Structural Transformation and Agrarian Change in India / Edition 1

by Goran Djurfeldt, Srilata Sircar

Overview

This book is about structural transformation, primarily of the Indian rural economy. Although the concept of structural transformation has primarily been used by economists, and refers mainly to economic processes, this book argues that it also merits study by other social scientists, and by sociologists in particular.

Going by its definition in economics, structural transformation refers to the process by which the share of industry and services in the GDP of an economy increases at the expense of the share of agriculture and farming. For an economist structural transformation is primarily a question of the sector composition of the GDP and of the labour force. For a sociologist structural transformation engenders lots of social and spatial mobility. The analysis used here draws on panel data and mobility matrices, a seasoned tool in sociology, and newer techniques for modelling the drivers of social mobility. Picking up a term coined by Binswanger-Mkhize, the book characterizes the Indian process as stunted, and offers insights into and analysis of the reasons why the Indian case differs from the situation in Japan, China and other East Asian countries, as well as from the West, where family farms and family labour have historically had a very different role and function in the rural economy.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781138913677
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	09/27/2016
Series:	Routledge Studies in Development Economics
Pages:	188
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.19(h) x (d)

About the Author

Göran Djurfeldt is Senior Professor, Department of Sociology, Lund University, Sweden

Table of Contents

1. Introduction: Structural transformation and its outcomes historically and contemporaneously compared to the case of India 2. Theories of structural development of the Indian rural economy 3. Methods 4. The cross-sectional evidence and the potential contribution of panel data 5. Sector composition and movements of labour between sectors with a focus on the Indian rural economy 6. The distribution of cultivated area: Concentration and dispossession or the emergence of family farming? 7. The welfare effects of structural transformation: Pauperization or poverty alleviation? 8. The stunted structural transformation and India’s future