“I do not understand how I became a farmer”: The small-peasant path to family farm enterprise in post-socialist rural Hungary

Abstract

Family farm enterprises emerged in the transition to capitalism following the reprivatization and decollectivization of agriculture in Hungary. This paper explores the generative processes of capital accumulation. It focuses on the intergenerational transfer as well as the life time generation of material and immaterial resources that were mobilized for the creation of the family farm enterprise. The life stories of six family members belonging to three generations of a successful enterprise of low peasant origin were selected from fieldwork conducted between 2000 and 2007 exploring the specificities of the genesis of farms with small peasant roots. Immaterial capital assets were the most important for the expanded reproduction of the farm, while reprivatized land had mostly symbolic importance. The farm relied on traditional peasant cultural heritage, such as striving for autonomy, self-sacrificing work mentality and traditional forms of bonding social capital, in the form of kin and local community reciprocal work relations. Meanwhile, the farm needed nontraditional cultural capital, such as entrepreneurial mentality and bridging social capital to find suitable markets for the products. These later emerged through education, by learning from experience, establishing trust relationships and with the help of mentors.