This monograph analyzes the developments in rural life in detail and at the same time places them in a wider context, exploring the strengths and weaknesses of theoretical writings on modern agriculture. What is revealed is a profound transformation in the rationality of farming, one which touches every aspect of the lives of rural people.

First published in 2004. The river Orcia flows westwards out of a majestic valley in central Italy, cuts a ravine through the northern flanks of Monte Amiata, and descends through rolling hills to the coastal plain, the Maremma. On its upper reaches, a thousand years ago, the first farms regulated by the mezzadria contract were created, a share-cropping system which established a stable farm population in the countryside, with half the produce going to an urban landlord class. There were s...

Concern about our food system is growing, from the costs of industrial farming to the dominant role of supermarkets and recurring scandals about the origins and content of what we eat.Food for Change documents the way alternative food movements respond to these concerns by trying to create more closed economic circuits within which people know where, how, and by whom their food is produced.Jeff Pratt, Peter Luetchford and other contributors explore the key political and eco...

YOUR CALL TO CTHULHU IS IMPORTANT TO US. PLEASE HOLD.Red tape. Catch-22s. Circular chains of command. Whether you're a customer or co-worker, bureaucracies drive us all insane. Even management is just a cog in a vast machine. Information, items, and even people get lost in the system, never gone but never found. No one seems to notice the insanity surrounding them... or if they do, they keep it to themselves. After all, those who notice and call attention to it ten...