Peasant cultures of the twenty‐first century1

Bibliographic Data

ID7094071
AuthorsPartha Chatterjee (0000-0002-8248-893X)
Year2008
Volume9
Issue1
Pages116-126
Publication date2008-03-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueInter-Asia Cultural Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1464-9373 • E-ISSN: 1469-8447
PublisherRoutledge (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/14649370701789732
OpenAlexW2128711764
LanguageEN
Citations received13

In the last quarter of a century there has been a fundamental change in the historical situation of post‐coloniality. The new conditions under which global flows of capital, commodities, information and people are now regulated have created both new opportunities and new obstacles for post‐colonial countries. The old idea of a Third World, sharing a common history of colonial oppression and backwardness, is no longer as persuasive as it was in the 1960s. The phenomenal growth of China and India in recent years has set in motion a process of social change that, in its scale and speed, is unprecedented in human history. I will argue that the forms of capitalist industrial growth in the twenty‐first century may, in large agrarian countries like China, India and the countries of South‐east Asia, make room for the preservation of peasant production and peasant cultures, but under completely altered conditions. The analysis of these emergent forms of postcolonial capitalism requires new conceptual work. Notes 1. Keynote address to the Inter‐Asia Cultural Studies Conference, University of Shanghai, June 15, 2007. The author is grateful to Dipesh Chakrabarty, Kuan‐Hsing Chen, Ayca Cubukcu, Hilmar Farid, Sun Ge, Anjan Ghosh, Chua Beng Huat, Soyoung Kim, Ashish Rajadhyaksha, Kalyan Sanyal, Asok Sen and conference participants for their comments

Archaeology · Peasant · Agriculture, Land Use, Rural Development · Anthropological Studies and Insights · History · Political Economy and Marxism

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