The survival and re-emergence of family farming: A study of the Holsworthy area of west Devon

This thesis is based on an historical study of agriculture in West Devon and interviews with one hundred farmers in the area. The way in which family labour farming has adapted to the changing economic and social conditions of the twentieth century is analysed. The process of specialisation of production, the rise of owner-occupation of land and the continued shedding of farm labour are documented. Particular attention is devoted to ways of conceptualising family farming in rural sociology both as a specific form of economic production within capitalism and as a component of a traditional middle class in society. The persistence, indeed re-emergence, of familial production in agriculture is explained in the context of the resilience of family farming itself and a number of constraints to wholesale change in the industry. These constraints include the nature of land in agricultural production and the ways in which family farming is itself adapted and transformed to meet the changing conditions for its reproduction set by other sectors of a capitalist economy and through the state's involvement in agricultural policy.

Name dc:type.qualificationname

phd

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

doctoral

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

The Open University

Year dc:date.issued

1987

Author dc:creator

• Winter, David Michael

Language dc:language

en