Pluriactivity, Identity of Farming and Their Relation to the Question of Class Location of Farming Households

Abstract

This paper is a methodological one, addressing the issue of how to deal with questions of identity, of farming, and its relation to the class locations of households engaged in farming and off-farm employment concurrently, which is usually called “pluriactivity”. The paper first examines and assesses why and how this problem arises out of different abstract conceptions of class, the social-class-identities of productive activities, the occupational identities of individuals and how the household boundaries are drawn in empirical research. Next, the paper makes suggestions for how to overcome these problems by paying attention to the problem of emergence, that is, how to describe and decide the very unity and identity that several income generating activities and forms of employment bring about concerning the class location of individuals and households. The leading argument of this essay is that the same or similar types of activities or types of employment derive their identity not from within themselves as separate entities but from the larger scheme of material, social or cultural objectives which the individuals and households, acting on the principle of “we-intentionality”, try to achieve by using their labour and resources as instruments.