Beyond the agricultural “suffering slot
Structural agency in U.S. farm work
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 7640931 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Judith A Cook (0000-0001-9358-0371, Sociology & Anthropology, International Studies and International Business Fairfield University Connecticut Fairfield USA, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2023 |
| Volume | 44 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 69-80 |
| Publication date | 2023-12-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Anthropology of Work Review (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0883-024X • E-ISSN: 1548-1417 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/awr.12261 |
| OpenAlex | W4387331319 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 5 |
| References cited | 28 |
Ethnographic research on Connecticut farms reveals that workers in the agricultural sector experience a wide range of working and living conditions. While legal precarity, poverty, and oppressive social dynamics confine all farmworkers to positions of structural vulnerability, some acquire a kind of “structural agency” that enables them to exert influence over their conditions of work in ways that are meaningful to their everyday experiences. Several key variables are at play in producing structural vulnerability and structural agency, including agricultural subsector, farm size, type of work, immigration status of workers, workplace interpersonal dynamics, racial and ethnic hierarchies, individual farm cultures, and local and state approaches to im/migration and labor policy enforcement. Ethnography of agricultural labor must take seriously the diversity of farm work experiences and incorporate the perspectives of individuals at multiple levels of farm hierarchies. A new concept linked to structural vulnerability, “structural agency,” can facilitate analyses of how people in broader contexts of marginalization work toward positive outcomes for themselves and others
Agriculture · Economic growth · Economics · Ethnography · Geography · Livelihood · Political science · Poverty · Precarity · Social science · Sociology · Structural violence · Structure and agency · Agriculture and Farm Safety · Animal Disease Management and Epidemiology · Engineering · Gender Studies · Global trade, sustainability, and social impact
They Leave Their Kidneys in the Fields
Life on the Other Border
Domestica
Colonial Migrants at the Heart of Empire
Working in the shade
Hidden Farmworker Labor Camps in North Carolina
Navigating legality
The Illegal and the Dead
Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies
Exit, voice, constrained loyalty, and entrapment
The work that brokers do
The Romance of Resistance
Tomatero Circuit of Southern Appalachia-South Florida
Immigrant Dreams
Structural Vulnerability and Hierarchies of Ethnicity and Citizenship on the Farm
Ethnicity, Well-Being, and the Organization of Labor among Shade Tobacco Workers
Structural Vulnerability and Health
| Citations per year | 2.5 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2024 - 2025 (2) |
| Highly cited | No |