Thesis--Wisconsin. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves [70]-74).

Inaug.-diss.--Rostock. / Lebenslauf. "Schrifttum": p. 62-64.

This thesis is an attempt to focus on the process by which a village society in Central Thailand, once predominated by chaonaa (peasants), has been transformed into one in which a large number of villagers are now khon-ngaan (wage-labourers). To comprehend this it is necessary to set it against the wider context of the particular path of development taken by Thailand as a whole, with emphasis on the roles of the agricultural sector and the state. Fieldwork was conducted in Theparaj village, Chachoengsao province. The village was established in the 1880s after Thailand had become integrated into the world economy. The early years of settlement witnessed the abolition of "slave" labour and the replacement of the traditional rights over persons with property rights over land as well as the increasing presence of the state in rural areas. In the ensuing years, up until about 1960, agricultural growth was based on the incorporation of new land into production with little change in technology and small peasant production predominated. In the finance and distribution of rice, merchants and moneylenders featured dominantly, profiting as a result of the peasants' growing indebtedness. The agrarian basis of production was greatly transformed from the 1960s onwards when more branches of capital began to enter agriculture on an increasing scale, with the aid of the state's policy to promote industrial investment. The agro-business of modern capital-intensive poultry-farming was introduced into the village while at about the same time, rice production also became more intensified with the adoption of double-cropping and the various ingredients of the "green revolution". The village economy has thus become more tightly linked than ever before into the international economic system with the dominating presence of multinational corporations. This has created new areas of accumulation in the village. A handful of merchants and moneylenders have turned themselves into capitalist poultry-farmers who operate with the use of wage labour. A few rice-farmers have also entered into the new business but on a much smaller scale and most need to form dependent ties with the larger poultry-farms. Rice-farmers have generally prospered after the adoption of double-cropping. The relatively better-off have benefited from the state's programmes of subsidy while the poorer farmers continue to rely on local merchants and moneylenders. The use of wage labour in rice-farming is now also predominant and exchange labour has disappeared. Although the majority of the village population are better off materially in absolute terms, benefits of recent developments have been disproportionately concentrated among the highly capital-intensive enterprises, particularly the larger pou1try-farms and to a lesser extent among the other already well-off households, and this has significantly increased income and wealth disparities in the village. Concommittantly, the very wealthy poultry-farmers (ex-merchants, moneylenders or millers who hitherto had remained largely outside the village political arena) have now asserted themselves politically and assumed a position of leadership within the village.

No description available.

Vietnam's economic renovation programme (doi moi) has ushered in an era of major social and economic transformation. Since 1986, when the reforms were initiated, rural development in Vietnam has assumed new meanings, new forms of implementation, and new directions of planning. Central planning policies, once the hallmark of this socialist society, have been progressively abandoned in favour of free markets and a liberal development philosophy. In agriculture, a series of economic and land reforms have officially reinstalled the family farm as the primary unit of production. The results have been generally positive. All macroeconomic indicators point to general growth and improved standards of living in much of rural Vietnam. Agricultural production has increased to the point that Vietnam is now one of the world's leading exporters of rice. Average incomes in urban and rural areas have improved. Poverty has declined in most of the country's population. At the regional level, however, research has shown that progress has been uneven. The gap in social and economic conditions is growing within and among regions. Poverty remains entrenched in disadvantaged sectors of the rural population. The growth of the market economy in Vietnam has been generally accompanied with a decline of state investment in rural areas. At the same time, the country's hierarchical political structure continues to favour top-down planning, offering little provision for local input in economic and political decisions. This has hampered the development in many ethnic minority farming communities in remote areas. This study addresses the consequences of commercialization and modernization of agriculture on ethnic minority farming communities in upland areas. It focuses on two case studies in the upland regions of North Vietnam: a Nung commune of villages in Lang Son province, near the Chinese border, and a Thai village in Son La province, near Laos. These communities have been deeply affected by the forces of commercialization in ways that are uniquely shaped by their geographical location within Vietnam. The general questions addressed by the study concern the transformation of village economies under market reform. They examine the changes in standards of living and quality of life as well as the constraints acting on the development of family farms. Importantly, they focus on the role of the state and local government in influencing the process of rural development. An ethnographical approach has been adopted—a multiple research strategy, based on multiple theories of agrarian change, a mix of qualitative and quantitative methods of data collection, and multiple interviewers. The objective has been to gather insider knowledge through participant observation and depth interviewing. The study presents the results of the empirical analysis of the data and their interpretation according to existing theories of agrarian change. It then refines some of those concepts in the light of the empirical data collected and presents new concepts and generalizations that shed light on the process of upland development in Vietnam and other reforming socialist economies of Asia. / Graduate

No description available.

Thesis (doctoral)--Université de Aix-Marseille I, 1982. / Includes bibliographical references (v. 2, p. [1207]-1334) and index.

No description available.

Based in part on the author's thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 215-226) and index.

Issued also as the author's inaugural dissertation, Bern, 1928. / "Bibliographie": p. [172]-176.