Class, Family, Income and Wealth: Farming and Non-Farming Landowners in the Occupational and Social Class Orders in Turkey

Abstract

This study presents the trajectory of changes in land ownership and land use and of the differences observed since the mid-1990s in the average amount of annual disposable income (and of wealth) within and between farming and non-farming landowning households in Turkey. The study makes use of the data sets of the Household Budget Surveys conducted by the Turkish Institute of Statistics (TUIK) in 1994, 2002, 2005, 2010, 2015 and 2017. The data sets have been analysed in connection with four main themes: (i) the patterns of structural change in landownership and land use, (ii) the patterns of structural change in the locations of farming and non-farming landowners in the occupational and social class orders, (iii) the patterns of changes and the persistence of differences in the average amounts of annual disposable incomes and wealth within and between the social classes of farming and non-farming landowners and (iv) the effect of family type on the differences of income and wealth. The results indicate that Turkish agrarian structures have undergone significant structural changes in the last quarter of a century, and there are persisting and significant differences of income (and of wealth) at the national level as well as among farming and non-farming landowning households. However, the same kind of differences do not hold true for differences in the average amount of farm land owned. On the contrary, these differences have strong associations with family type among farming as well as non-farming households.