The Rationality of Rural Life: Economic and Cultural Change in Tuscany / Edition 1

by Jeff Pratt

Overview

This monograph analyzes the developments in rural life in detail and at the same time places them in a wider context, exploring the strengths and weaknesses of theoretical writings on modern agriculture. What is revealed is a profound transformation in the rationality of farming, one which touches every aspect of the lives of rural people.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783718656271
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	08/23/2001
Series:	Studies in Anthropology and History , #17
Pages:	230
Product dimensions:	7.00(w) x 10.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Jeff Pratt teaches anthropology at the University of Sussex, and has been conducting research in central Italy since 1970. His previous publications on Italy include studies of political and ideological processes, both at the local and the national level.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements — List of Illustrations — ONE Introduction — Capitalist agriculture — Technological change — Rationality — Two sides of the river — Outline of the book — TWO Hard Work and No Money: Share-Cropping in Tuscany — Landlords — Farm and household — Production and consumption — Political movement — THREE Like Birds Freed from a Cage: Economic Changes in the Family-Farming Sector — Land-Reform — + 1955-1980: The first post-reform generation — 1980 Onwards and the growth of wage-labour — Co-operatives — FOUR Experiences of Farming Since the Land-Reform — The post-war experience — The household — Accounting — FIVE An Economy of Scale: Wine Production on the Montalcino Estates — The slow death of the Mezzadria — Investment in wine production — Estate production — SIX Marks of Distinction — Quantity — Quality — The happy island — SEVEN Conclusion — Farming and the transformation of nature — Ecological economics — Appendix 1 Statistical Material for Family-Farming Sector — Appendix 2 Production Costs for Brunello Wine — Bibliography — Author Index — Subject Index.