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Comparing Local Models Of Agrarian Transition In China, Qian Forrest Zhang
Comparing Local Models Of Agrarian Transition In China, Qian Forrest Zhang
Qian Forrest ZHANG
The development of markets and the penetration of capital into agriculture have started the agrarian transition in rural China, which is transforming smallholding, household-based agriculture into various forms of capitalistic production. This again raises in a new historical and social context the long-debated question in the agrarian transition literature: Can family farms survive the onslaught of capitalist agriculture based on wage labor and what shapes the confrontation between family farms and agro-capital? I argue that it is the local political economy—rather than some natural obstacles in agriculture to the penetration of capitalism—that shapes this confrontation and gives rise to a …
Reforming China's State-Owned Farms: State Farms In Agrarian Transition, Qian Forrest Zhang
Reforming China's State-Owned Farms: State Farms In Agrarian Transition, Qian Forrest Zhang
Qian Forrest ZHANG
China’s 2000 strong state-owned farms are experiencing a dual transition in the country’s economic reforms: the market transition (from state-owned enterprises embedded in the redistributive system to independent enterprises in the new market economy) and agrarian transition (from small-scale, household-based agriculture to large-scale, capitalist forms of agriculture that rely on market exchanges of land, labor and products). This paper highlights the results of a comparative analysis of the state farms and rural farming households in the agrarian transition to address the theoretical debate about agrarian transition. Using field research data from state farms in HeilongJIANG Province and drawing extensively from …
The Political Economy Of Contract Farming In China’S Agrarian Transition, Qian Forrest Zhang
The Political Economy Of Contract Farming In China’S Agrarian Transition, Qian Forrest Zhang
Qian Forrest ZHANG
How does rural China’s political economy determine the motivations and constraints that drive small farmers and agribusiness companies into contract farming and shape its practice and impact? This paper identifies three distinctive features of contract farming in China—varied impact on rural inequality, unstable contractual relations, and lack of competitiveness with other alternatives—and proposes tentative explanations with three features in rural China’s political economy: strong collective institutions, active state support for agriculture, and strong domestic markets. The recent turn in China’s agrarian transition toward vertical integration of agriculture with industries is, however, undermining these conditions and may move China toward more …
From Peasants To Farmers: Peasant Differentiation, Labor Regimes And Land-Rights Institutions In China’S Agrarian Transition, Qian Forrest Zhang, John Andrew Donaldson
From Peasants To Farmers: Peasant Differentiation, Labor Regimes And Land-Rights Institutions In China’S Agrarian Transition, Qian Forrest Zhang, John Andrew Donaldson
Qian Forrest ZHANG
The development of factor markets has opened Chinese agriculture for the penetration of capitalism. This new round of rural transformation—China’s agrarian transition— raises the agrarian question in the Chinese context. This study investigates how capitalist forms and relations of production transform agricultural production and the peasantry class in rural China. The authors identify six forms of nonpeasant agricultural production, compare the labor regimes and direct producers’ socioeconomic statuses across these forms, and evaluate the role of China’s land-rights institution in shaping these forms. The empirical investigation presents three main findings: (1) Peasant differentiation : capitalist forms of agricultural production differentiate …