Sinem Kavak

Struggling for Survival in the Village: New Rurality and Patterns of Rural Restructuring in Response to Agricultural Liberalization in Turkey Sinem Kavak

This study is on the impacts of neoliberalization of tobacco production and market on the rural households and the attempts of survival and patterns of restructuring in tobacco livelihoods. The research reveals two major patterns. Primarily, agricultural production does not yield sufficient income for the survival and recreation of the peasant household in tobacco villages which necessitates integration of off-farm income sources to the household budget. The result is either permanent migration- which is also troublesome for the peasants- or income diversification through pluriactivity, off-farm diversification, seasonal migration, and circular migration. Thus a constant movement of peasants between rural and urban areas takes place indicating a new type of rurality by undermining the conceptual relevance of dualistic terms such as ?rural? and ?urban?, ?worker? and ?peasant.? Secondly the study reveals that inequality and poverty increases in the rural areas due to diversified diversification sites of the peasants which results in dispossession and reallocation of productive assets in rural Turkey.