What is a Worker? The Role of Sharecroppers in Contemporary Class Structure

Wells, Miriam J.

doi:10.1177/003232928401300305

Cited by 35 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…St Martin (2007) argues that the sharing of surpluses in New England commercial fisheries according to the local ‘broken lay’ and ‘clear lay’ share systems means that fish are ‘shared’, fishers are not exploited by fishing boat owners, and the fishery is therefore non‐capitalist. The debate that St Martin has initiated about the fishing share system echoes long‐running debates within agrarian political economy on whether sharecropping in agriculture is compatible with capitalism (Wells 1984; Byres 2006). Here, I more specifically describe the Scottish share system and a framework for analysing these questions that draws on analyses of labour in agrarian political economy and sharecropping.…”

Section: Methods For Analysing Labour Relations In Fisheriesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The analysis of the role of labour, its exploitation and the distribution of surpluses in the fishing industry is complex. As in sharecropping, the distinction between ‘owners’ and ‘workers’ is not always obvious (Pearce 1983; Wells 1984). On the one hand, many fishing boats are owner‐operated and crewed by kin who may also have a stake in ownership (see Marks 2012).…”

Section: Methods For Analysing Labour Relations In Fisheriesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…On the other hand, where substantial distinctions between owners and crew do exist, a social and historical identification as ‘fishermen’ and a share‐based distribution of surplus promote a unity of interest that may obscure exploitative relationships (Lummis 1985). Thus, as Wells (1984) demonstrated in sharecropping, clarity on the framework of analysis and an investigation into the material relations of production is critically important when analysing the often irregular employment relations that are a feature of the fishing industry.…”

Section: Methods For Analysing Labour Relations In Fisheriesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In agrarian contexts, sharecropping can be a method for maximizing surplus appropriation by owners (Byres 1983, 2006). Wells demonstrates that the sharecropping system introduced in the California strawberry industry in the 1960s functioned as ‘a new means of controlling and utilizing labor: it is a mechanism of political domination and surplus value extraction’ (1984, 313). Much like the piece‐wage that Marx describes, the fishing share system can also function as a perfectly reasonable ‘mechanism designed to prevent shirking among crew’ (McConnell and Price 2006, 306: for sharecropping, see Pearce 1983).…”

Section: How Crew Experienced the Scottish Share Systemmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Fisheries researchers have also not generally drawn upon the rich political economy of agrarian sharecropping in their analyses (cf. Byres 1983, 2006; Wells 1984; Bernstein 2010). Careful and contextualized ethnographic examinations of fishing share systems are critical to understanding how crew experience them, the maintenance of livelihoods in fisheries, and the ability of boat owners to invest in capital improvements to their boats and gear, or to invest in multiple fishing boats, or to introduce migrant waged labour and more (or less) labour‐intensive fishing techniques.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 4 more Smart Citations

Sharing or Appropriation? Share Systems, Class and Commodity Relations in Scottish Fisheries

Howard¹

2012

Journal of Agrarian Change

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Fishing share systems that distribute ‘fishing surplus’ among crew are widespread in global fisheries. One recent analysis identifies the New England ‘lay’ share system as a form of ‘non‐capitalism’ because of the way that surpluses are shared (St Martin 2007). Through ethnographic, historical and economic analysis of Scottish commercial nephrops trawler fisheries, this paper demonstrates that fishing share systems are adaptable to the exploitation of labour. While share systems seem to have their origins in shared ownership of fishing boats and gear, it is the present lack of this link in Scotland that has created the conditions for labour itself to become a commodity and share systems to function as a variable and casual wage. This paper argues that the dependence of the fishery on commodity production and its reliance on labour as a commodity makes it fully capitalist, even in the presence of a share system, and explores the social and ecological consequences of the development of these more conventionally capitalist class relations.

show abstract

Section: Methods For Analysing Labour Relations In Fisheriesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methods For Analysing Labour Relations In Fisheriesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methods For Analysing Labour Relations In Fisheriesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: How Crew Experienced the Scottish Share Systemmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Sharing or Appropriation? Share Systems, Class and Commodity Relations in Scottish Fisheries

Howard¹

2012

Journal of Agrarian Change

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

Fecal free: Biology and authority in industrialized Midwestern pork production

Rich

2007

Agric Hum Values

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Ethnographically, ''fecal free'' is a lexical marker that invokes a form of industrialized swine husbandry used in large-scale confinement hog production. Using participant observation and interview research with Illinois contract hog producers, I explore the basis of this husbandry in the biological fragility of confinement hogs. Rather than biology being a simplistic ''state of nature,'' as it was in early neo-Marxist and populist studies of the 1970s, the frailty of confinement hogs suggests that industrial hog biology is a socially constructed state that justifies the use of contract-based hog production units and their coordination with animal processors. The frailty of confinement hogs results from their genetic characteristics, from the conditions in which they are raised, and from a production rationality that equates animal health with production efficiency. I detail the multiple-site methods, confinement technologies, and contract-based production organization required to raise biologically fragile hogs. And I link hog biology directly to the unequal contract-based relations between actors in industrial pork networks. My study emphasizes the relevance of ethnographic analyses within a political economy of agriculture by describing specific relations of inequalities in local and regional production units and distribution networks that form the building blocks of larger global agro-food systems.

show abstract

A Tale of Two “Unorganizables”

Isler

2007

Qual Sociol

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

How should we define "organizability?" I identify here four factors that contribute to a group's organizability: organizers' expectations, labor market structures, employers' actions, and workers' union sentiments. I briefly discuss how the first three factors correspond with workers' union sentiments in comparing two divergent occupations: teaching assistants (TAs) and web designers. Workers must choose between conflicting identities in constructing themselves as "organizable" workers. While TAs ultimately framed their identities primarily as employees, web designers still consider themselves unorganizable. I explore similarities and differences between these cases and propose some steps union organizers and web designers could take in unionizing.

show abstract

What is a Worker? The Role of Sharecroppers in Contemporary Class Structure

Cited by 35 publications

References 0 publications

Sharing or Appropriation? Share Systems, Class and Commodity Relations in Scottish Fisheries

Sharing or Appropriation? Share Systems, Class and Commodity Relations in Scottish Fisheries

Fecal free: Biology and authority in industrialized Midwestern pork production

A Tale of Two “Unorganizables”

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About