The labour process in agriculture: Changes in maize farming in South Africa during the 1970s

Abstract

Based on a field study of 61 farms in the Western Transvaal, the paper describes a number of important changes in the labour process that took place on South African maize farms in the 1970's with the adoption of new technology. The causes of these changes and the consequences, chiefly for the level and composition of employment and for control of the labour process, are investigated. Several substantive differences between the labour process in agriculture and in secondary industry are discussed.