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In the current polarizing political climate, what constitutes just has become increasingly questioned and debated in the public arena. Tyrants seem everywhere to shape people's understanding of who belongs in communities and nation‐states and, therefore, who should be given a voice and what should be valued. This paper unpacks the mechanisms of tyranny and the pursuit of justice in the global agri‐food system. The first section discusses justice and tyranny as sociological concepts and practice, followed by the second section that examins two types of tyrannies in the globalized agri‐food system: neoliberal capitalism and community. I argue that neoliberal capitalism and community are the logics for organizing social relations and the sites of enacting tyrannies and justice. Third, I argue that in the tension between capitalism and community in achieving justice, rural becomes critical both theoretically and empirically for understanding the current transformations and the future challenges for transforming agri‐food systems. Finally, the paper concludes with possible contributions of rural sociological imaginations to shaping the discourse of justice and explore the process of justice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Defining "rural" has preoccupied rural sociologists. Two constituents of rural are suggested: "capitalist space" in the form of uneven regional development and the "mode of primary production" (including the occupational category), which is distinguished by its direct interaction with the natural environment. (Author/BRR)

Do farmers who participate in local food systems attach greater importance to civic engagement than farmers whose livelihood is not tied to the vitality of local markets? The literature on local food as a social movement continues to paint a picture of local food systems as contributing to, and benefiting from, rich networks of civil society groups. Yet to date, few studies have directly addressed the question of whether marketing local food is actually associated with higher levels of civic engagement among farmers. In this paper, I draw on local capitalism theory to identify two different mechanisms—depth of economic reliance on local markets, and breadth of social networks related to local food sales—that might spur farmers who market local food to feel more responsible for their communities. Then, using data from a large‐scale survey of specialty crop growers, I explore whether a relationship exists between farmer involvement with local food markets and attitudes toward civic engagement. Results suggest that while farmers strongly committed to local food markets attach greater importance to civic engagement, participation in multiple categories or kinds of local food supply chains is not necessarily associated with stronger civic values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Old order Amish of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, can be classified as one of the oldest alternative communities in the United States. In this paper, we wish to examine ways in which the productive role of Amish women helps maintain Old Order Amish society, and the way these roles vary with woman's position in the life cycle. The contribution of women to production varies greatly between societies (Sanday, 1976). Furthermore, this contribution is not always recognized. Recently writers have argued that housewives not only perform private services for their husbands, but that their work helps maintain industrial capitalism (Malos, 1978). We believe our findings are informative not only with references to Amish society but that they are helpful in providing clues about women's roles in general. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT The aims of this paper are twofold: first, to gain a fuller understanding of factors that foster community cohesion and contribute to the residents' social and economic well-being; and, second, to move beyond previous research that used larger spatial units such as states, counties, or aggregates of counties and to focus instead on American small towns (population 2,500–20,000). The data on small towns are drawn from public-use files and from confidential microdata from various economic censuses. From these sources we construct measures of locally oriented firms, self-employment, business establishments that serve as gathering places, and associations. The local capitalism and civic engagement variables generally perform as hypothesized; in some cases they are related quite strongly to civic welfare outcomes such as income levels, poverty rates, and nonmigration rates. We discuss the advantages and disadvantages of working with place-level data and suggest some strategies for subsequent work on small towns and other incorporated places. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses recent neo-Marxist contributions to theories of the state, particularly as they relate to agricultural policy. A case study of the flue-cured tobacco program is developed to inform theories of the state. The case study is historical and focuses on the changing relationship between the state and tobacco growers from the New Deal to the present. This relationship has been influenced by the contradictory nature of the capitalist state, which must respond to both accumulation and legitimation crises. Although many agricultural programs developed during the New Deal were regressive and benefited monopoly capital, these programs also represent benefits fought for and won by farmers. However, the New Deal response to the Depression established the conditions that have produced today's structural contradictions in agriculture. Attempts to roll back the New Deal agricultural programs will probably be more successful for tobacco than for other agricultural commodities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper applies recent developments in the neo-Marxist theory of class to the specific problem of class analysis of midwestern agricultural production. The works of Braverman and Wright are brought together to identify four indicators of class location. Three "pure" class locations are identified by these relations. Their imperfect coincidence in the articulation of simple commodity and capitalist modes of production make Wright's concept of "contradictory class location" particularly appropriate for the analysis of class in agricultural production. Five social relations in agricultural production are examined with respect to the specified indicators of class location. The concrete articulation of these forms in the present conjuncture undermines the bipolar trajectory of class structure in traditional Marxist theory. While the contradictory integration of capitalist and proletarian class traits in simple commodity production has often been observed, their coincidence within the capitalist mode of production itself gives rise to identification of a "new petty bourgeoisie" distinct from the traditional petty bourgeoisie. The economism of the neo-Marxist model is supplement with the development of Weber's concept of rationality as both formally rational and substantively rational goals are seen to share the same objective economic action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"The land question" as posed by Henry George a century ago was answered with a call for land reform, a change in the ownership and control of land. In present-day, market-oriented America the land question is answered with widely available land information for market and policy decisions. Information generated by the Agricultural Economics and Land Ownership Survey (AELOS) of the Census of Agriculture is a footing for analyzing land ownership, land transfers, property taxes, and other issues of land policy. In this paper the issues of ownership distribution and the distributive effects of taxation are defined with AELOS data. The AELOS shows that the distribution of land ownership is concentrated and shows that large landowners pay real property tax rates at less than half the rate of small landowners. Changes in land ownership, transfer, and taxation argue for repeating the AELOS in 1998. A case is presented for replacing the Census of Agriculture with a Census of Land in 2003. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines agrarian relations in post‐Soviet Azerbaijan after redistributive land reforms. We argue that the reforms failed to establish small‐farm capitalism on former collective and state farm land. Commodity production in rural Azerbaijan is characterized by increasing concentration of land and capital, and the recipients of the privatized land shares procure livelihoods not through commercial farming, but through a combination of strategies—including wages, remittances from migrant relatives, and subsistence agriculture. This study is based on the combination of state statistics, government reports, and local ethnography—in‐depth interviews with land reform administrators and with rural residents in six diverse villages from two distinct regions of Azerbaijan. Previous studies of post‐Soviet transition in rural Azerbaijan reported different results of the land reforms. A quantitative account based on the state statistics reported a postreform countryside where small farmers, former collective and state laborers, live off their privatized land shares and increase agricultural productivity. A qualitative account based on local ethnography suggested that the privatized land shares play a marginal role in the livelihoods of local residents. We show how the discrepancy is illusory and stems from an erroneous, legal definition of "small farms" used in the state statistics, which conflates socially distinct categories of land use. When the statistical terms are put into their social context, the quantitative data confirm the qualitative findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents information about Melanie DuPuis, who distinguishes between the instrumental theory of the state and the relative-autonomy theory of the state but, then, conflates the two when she asserts that her relative-autonomy perspective ignores particularistic questions. It further explains relative-autonomy as revitalizing the civic sphere by building alternative institutions rather than relying on an administrative state. It informs that how state is not ruled by any one class, even though it operates in the interest of capitalism in general. The state intervenes in the market, when functional gaps develop to manage the crises that are inherent in a system that defines human beings and nature, the state is able to claim that its actions are in the public interest. It describes that state is autonomous from capitalist class but it looks after the ultimate interests of the capitalists class. It accepts that relative-autonomy may give more powers to representatives of capitalist class.

This article poses two questions: (1) Are historically distinct regional farming systems converging toward a single structure? (2) What explains such convergence or continued divergence? We studied dairy farm trends in California and Wisconsin arid found that both capitalist and family-based forms of production are persisting. Far from converging, the dairying systems of California and Wisconsin became more dissimilar between 1950 and 1982. To account for this divergence, we use Friedmann's(1978, 1981) theory of different "logics of reproduction" for capitalist and family farms. Varying empirical conditions (the natural environment, demographic changes, and the workings of each system itself) led to the survival of family dairies in Wisconsin and to the growth of capitalist dairies in California. To understand the changing social structures of agriculture, sociologists must employ both sociological theory and comparative historical analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The utility of a Marx-Weber synthesis for the study of rural stratification is critically examined through an analysis of Patrick Mooney's recent contributions to rural sociology. First, we review his discussions of contradictory class locations and the resulting detours to rural capitalist development. Second, his theoretical and empirical critique of the Mann-Dickinson thesis is appraised and criticized for its use of an ahistorical positivist methodology. Third, we consider Mooney's Weberian explanation of detours to rural capitalist development and find it inadequate because of its one-sided focus on subjective factors. Finally, Mooney's suggestion that life-cycle analysis may be useful in developing explanations of contemporary rural development is considered through a critical analysis of Chayanov's demographic theory of the family farm. We conclude that sufficient differences exist between Marx and Weber with respect to definitions of social class, the relation of formal to substantive rationality, the value of a voluntaristic social-action approach, and the explanatory power of demographic variables to caution against any premature synthesis of their concepts and ideas in rural sociological research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents reply of the author on the comments of Susan A. Mann and James M. Dickinson on the utility of a Marx-Weber synthesis for the study of rural stratification. Recognition of only a formal rationality necessitates a view of simple commodity producers as aspiring capitalists who either succeeds in that endeavor or, in failing, join the proletariat. The concept of substantive rationality allows us to conceive these actors as more than mere carriers of the "logic of capital," and thus as active agents in creating social structure. If the variations on the new Marxist theme within rural sociology are to be critiqued for refusal to accept the particular Althusserian position that history is a process without a subject, then it will be believed that advances will be of limited significance. Marxism without people may be better able to present itself as scientific theory, but it simultaneously loses much of its critical potential. Given the traditions and body of literature already established, such an "all or nothing" presentation of Marxism would probably serve to exclude many rural sociologists who might otherwise incorporate aspects of Marx's analysis into their research.