This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Clarke, S. Articles by Karelina, M. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

The Myth of the Urban Peasant

University of Warwick and Institute for Comparative Labour Relations Research, Moscow

Lena Varshavskaya

Institute for Comparative Labour Relations Research, Kemerovo

Sergei Alasheev

Institute for Comparative Labour Relations Research, Samara

Marina Karelina

Institute for Comparative Labour Relations Research, Samara

This paper explores, the `myth of the urban peasant', the widespread belief that urban Russian households are surviving the collapse of employment and money incomes by turning to subsistence agriculture. On the basis of the analysis of official and survey data the paper shows that although many urban households grow food in their garden plots, those with low money incomes are the least likely to do so, while subsistence production is a complement rather than an alternative to paid employment. Moreover, those who do grow their own food work long hours for very little return, spending no less of their money income on buying food than do those who grow nothing. The implication is that dacha use is a leisure activity of the better-off rather than a survival strategy of the poor. Regional data suggests that urban agricultural production persists in those regions in which commercial agriculture and monetised relations are least developed which, it is surmised, retain memories of past shortages

Work, Employment & Society, Vol. 14, No. 3, 481-499 (2000)
DOI: 10.1177/09500170022118536


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

				A. Smith and A. Stenning Beyond household economies: articulations and spaces of economic practice in postsocialism Progress in Human Geography, April 1, 2006; 30(2): 190 - 213. [Abstract] [PDF]