of promoting China’s new-type urbanization. Despite the advantages of institutional innovation, the unexpected side effects such as rapid rising housing prices actually undermine the success of plan implementation.     

林下经济发展现状及对策——基于云南省县、村、户样本数据的分析

利用云南省10个样本县、50个样本村和499户农户三级样本发展林下经济数据,从林下经济发展产值、参与发展情况、发展需求三个方面分析林下经济发展的现状。针对农户发展林下经济的困难和政策需求从经验推广、多方融资、鼓励农户林业就业、补贴政策落实、技术培训落实5个方面提出对策。     

ACTIVITY SELECTION UNDER CONDITIONS OF RISK AND INSTABILITY: CONSIDERATION OF FREQUENCY

The terms ‘instability’ and ‘risk’ are sometimes used interchangeably in the literature. Some make the argument that instability will shift the firm's supply curve to the left if the producer is risk-averse Risk, however, is associated with the unpredictable residuals, or deviations from the producer's revenue expectations. The inherent instability of these returns does not necessarily imply an added exposure to risk as long as the producer forms his expectations based on the entire information set available to him when constructing the mathematical model representing his judgement on the variables' future behaviour. The producer may also respond to the relative instability of the returns generated by an enterprise even if risk, as defined above, is perceived to be non-existent. The existence of prediction errors exposes the producer to conditions of choice under risk while the predictable component exposes the producer to conditions of choice under instability. His preferences with regard to risk and instability may be quite different. The purpose of this paper is to extend the traditional planning model under risk to account for the producer's attitude toward the predicted instability of returns over time, and to illustrate the effect that this attitude will have upon his production plans.     

沈阳市林权抵押贷款及其影响因素的调查研究

以沈阳市为倒,利用对辽中、法库的农户调查数据,分析集体林权改革后农户利用林权抵押贷款的模式、资金使用去向、满意程度等,剖析了非贷款农户未参与抵押贷款的原因,对影响农户林权抵押贷款的因素进行了计量经济分析.结果表明:有48%的农户将抵押贷款用于扩大非林业领域生产活动,这与国家出台林权抵押贷款政策初衷存在一定程度的脱节;贷款利率高低和还款期长短等因素对林权抵押贷款有显著影响,即当前林权抵押贷款利率较高和贷款期限过短是制约林权抵押贷款发展的重要因素,也是非贷款农户不选择抵押贷款获得发展资金的最主要原因.     

基于农民意愿调查的城乡建设用地增减挂钩评价

从解析城乡建设用地增减挂钩政策涵义入手,实证分析了北京市X区农民对于搬迁上楼的心理意愿,剖析了目前农民"被上楼"现象所反映出来的问题,文章结论认为城乡建设用地增减挂钩政策是好政策,农民对挂钩政策本身也是认可的,但是挂钩政策在实施环节存在很多问题,另外当前我国挂钩政策试点批准节奏过快,应在完善好相关配套政策尤其是公平明晰的利益分配方案之后再行推进。     

Labour Migration and Gendered Agricultural Relations: The Feminization of Agriculture in the Ejidal Sector of Calakmul,Mexico

We examine the nature of the ‘feminization of agriculture’ in the semi‐subsistence, peasant production sector of southeastern Mexico, as associated with male labour out‐migration. Presenting findings from empirical work with smallholder producers, we discuss the impact of men's migration to the United States on women's participation in agriculture and gendered relations of agricultural production. In 2007, we conducted a survey of 155 semi‐subsistence, smallholder households in six ejidos. This survey was supplemented by ethnographic research in a single ejido. Our findings demonstrate the need to distinguish between farm labour and management in this sector, and the potentially significant (but focused) changes in the local relations of agricultural production wrought by gendered patterns of labour migration – specifically in tenure, land‐use decision‐making and the management of hired labour.     

South–South Cooperation 3.0? Managing the consequences of success in the decade ahead

This paper examines the consequences of the hugely successful expansion of South-South Cooperation since the new millennium. For all the achievements, variations and change over the 1950s-late 1990s, ‘SSC 1.0’ was characterised by relative neglect within the 'international' development community, and by many orthodox and critical scholars. In the chronological schema of the paper, ‘SSC 2.0’ refers to the period of remarkable expansion from the early 2000s to the present. The emergence of ‘SSC 3.0’, I suggest, is currently revealed by a discernible set of shifts driven in large part by the expansionary successes of SSC 2.0, as well as other turns in the global political economy. Three contemporary trends are identified: cooperation narratives that are increasingly ‘muscular’, nationalistic and pragmatic; difficulties sustaining claims to ‘non-interference’ in partner countries; and the further erosion of ideational and operational distinctiveness.     

Effects of perceived product quality and Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability (LOHAS) on consumer price preferences for children's furniture in China

The effects of perceived product quality and orientation toward Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability (LOHAS) on consumer price preferences were studied with the use of survey data of the children's furniture market in two metropolitan cities of China: Shanghai and Shenzhen. Based on the results from a factor analysis and logistic regression, consumers’ perceived product quality of children's furniture was identified as a four-dimensional construct: ‘supplier attributes’, ‘extended product attributes’, ‘basic product attributes’ and ‘environmental quality attributes’. Consumer price preferences were discovered to be negatively influenced by ‘basic product attributes’, but positively influenced by consumer orientation towards LOHAS, gender and education level. In conclusion, China's children's furniture market presents a high-end niche segment with growth potential for both furniture producers and wood material suppliers.     

Tempest in the Andes? Part 2: Peasant Organization and Development Agencies in Cotopaxi (Ecuador)

This paper, published in two parts, is an analysis of the links between the ‘agrarian question’ in the Ecuadorian Andes and the creation of a network of indigenous‐peasant organizations that became the backbone of the national indigenous movement. I explore the relations between agrarian change and social change, drawing on a monographic study carried out in Cotopaxi Province, in the central sierra of Ecuador, from the 1960s to the beginning of the twenty‐first century. In the first part, I emphasized how the transformations unleashed by the crisis of the hacienda regime marked a rupture that consolidated the dense organizational scaffolding in the rural milieu. In this second part, I examine how development agencies, especially non‐governmental organizations (NGOs), played a fundamental role in strengthening those structures (1980s and 1990s). The history of the Union of Peasant Organizations of Northern Cotopaxi (UNOCANC) is one such example: born from the struggle for haciendas, inputs from the development apparatus enabled the rise of local elites who turned the organization into one of the most militant in the country. In this paper, I draw attention to aspects seldom mentioned in the specialized bibliography, namely a detailed study of how peasant differentiation, the origins of which lay in hacienda hierarchies, and which was upheld in turn by the agrarian distribution, was accelerated by the actions of NGOs, which continued to favour those indigenous peasants with more power and economic resources. Thus, divergences were consolidated and internal fissures opened up in organizations that are at the root of the crisis of representation experienced by ethnic platforms in the Ecuadorian Andes today.     

张謇水利经济思想的形成

从初涉水患意识到兴修水利的重要性,到学习钻研水利的理论技术,再到将水利融入经济民生,最终在保护生态的前提下发展经济,实业家张謇不断形成完善着其水利经济思想。基于其丰富的水利实践基础,张謇开创了我国水利经济思想之先河,是我国近代水利经济思想的先驱者。从士大夫到实业家,他不仅完成了自身的角色转变,而且实现了实业救国的抱负。在新时代背景下,张謇水利经济思想中的民生意识、生态保护意识仍熠熠生辉。当代水利经济发展应在继承和创新的基础上,坚持以水利经济增进民生福祉,为推动经济发展作出贡献。     

Safe food,green food,good food: Chinese Community Supported Agriculture and the rising middle class

The growth of China's middle class is driving an expansion of interest in ‘green’ and sustainable food, food that is perceived to be healthy, safe and environmentally friendly. Self-consciously ‘sustainable’ agriculture is a new phenomenon in China, but it has emerged from, and builds upon, an agrarian history that is markedly different from that of the West. In this paper, we address the relationship between the Chinese middle class, an overwhelmingly urban group, and Chinese sustainable agriculture, a largely urban-oriented enterprise, from the perspective of our work in establishing and operating Beijing's first Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm. We discuss the farm's environmental and institutional sustainability, situating its development within the larger context of contemporary Chinese agriculture, and we examine the potential for future success with CSA models in China based on evidence from this case.     

ROLES OF WOMEN ON FARMS: A PILOT STUDY

Official statistics do not reveal the nature of the contribution which farmers' wives make to the farm labour force. On the basis of a pilot study, three roles for women on farms were identified. Main distinguishing features were division of labour between husband and wife, frequency of manual work, responsibility for farm enterprises, participation in formal organisations and approach to housework. Home-centred farm housewives only work on the farm occasionally, working farmwives assist their husbands regularly while women farmers threaten male status by doing “man's” work. Reasons for women playing one role rather than another are discussed. Trends in agriculture suggest that the farmer's wife's contribution to the farm business will become still more significant in future. “The concept of ‘the farmer and his wife’ so often used by agricultural economics is far from having universal validity” (Ashby, 1953: 97).