Understanding the class position of family owned small scale agricultural production units, which constitute a common feature of the rural context in the later capitalized countries, have been one of the major discussion points in the Marxist literature. The continual existence of such a form of production organization with significant non-capitalist features under the enlarging capitalist organization of production despite the initial assumptions of Marxist analysis that it was a transitory form which will soon differentiate between proletariat and bourgeoisie have prompted a number if attempts at explaining the survival of this category. These debates have strongly influenced the analyses in the field of rural sociology from 1960s onwards, providing the conceptual tools for sociological analysis of rural relations of production. This thesis engages in an attempt of re-appraising the theoretical debates within Marxist analysis of petty agricultural production organization together with considering the recent transnational reorganization of agricultural production. The neo-liberal retraction of state as a regulating force and loosening the protectionist policies has lead to the rise of the power of Trans-National Corporations (TNCs) in the field of agriculture in the past couple of decades. Contractual farming is defined as a major form of direct relationship TNCs establish with petty agricultural producers to exercise their determining power over the organization of agricultural production. Together with a case study of contractual farming, the thesis discusses how could we define the class positions of this segment and whether their relationship with TNCs have a significant affect over our definitions.

Estudo da evolução estética e política na obra de John Silas Reed (1897-1920) a partir de, fundamentalmente, duas de suas obras: seu primeiro livro, Insurgent Mexico (México Insurgente 1914) e seu último livro publicado em vida, Ten Days that Shook the World (Dez dias que abalaram o mundo 1919). A partir da crítica materialista-dialética a dissertação aborda o percurso de John Reed e procura demonstrar, numa leitura comparada entre as duas obras, como a transformação da visão política de seu autor se expressa na transformação estética de suas obras. Também se procura fazer uma leitura crítica da recepção de John Reed e a interpretação de sua obra nas décadas posteriores à sua morte / A study regarding the aesthetical and political development within the work of John Silar Reed (1897-1920) based upon, fundamentally, two of his books: his first one, Insurgent Mexico (1914), and the last one published in his lifetime, Ten Days that Shook the World (1919). From the dialetical-materialistic standpoint, the study approaches John Reeds life and tries to demonstrate, through a compared Reading between these two books, how the transformation in the authors political view is related to the aesthetical transformation in his writing and literary composition. John Reed works reception and criticism is also critically regarded

Estudo da evolução estética e política na obra de John Silas Reed (1897-1920) a partir de, fundamentalmente, duas de suas obras: seu primeiro livro, Insurgent Mexico (México Insurgente 1914) e seu último livro publicado em vida, Ten Days that Shook the World (Dez dias que abalaram o mundo 1919). A partir da crítica materialista-dialética a dissertação aborda o percurso de John Reed e procura demonstrar, numa leitura comparada entre as duas obras, como a transformação da visão política de seu autor se expressa na transformação estética de suas obras. Também se procura fazer uma leitura crítica da recepção de John Reed e a interpretação de sua obra nas décadas posteriores à sua morte / A study regarding the aesthetical and political development within the work of John Silar Reed (1897-1920) based upon, fundamentally, two of his books: his first one, Insurgent Mexico (1914), and the last one published in his lifetime, Ten Days that Shook the World (1919). From the dialetical-materialistic standpoint, the study approaches John Reeds life and tries to demonstrate, through a compared Reading between these two books, how the transformation in the authors political view is related to the aesthetical transformation in his writing and literary composition. John Reed works reception and criticism is also critically regarded