Village society and labour use / by Biplab Dasgupta... [et.al]

Based on data for 126 village studies, this monograph provides a typology of village socio-economic systems, and examines how far this typology provides a dynamic theory of rural labour utilization.

The study shows how, under prevailing socio-political conditions in most Third World countries, commercialization of agriculture would be likely to lead to concentration of land, a shift from family-based' to 'hired labour' based farming, withdrawal of a large proportion of the village population (particularly women and children) from the work force and increased proletarization of the peasantry. It also considers those village socio-economic and ecological factors which influence the pattern of labour utilization, e.g. the allocation of labour time between work in family farm, hired work, non-agricultural work, work outside the village, and non-work. A detailed survey of literature on labour utilization, covering many Asian and African countries, is included.