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Thesis advisor: Thibaud Marcesse / This is a case study of the 2020-21 Farmers’ Movement in India which brought an alliance among farmers who belong to historically different social groups by their social status, land ownership, and amount of land owned. It also brought together farmers and laborers as a united front, and for the first time, an alliance of urban-based individuals and civil society groups, workers, students, and opposition political parties came together to support the farmers and their cause. How do people of different social groups and ethnicities construct common interests and act collectively? I review the literature on the structural and historical theories of peasants’ uprisings, the collective action theory, and the political opportunity structure to explain why the movement emerged and how it emerged. I argue that the movement emerged as a consequence of economic grievances and the potential for mobilization which is determined by the political opportunity structure. Farmers feared that the Farm Laws that were intended to liberalize agricultural marketing by facilitating intrastate trade, contract farming, and direct marketing would lead to the collapse of the state government-regulated marketplaces and eventually to the collapse of the minimum support price system. The discontentment of farmers, farmers’ unions, and opposition parties provided the political opportunity structure for the movement. I argue that economic grievances and political opportunity structure are necessary conditions for the emergence of social movements, but they do not explain how people of different social groups and ethnicities construct common interests and act collectively. Communities converge on a common frame through the process of frame alignment. Therefore, framing is a necessary and sufficient condition for participation in a social movement. The process of frame alignment creates common interests and non-monetary selective incentives like solidary and purposive incentives which are necessary and sufficient conditions for collective action. / Thesis (MA) — Boston College, 2024. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Political Science.

The National Farmers Federation (NFF) is a peak producer organisation. Its executive has purported to represent all Australian farmers with a unified voice. This thesis argues that primary producers are too heterogeneous a group ever to have developed much solidarity in articulation of or action for the furtherance of common interests and that this fact is reflected in the NFF. Heterogeneity results from farm size, product specialisation, level of technology adopted, geographical location and special needs. Successive farm organisations and the National Party (and predecessors) have attempted to encompass these differences since the 1890s. Producer differences either have led to secession or to unification when political and economic circumstances have warranted it. This diversity has prevented farm groups becoming united. The lack of unity at first prevented all farmers joining in one organisation, and when they did, they kept on splitting up. The charisma of Ian McLachlan allowed farmers to get together, but the diversity meant that the getting together benefited some not only without the others, but sometimes at the expense of others. This thesis explores the heterogeneity of the agricultural sector within the political and economic context of Australian agriculture and discusses its consequences, in the constant re-forming of farm organisations and the institutional framework of the NFF in the context of politicisation of agricultural interest groups. This thesis concludes that producer differences in terms of size and product specialisation determine how effectively they are represented. Corporate farmers have fared much better than family and family-plus farmers, who would probably be better represented by a small business organisation, with which they have more in common, rather than a farming organisation.

Among the changes farm families have faced during the past two decades has been the dramatic increase in off-farm employment. Historically, women's involvement has been essential to the functioning of the family farm, and as off-farm income has increased in importance, increasing numbers of farm women have joined the ranks of those employed in off farm jobs. Using phone survey data collected during the 1988-89 year, the objectives of this study were (1) to identify the variables which may predict farm wives' off-farm employment status, and the resulting direct and indirect effects of their employment status on their satisfaction with farming as a way of life, and (2) to assess the direction and strength of the relationships. Guided by the Deacon and Firebaugh (1988) family systems framework, path analysis was used to estimate the relationships among the variables. The path model was estimated and examined using LISREL 8 on the covariance matrix. A low chi-square and high goodness-of-fit index suggested that no significant difference existed between the observed covariance matrix and the model-implied matrix; however, many of the parameters in the model had low values. Because the model did not explain the ultimate variable, satisfaction with farming as a way of life, well, several explanations were explored. None of the model modifications estimated provided a better fit to the data, nor did they result in better path coefficients. However, splitting the sample into large and small farm subsamples answered some important questions. When small (net farm income of $10,000 or less) and large farm samples were examined, results revealed significant differences on a number of variables and correlations. An analysis of the path model for small farms produced poor R�� values, but the R�� for wife's off-farm employment level was slightly improved over the initial model with the full sample. The analysis of large farms indicated that the model provided better explanatory power with large farms than with either the small farm or full sample when focusing on the ultimate variable, satisfaction with farming as a way of life. / Graduation date: 1996

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 2008. / Title from first page of PDF file (viewed Aug. 8, 2008). Available via ProQuest Digital Dissertations. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 231-236).