Relational Economies, Social Embeddedness and Valuing Labour in Agrarian Change: An Example from the Developing World

Abstract

A relatively neglected area of research on agrarian and economic change is the role of indigenous concepts of labour value in the transition from subsistence to market production. In West New Britain Province, Papua New Guinea, the presence of a migrant population on an oil palm land settlement scheme (LSS) in close proximity to village‐based oil palm growers, provided an opportunity to examine changing notions of labour value through the lens of smallholder productivity. Voluntary settlers on the LSS are experiencing population pressure and are highly dependent on oil palm for their livelihoods. In contrast, customary landowners in village settings produce oil palm in a situation of relative land abundance. By examining differences in how these two groups practise and value commodity production, the paper makes four key points. First, concepts of labour value are not static and involve struggles over how labour value is defined. Second, the transition to market‐based notions of labour value can undermine labour's social value with a consequent weakening of social relationships within and between families. Third, Theories of Value developed in western contexts and used to frame development policies and projects in the developing world are often inappropriate and even harmful to the welfare of communities that have different registers of value. Fourth, in response to Point 3, and following Rigg (2007), there is a need for ‘theorising upwards’ using empirical data from the developing world to inform theory rather than applying to the developing world models of sociality and economy developed in western contexts.

Women's and Men's Work: The Production and Marketing of Fresh Food and Export Crops in Papua New Guinea

“…Growers are now much more dependent on their own labour and that of their immediate families for coffee production. We documented a similar situation in oil palm (Curry and Koczberski 2012;Koczberski and Curry 2016).…”

A bridge too far? The influence of socio-cultural values on the adaptation responses of smallholders to a devastating pest outbreak in cocoa

“…Cocoa farmers, like most rural Papua New Guineans and Melanesians more broadly, also attach much importance to activities that are not directly related to earning cash income, but which depend on cash and are central to maintaining social and kinship networks and community cohesiveness (Curry and Koczberski, 2012;Curry et al, 2012a). Like elsewhere in PNG, indigenous exchange is central to social and cultural life and the capacity to engage in exchange is a key determinant of life quality.…”

Struggling or in transition: Small household growers and the coffee industry in Papua New Guinea

“…Yet the application of relational economics and social embbedness (as conceptual tools) towards the economic activity of Papua New Guineans is recent. Curry and Koczberski () have utilised relational concepts to analyse Indigenous perceptions of labour value among the oil palm smallholder growers of West New Britain Province. Their study of migrant settler oil palm producers and customary landowner producers highlight the dynamics of labour utilisation in a transitory socioeconomic and cultural landscape.…”