The course provides an overview of the main concepts, developments and problems in agrarian and rural development. Students are familiarised with several cases that are explored in more depth in subsequent courses. The English version of the course is available under number C050-203. This general introduction focuses on the relationship between technological and socio-economic aspects of rural development.
Special attention is given to local-level farming.
This course concentrates on the characteristics of farming in industrialised capitalist societies. The main emphasis is given to the reproduction of family farming as a mixture of commodified and non-commodified relations of production. This course provides an introduction to the sociological analysis of agricultural policy-making and agricultural interest intermediation. It covers 'basic' theories and concepts of Political Sociology concerning power, interests, ideology, democracy and the State. J.D. van der Ploeg and professors from other European universities.