A new theory of class locations in U.S. family farm agriculture and non-farm corporations

Abstract

Serious conceptual deficiencies in neo-Marxian theories of class locations were discussed in a review of major studies. The reliance of neo-Marxian sociologists of agriculture on these theories, particularly Wright's contradictory class locations, has led to questionable specifications of class locations within U.S. family farming. An alternative approach to the determination of class locations, based upon ‘fundamental interests in the mode of production’, produced a unified theory that could be consistently applied to all class locations throughout the capitalist social formation. The results of the application of the theory to occupational spaces within corporate capitalism were unique in that middle management was placed in its own class location. Middle management's fundamental interest in opposition to both capitalism and socialism distinguished it from all other occupational spaces. Full-time family farms were placed in a petit bourgeoisie class location, in contrast to previous studies that differentiated them into diverse classes on the basis of their involvement in commodity, financial, labor and farmland rental markets. It was argued that market relations between nonfarm capitalists and family farmers do not reflect the fundamental interests that determine differences in class locations. Implications of the class location of family farms for the analysis of sociopolitical activity and political organizing were briefly discussed.