Burley tobacco--a key component in American-made cigarettes--has been produced in northeast Tennessee for well over a century. The economic importance of this crop and the peculiar nature of its production has had a profound influence on local agrarian culture. In Austin County, Tennessee--where I conducted approximately two years of ethnographic research--burley tobacco has become a marker of local identity. The crop is still transplanted, harvested, and processed manually. The work required to grow burley tobacco has been described by locals as "difficult, dirty, [and] sometimes dangerous." This is particularly true at harvest time when the five-foot plants must be cut by hand using a simple hatchet-like tool. The labor-intensive nature of the crop, the constraints of local geography (the Appalachian Mountains), and the limitations imposed by a New Deal initiative referred to as the Federal Tobacco Program kept burley tobacco farms small for much of the 20th century. Even so, the labor inputs needed to grow burley tobacco have remained high. Traditionally, Austin County farm families have met their crop's demand for labor by "swapping" work. This reciprocal tradition was made possible by the ubiquitous production of the leaf in Austin County on a relatively small-scale. An examination of the political economy of burley tobacco, particularly as it relates to Austin County, Tennessee, I identify the conditions that (1) helped to shape the reciprocal tradition and (2) that encouraged or made possible the persistence of this tradition well into the 20th century. In addition, I examine the more recent shift from reciprocal labor to wage labor--specifically the increased use of Mexican and Central American migrant farmworkers. I argue that the persistence of reciprocal labor in Austin County has influenced the ways in which rural families (particularly white, land-owning families) conceptualize burley tobacco farming and farm work. Even though most have adopted the use of migrant labor, the tradition of reciprocity contributes to locally specific ways of organizing and managing seasonal farm work. Rural families make use of many of the same strategies used nationwide by farm owners who employ seasonal migrant labor; however, the moral economy of reciprocity informs the management styles of most contemporary tobacco producers in Austin County. The social organization of burley tobacco work is further complicated by the "identity work" accomplished by farm owners. Despite their removal from the field and the curing barn, contemporary farm owner/operators continue to claim what I am calling a farmworking identity--an identity defined by an affinity to hard work, mutual aid, and respect. Both through farm work and discursive work these farm owner/operators are claiming, maintaining, and constructing the farmworking identity as it is conceptualized in Austin County. I argue that this "identity work" highlights and obscures social inequality in the field, the barn, and throughout Austin County as farmworking identities are constructed as both masculine and white. Cultural conceptions of farm work are produced locally by farmers and community members who draw on a shared work history. Although based on a notion of reciprocal labor, access to local definitions of farm work is unequal. These local constructions restrict the identities of some (i.e. women, low-income whites, and Mexican and Central American migrants) and provide others (i.e. white, male farm owners) the authority to claim conflicting identities--e.g farm owner and farmworker.

This thesis examines how the liberalization of United States agriculture has affected the everyday experiences of labor, and laborers. Centered on a case study of mushroom production in Southern Chester County, Pennsylvania, this thesis explores the role of governmentality in shaping the daily work experience of labor employed in the industry. Situated within feminist geographic debates regarding gender and work, this thesis argues that normalized and stereotypical understandings of gender, ethnicity, and immigrant status have become tools of discipline that encourage particular performances of work within mushroom houses. The disciplinary strategies explored in this thesis are comprised of rules, procedures, regulations, and dispositions, and are deployed in a complementarily manner to maximize profit generated by laborers. Ultimately these disciplinary measures have become integral for Southern Chester County to both maximize profits and maintain its prominent location as the largest mushroom cultivating region in the United States. / Thesis (Master, Geography) -- Queen's University, 2012-02-06 22:57:27.043

Nature reserves affect the local environment and communities. I use household data from the Chinese Household Income Project (CHIP) to estimate the impacts of nature reserves on several aspects of rural households: migration, local off-farm work, and off-farm income. This thesis also examines the heterogeneous impacts of nature reserves across administrative levels, lengths of existence time, and types. To reduce selection bias, propensity scores matching (PSM) is carried out to match counties with nature reserves to counties that have a similar possibility of establishing nature reserves, but that do not yet have any. Considering that counties with nature reserves might affect their neighboring counties without nature reserves, I construct two additional samples: one that excludes adjacent counties, and the other that generates new indicators for adjacent counties to check spillover effects directly. I use models with year fixed effects and county fixed effects to estimate the impacts across samples. The estimation results show that national nature reserves (NNRs) generally decrease the possibility of migration, while the impact depends on how long the NNRs have been in place. In the short run, NNRs increase migration. Forest NNRs significantly decrease migration but increase participation in local off-farm work and off-farm income. Nonforest NNRs have positive influences on migration and off-farm income. Although both forest and nonforest NNRs increase off-farm income, the sources might be different. The off-farm income increase in counties with forest NNRs might come from local off-farm work because forest NNRs encourage local off-farm work. The off-farm income increase in counties with nonforest NNRs might come from migration work because nonforest NNRs increase migration. Provincial nature reserves (PNRs) increase the likelihood of migration and the estimates also imply that PNRs only have short-run impacts on the local communities. Forest PNRs increase migration while nonforest ones decrease migration. PNRs generally decrease participation in local off-farm work and off-farm income, except for nonforest PNRs increase both of them. The results indicate that nature reserves of different administrative levels and lengths of existence time negatively affect local off-farm participation and off-farm income. These results imply that nature reserves in China during 2002-2013 had overall negative impacts on the local livelihood. / M.S. / Nature reserves are a crucial ecological policy in China for protecting endangered species and the environment. There is no doubt that nature reserves are beneficial to the environment. However, the multi-faceted social impacts of the establishment of nature reserves on the local households are unclear. This thesis studies the impacts of nature reserves on migration, participating in local off-farm work, and household off-farm income. I obtained household data from the Chinese Household Income Project (CHIP). The selection of nature reserves' locations is nonrandom: counties with nature reserves and those without are different in geographic characteristics, such as the distances to the nearest provincial capital and prefecture, average slope, and average elevation, which could be correlated with local economic development. Without eliminating those differences, the results will be misleading when comparing counties with nature reserves with those without nature reserves. This thesis considers the heterogeneous impacts of nature reserves across administrative levels, lengths of existence time, and types. Considering that counties with nature reserves might also affect their adjacent counties without nature reserves, I construct two additional samples: one that excludes adjacent counties and the other that generates new indicators for adjacent counties to measure the spillover effects directly. The results show that different designations of nature reserves have various impacts on migration. National nature reserves (NNRs) decrease migration, while provincial nature reserves (PNRs) generally increase migration. In the short run, NNRs increase migration and PNRs also increase migration. In general, nature reserves across different administrative levels and lengths of existence time all decrease local off-farm participation and off-farm income. This result implies that nature reserves in China during 2002-2013 had overall negative impacts on the local livelihood in the aspects of participation in local off-farm work and off-farm income.

En France, le recours à de la main-d’œuvre salariée a fortement augmenté en agriculture ces quarante dernières années, notamment les salariés permanents non familiaux. Les principales raisons de ce développement sont de profondes transformations structurelles dans le secteur agricole, comme l’agrandissement des exploitations et la diminution de la main-d’œuvre familiale. Maintenir ces salariés dans les exploitations, et ainsi réduire le turnover, est devenu un défi pour la pérennité des élevages. Notre hypothèse est qu’il est nécessaire de rendre compte du travail et de comprendre le rôle des salariés dans les exploitations d’élevage, ainsi que de comprendre les changements au cours du temps, pour identifier des leviers qui pourraient aider les éleveurs et les salariés à relever ce défi. Ainsi, notre objectif est de proposer un cadre d’analyse qui articule le travail en élevage et le développement de la carrière des salariés afin de rendre compte des évolutions de leur travail, que nous appelons « trajectoire ». Pour cela les concepts proposés en gestion de ressources humaines ont été mobilisés. Ils constituent des contributions pertinentes concernant l’organisation du travail et le développement de la carrière des salariés dans les organisations. Le cadre d’analyse a été construit à partir des concepts d’attribution de tâches, de polyvalence/spécialisation et d’autonomie. Il a été implémenté avec des données empiriques issues d’entretiens individuels auprès de 14 salariés permanents non familiaux et de huit éleveurs (leurs employeurs), dans des exploitations d’élevage bovin laitier en Auvergne. Le cadre d’analyse est composé de 8 variables (19 modalités), 3 types de temporalités des changements et de 12 moteurs de changements liés à l’exploitation d’élevage, au collectif de travail et au salarié. Une représentation graphique du cadre d’analyse est proposée en exposant les articulations entre ses composants. Nos résultats montrent que le cadre d’analyse proposé est pertinent pour analyser le travail des salariés en prenant en compte la dynamique d’évolution temporelle. Cinq grands types de trajectoires d’évolution du travail des salariés ont été identifiés, à partir de la combinaison des 8 variables descriptives de l’évolution des tâches attribuées, de la tendance vers la polyvalence vs. la spécialisation et de l’évolution du niveau d’autonomie. Ces trajectoires identifiées qualifient la place des salariés dans les collectifs de travail. Connaître les trajectoires du travail des salariés permettra aux éleveurs, aux salariés et aux conseillers de réfléchir à la carrière des salariés dans les exploitations, et ainsi aux moyens de les pérenniser. Les perspectives de ce travail sont de discuter ces résultats avec les éleveurs, les salariés et les conseillers, afin d’évaluer leur utilité dans un processus réflexif sur l’organisation du travail des salariés en élevage. / In France, hiring employees in agriculture has become more common during the last forty years, especially non-familiar permanent employees. The progress of employees is related to strong structural transformations in agriculture, such as the enlargement of farms and the decrease of family workforce. Decreasing employees’ turnover is a challenge for farms’ sustainability. Thereby, our hypothesis is that take into account the role of employees in farm teamwork and understanding changes over time is a fundamental condition to identify ways to support farmers and employees to face this challenge. The aim of this thesis is to build a framework which associates both the approach to the work in livestock farms and the career development of employees to analyze how their works evolve. For this reason, the concept of human resources management has been used, in order to bring valuable contributions concerning work planning and career development inside organisations.The framework was built with the concepts of tasks assignment, versatility, specialization and autonomy. It was implemented with and empirical data from individual interview with 14 non-familiar permanent employees and 8 farmers (their employers), on dairy farms in Auvergne, a center region of France. The framework is composed by 8 variables, 19 categories, 3 rhythm of changes and 12 drivers of changes related to the farm, the farm teamwork and the employee. A conceptual representation of framework was built by linking its content. Results show that our framework is pertinent to analyze the evolutions on employees’ work from a dynamic perspective. Five pathways were identified based on eight variables that describe the evolution of task assignment, the trend toward versatility vs. specialization, and the evolution of autonomy. These pathways qualify the role of employees in farm teamwork. They could be useful for farmers, employees and agricultural advisors to plan employees’ career, thus to keep employees in farms. The longer-term goal is to discuss these results with farmers, employees and agricultural advisors to validate the framework and to assess its usefulness for a reflexive process concerning employees work organization in livestock farms.

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