Abstract

FIGUEROA, Víctor Manuel. América Latina: descomposición y persistencia de lo campesino. Prob. Des [online]. 2005, vol.36, n.142, pp.27-50. ISSN 0301-7036.

The outlook for the campesino economy is recovering its place as a matter for economic and political debate within the framework of growing concerns about the problems of the Latin American farming sector. This study aims to contribute to that debate, and therefore tackles the following tasks: a) elucidate the concept of campesino and the economic relationship between this and the capitalist environment; b) define the trends aimed at the social transmutation of the campesino economy, and c) determine the role of neoliberal policies in the slippages in social structure in the countryside, in particular on the fragmentation and persistence of the campesino world.

Keywords : campesino; expanded over-population; decomposition of the campesino economy; absolute over-population; campesinization due to capitalist ruination.