Land, Social Reproduction, and Agrarian Change
Ben Cousins
Abstract
Abstract Land and agriculture play key roles in the production and social reproduction strategies pursued by large populations of rural dwellers in the global South. Thus the emerging debates on the character and scope of social reproduction under capitalism resonate strongly with key concerns of critical agrarian studies. This chapter reviews these debates, and then examines how processes of agrarian change shape patterns of social reproduction and are in turn shaped by them, drawing on studies from a variety of contexts. Key themes include the contradictory character of the relations of production and reproduction in land-based livelihoods; migration, class and gender; and the centrality of social reproduction in contemporary struggles over land. It is argued that although the dynamics of social reproduction influence the processes of agrarian change, ultimately, the dynamics of accumulation are determinate. The chapter concludes with brief reflections on the potential contributions of land-based struggles to anticapitalist politics in the current era.