Agricultural workers have long been underrepresented in labour history. This volume aims to change this by bringing together a collection of studies on the largest group of the global work force. The contributions cover the period from the early modern to the present – a period when the emergence and consolidation of capitalism has transformed rural areas all over the globe. Three questions have guided the approach and the structure of this volume. First, how and why have peasant families managed to survive under conditions of advancing commercialisation and industrialisation? Second, why have coercive labour relations been so persistent in the agricultural sector and third, what was the role of states in the recruitment of agricultural workers? Contributors are: Elise van Nederveen Meerkerk, Josef Ehmer, Katherine Jellison, Juan Carmona, James Simpson, Sophie Elpers, Debojyoti Das, Lozaan Khumbah, Karl Heinz Arenz, Leida Fernandez-Prieto, Rachel Kurian, Rafael Marquese, Bruno Gabriel Witzel de Souza, Rogério Naques Faleiros, Alessandro Stanziani, Alexander Keese, Dina Bolokan, and Janina Puder.

‘This book makes an important contribution to the history of household labour relations in two contrasting societies. It deserves a wide readership.’ —Anne Booth, SOAS University of London, UK ‘By exploring how colonialism affected women’s work in the Dutch Empire this carefully researched book urges us to rethink the momentous implications of colonial exploitation on gender roles both in periphery and metropolis.’ —Ulbe Bosma, the Free University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands ‘In this exciting and original book, Elise van Nederveen Meerkerk exposes how colonial connections helped determine the status and position of women in both the Netherlands and Java. The effects of these connections continue to shape women’s lives in both colony and metropole today.’ —Jane Humphries, University of Oxford, UK Recent postcolonial studies have stressed the importance of the mutual influences of colonialism on both colony and metropole. This book studies such colonial entanglements and their effects by focusing on developments in household labour in the Dutch Empire in the period 1830-1940. The changing role of households’, and particularly women’s, economic activities in the Netherlands and Java, one of the most important Dutch colonies, forms an excellent case study to help understand the connections and disparities between colony and metropole. The author contends that colonial entanglements certainly existed, and influenced developments in women’s economic role to an extent, both in Java and the Netherlands. However, during the nineteenth century, more and more distinctions in the visions and policies towards Dutch working class and Javanese peasant households emerged. Accordingly, a more sophisticated framework is needed to explain how and why such connections were – both intentionally and unintentionally – severed over time.

This edited collection aims to examine the global-rural relationship of migration that shapes rural places. It does this by acknowledging that to understand the impact of the international migration-global nexus, it is essential to explore how it is experienced at a local level - in the context of this book, rural regions. Focusing on agribusiness and rural development, as well as the othering of international migrants and the shifting boundaries of belonging in rural spaces, the chapters in this book examine how globalisation, with migration being a constitutive feature, influences different rural contexts in the ‘Global North’ and the impact this has on migrant populations. Chapters demonstrate the harsh lived experiences/realities characterised by mental health issues and emotional labour for migrants, occupational health and safety issues in the workplace and experiences of exclusion and racism from ‘host’ communities. These chapters taken together identify a rural-migration nexus where the relationship between international migration and localised rural spaces are mutually constitutive.

Agriculture is one of the oldest and most global human enterprises, and as the world struggles with sustainable practices and policies, agricultural chemistry has a clear role to play. This book highlights the ways in which science in agriculture is helping to achieve global sustainability in the twenty- first century, and demonstrates that this science can and should be a leading contributor in discussions on environmental science and chemistry. The four drivers of this subject are presented, those being economic, environmental, regulatory and scientific, and help showcase agricultural chemistry as a dynamic subject that is contributing to this necessity of global sustainability in the twenty-first century. Features: Explains the necessary role of agricultural chemistry in the sustainability of the world in the 21st century Recognizes past practices and future potential, guided by global demand and the four drivers: economic, scientific, regulatory and environmental Presents a much needed multi-dimensional approach to the subject Demonstrates that agricultural chemistries can and should be leading contributors in discussion on environmental science and chemistry Highlights new products, processes, applications and developments in green chemistry, which demonstrates how agriculture is adapting in the new age

Cotton textile industries vanished from much of East Africa during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This book investigates the underlying causes of industrial arrest in the region through a series of in-depth case studies. Findings are considered in light of existing studies on comparatively more resilient textile centers elsewhere on the continent to derive insights into the determinants of differing industrial trajectories across sub-Saharan Africa. The author argues that scholars have placed undue weight on global forces as the primary drivers of industrial decline in the Global South. Rather, this book reveals how local factors – principally demographic, geographic, and institutional features – interacted with external forces to influence unique regional outcomes during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries as sub-Saharan African was increasingly integrated into global trade networks and European colonial empires.

By analyzing the cases present in this volume, the editors develop important steps towards a theory of social change that can adequately address the complex realities and intersectionality of identity (race, gender, class, sexuality, nationality) within and among these new movements.