Search

The nature of the relations between the agricultural sector and its context has been given much attention lately. Although there has been a shift in focus &mdash from explaining the disappearance of the peasant to explaining the consolidation of the family farm — these theories have often tended to be one-directional, treating agricultural forms of production mainly as the outcome of external factors. In this paper, based on data from a wine growing region in Southern France, the interaction of processes at different levels is the focus of attention. Economic, technological anal cultural processes influencing the agricultural production unit are described, as are the internal dynamics of the family holding. Reference is made to Chayanov's micro theory of the peasant economy. By analyzing the interrelation of both external and internal factors it is shown that several types of adaptation can be accounted for within a single theoretical frame. In this way not only the consolidation of the family holding, the overall tendency towards capitalized farming, but also processes of differentiation and marginalization can be explained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]