FRAGMENTED SOLIDARITY: COMMERCIAL FARMING AND RICE MARKETING IN AN EXPERIMENTAL JAPANESE VILLAGE

Abstract

The argument for the damaging effects of capitalist modes of production on traditional or indigenous communities is convincing, and has been upheld by scholars interested in development issues. Recent research, however, has called for a closer look at the problem. In this paper, a Japanese village that was created by the government for collective rice farming under a state-controlled distribution system is examined in an attempt to discern how a sudden shift to capitalist modes of production and largely uncontrolled marketing changed the social structure of the community. It is argued that the effects of such a shift may actually promote new unions and different kinds of solidarity, even when the overall impression indicates a decline in solidarity.

Citation

Wood, D.C. (2003), "FRAGMENTED SOLIDARITY: COMMERCIAL FARMING AND RICE MARKETING IN AN EXPERIMENTAL JAPANESE VILLAGE", Dannhaeuser, N. and Werner, C. (Ed.) Anthropological Perspectives on Economic Development and Integration (Research in Economic Anthropology, Vol. 22), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 145-167. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0190-1281(03)22005-9