Family Production and the Global Market: Rural Industrial Growth in Greece

Abstract

Rural areas in southern Europe generally, and in Greece in particular, have undergone rapid economic growth and structural transformation over the last three decades. The emergence of family‐owned and run businesses in agriculture, manufacturing and tourism was the common element to this phenomenon. However, the systematic investigation of change in the countryside was hampered by the perpetuation of an artificial dichotomy between economic geographers and political economists. This paper aspires to address that gap in the literature by advocating the development of an integrated approach to the study of social and economic transformation in the countryside. In so doing, we focus upon a case of rural industrialization led by garment‐manufacturing, an industry at the vanguard of globalization throughout the post‐war era. We argue that the characteristics of this industry are formed not only by the changes in the global market‐place but also by institutions deeply embedded in the traditional socio‐economic milieu.