Changes in social structure and the role of the peasantry

Abstract

Modernization processes in rural areas not only lead to the separation of peasant (traditional) and rural, due to the deagrarization and changes of cultural and political patterns, but also to full integration of agriculture into the social division of labor. As a part of economy, agriculture, in a social sense, ceased to be linked exclusively to rural areas, which enables the distinction between sociology of agriculture and rural sociology. In this paper, the changes in class/strata structure of agriculture that took place during the last two decades in the Serbian society are described and explained. After that, an attempt was made to explain this new structure in the context of a broader structure of Serbian society and its reproduction, taking into the consideration the existing views (Lazic/Cvejic). The author especially emphasises his critical views on some disputable issues.