Feeling Rich on an Empty Stomach: Agrarian Crisis and Rural Consumption Choices

Since liberalization, urban migration in India has increased in quantity, but also changed in quality, with permanent marriage migration and temporary, circular employment migration rising, even as permanent economic migration remains stagnant. This chapter understands internal migration in India to be a reordering of productive and reproductive labor that signifies a deep transformation of society. The chapter argues that this transformation is a response to three overlapping crises: an agrarian crisis, an employment crisis, and a crisis of social reproduction. These are not crises for capitalist accumulation, which they enable. Rather, they make it impossible for a majority of Indians to achieve stable, rooted livelihoods.

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Agriculture in an Industrial Economy: The Agrarian Crisis. Troy J. Cauley

Journal of Political Economy ◽

10.1086/257951 ◽

1957 ◽

Vol 65 (4) ◽

pp. 366-367

Author(s):

Zvi Griliches

Keyword(s):

Industrial Economy ◽

Agrarian Crisis

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Challenging the Status Quo through Social Influence: Changes in Sustainable Consumption through the Influence of Social Networks

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su13105513 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (10) ◽

pp. 5513

Author(s):

Iljana Schubert ◽

Judith I. M. de Groot ◽

Adrian C. Newton

Keyword(s):

Social Networks ◽

Social Network ◽

Social Influence ◽

Food Consumption ◽

Status Quo ◽

Injunctive Norms ◽

Sustainable Food ◽

Consumption Choices ◽

The Status ◽

Consumption Practices

This study examines the influence of social network members (versus strangers) on sustainable food consumption choices to investigate how social influence can challenge the status quo in unsustainable consumption practices. We hypothesized that changes to individual consumption practices could be achieved by revealing ‘invisible’ descriptive and injunctive social norms. We further hypothesized that it matters who reveals these norms, meaning that social network members expressing their norms will have a stronger influence on other’s consumption choices than if these norms are expressed by strangers. We tested these hypotheses in a field experiment (N = 134), where participants discussed previous sustainable food consumption (revealing descriptive norms) and its importance (revealing injunctive norms) with either a stranger or social network member. We measured actual sustainable food consumption through the extent to which participants chose organic over non-organic consumables during the debrief. Findings showed that revealed injunctive norms significantly influenced food consumption, more so than revealed descriptive norms. We also found that this influence was stronger for social network members compared to strangers. Implications and further research directions in relation to how social networks can be used to evoke sustainable social change are discussed.

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