Course Code and Title: SOS 744-Comparative Theories of Rural Transformation

Course Type: Elective
Course Level: Ph.D.
Year and Semester: Autumn/Spring
Course Length: One semester
Prerequisite(s): None
Language of Instruction: Turkish
Course Credits: 3 0 3
ECTS Credits: 10
Lecturer: Dr. Abdulkerim Sönmez
Course Contents: The course is organized in three parts. The first examines classical theories of rural transformation. This comprises theoretical issues raised by Marx, Lenin, Kautsky and Chayanov concerning the peasantry, peasant economy and their transformation in the process of capitalist development. Building on this examination, the second part concentrates on the principal theoretical perspectives and debates on the persistence of peasantry and simple commodity production within advanced capitalist economies and recuperation of capitalist and simple commodity production in the former state socialist societies. The third part deals with the Turkish debate on forms and paths of rural tarnsformation, consolidation and/or destabilization of petty/simple commodity production in Turkish agriculture.
Course Objectives: On completion of this course, the students develop their grasp of the theoretical approaches and issues concerning the transformation of rural structures and the present state of affairs in rural sociology to a level which enable them to design a research project leading to PhD.
Teaching Method: Lectures and classroom discussions.  
Assessment Method: Written exam (60 %), assignment (40 %).
Reading List:
Aydın, Zülküf.  (1987) “Turkish Agrarian Debate: New Arguments and Old Scores” New        Perspectives on Turkey, 1: 81-108.
Banaji, Jairus. (1980) “Summary of Selected Parts of Kautsky’s The Agrarian Question” in    The RuralSociology of the Advanced Societies: Critical Perspectives, (eds. Frederic H. Buttel and          Howard Newby) Montclair, N. J. and London; Allenheld, Osmun and Croom    Helm.
Bennholdt-Thomsen, Veronika. (1982) “Subsistence Production and Extended          Reproduction: A Contribution to the Discussion About Modes of Production.” The            Journal of Peasant Studies, 9 (4): 241-254.
Chayanov, V. A. (1966) The Theory of Peasant Economy,(eds. Daniel Thorner, Basile         Kerblay and R. E. F. Smith) Homewood, Illinois: Richard D. Irwin, Inc.
Chevalier, Jacques M. (1983) “There is Nothing Simple About Simple Commodity       Production” The Journal of Peasant Studies, 10 (4): 153-186.
Long, Norman., van der Ploeg, Jan Douwe., Curtin, Chris and Box, Loux (eds.) (1986)          The Commoditization Debate: Labour Process, Strategy and Social Network,       Wageningen: Agricultural University.
Friedmann, Harriet (1986) “Family Enterprise in Agriculture: Structural Limits and      Political Possibilities” in Agriculture: People and Policies, (eds. Graham Cox, Philip         Lowe and Michael Winter. London: Allen and Unwin.
Sönmez, Abdulkerim. (1993) Peasant Household Survival Strategies: Rural      Transformation in the Hearthland of Turkey’s Hazelnut Production Belt,       Unpublished PhD Thesis, Durham: The University of Durham.
Stirling, Paul (ed.). (1990) Culture and Economy. Changes in Turkish Villages, Cambridgeshire: The Eoten Press.
Tökin, İsmail Husrev. (1990 [1934], Türkiye Köy İktisadiyatı, İstanbul: İletişim Yayınları.