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The Cultural Logic of Work: Explaining Labour Deployment and Piece-Rate Contracts in Matar Taluka, Gujarat - Parts 1 and 2

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  • V. Gidwani

Abstract

This two-part essay seeks to explain why group-based and individual piecework arrangements have become the modal form of payment for a variety of agricultural tasks in central Gujarat, India. Part 1 of the essay reviews New Institutional Economics (NIE) and Marxist Political Economy (MPE) approaches to the labour process, and claims that while the 'efficiency' and 'disciplinary' considerations emphasized by NIE and MPE in their explanations of contractual change are important influences on the labour process, specific institutional outcomes depend heavily on the cultural realities of actors' practices. Part 2 challenges the epistemological assumptions of NIE and MPE narratives, specifically that agents with stable identities perform actions with fixed meanings. Instead, the recent surge in piecework employment must be viewed as part of an ongoing tussle between the dominant Lewa Patel caste and the subordinate Baraiya/Koli caste to alter their relative standings in the social order. Their unceasing attempts to reinvent their group identities have involved shifting understandings of 'work' - with direct implications for labour contracts. As a corrective to NIE and MPE, the essay proposes a semiotic approach to the labour process that bundles the notions of 'social regulation' and 'self-regulation' into the concept of 'work governmentality'.

Suggested Citation

  • V. Gidwani, 2001. "The Cultural Logic of Work: Explaining Labour Deployment and Piece-Rate Contracts in Matar Taluka, Gujarat - Parts 1 and 2," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 38(2), pages 57-108.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:jdevst:v:38:y:2001:i:2:p:57-108
    DOI: 10.1080/713601122
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. John Harriss, 2012. "South Asia," Chapters, in: James G. Carrier (ed.), A Handbook of Economic Anthropology, Second Edition, chapter 31, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    2. Wendy Olsen & Jamie Morgan, 2015. "The Entrapment of Unfree Labor," Journal of Developing Societies, , vol. 31(2), pages 184-203, June.
    3. Sukhpal Singh, 2021. "Nature and Dynamics of Farm Labour Work: A Case Study of Cotton in the Indian Punjab," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 64(2), pages 447-459, June.
    4. Sutti Ortiz & Susana Aparicio, 2006. "Management response to the demands of global fresh fruit markets: Rewarding harvesters with financial incentives," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 42(3), pages 446-468.

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