Peasantry Is Neither Created Nor Destroyed, It Can Only Be Transformed. Agrarian Discourses in The "Delta de l’Ebre and the Albufera de València"

Abstract

The following pages summarize the analysis of agrarian and environmental discourses and social representations in the Ebro Delta and the Albufera of Valencia. The first part of the article tries to synthesize in a theoretical way the evolution and perspectives of family agriculture. We intend to analyze the essential changes that have taken place in agriculture and have made it survive, despite the theoretical prognosis that announced the end of the familiar agriculture. The second part addresses the methodological question of our research. We have conducted 58 interviews and two discussion groups in which different social profiles have participated. The analysis of social discourses was complemented by the exploitation of data from agrarian censuses, as well as from databases related to the rice market. The conclusions summarize how the discourses of the peasantry point out the impossibility of shying away from the subalternity of agricultural activity that has been ostracized by economic development and bound to be polluting if it wants to be economically viable.