Agrarian Modernity—Coda

Abstract

Around the globe, peasants, migrants, companies, and governments, even the land itself, are doing things that agrarian studies scholars are not anticipating. The changes in the countryside seem increasingly dramatic, challenging Marxist vocabulary and analysis. What is desirable, we suggest, is to complement the classical agrarian question with equally fundamental questions that spring from the side of modernity that Marxism tends to eschew: the episteme of human subjectivity, recognition, and government. A fuller and more satisfactory explanation of agrarian change will arise from a bi-focal investigation of capitalism and liberalism, which together shape land struggles. Thus, in addition to questions of political economy—Who owns what? Who does what? Who gets what? And what do they do with it?—we must integrate fundamental questions of humanism, visibility, and government. In other words: Who are you? Who sees you? Who governs you? And how do they do it?