“He is an Entrepreneur, but I am not; I am a Self-Employed Worker”: Self-Representation and Subsistence of Neo-Peasants in Catalonia

Abstract

The concept of “peasantry” has historically been the subject of debate, where some question its existence and others recognize the role it currently plays in society. This article presents the case of the “neo-peasants” in Catalonia, a specific type of new peasantry linked to the political and environmental back-to-the-land movement. Our qualitative research performed between 2013 and 2017, analysed 29 cases of agricultural and/or livestock small-scale farms in Catalonia, oriented to the production for self-consumption and to the marketing of agri-cultural products. In this paper, we propose a typology of neo-peasants that intends to cover this diversity and compare their subsistence strategies developed in the context of the social and economic crisis that began in 2008. The analysis shows the importance of the social context in which these initiatives are embedded, which has influenced their transfor-mation, precarization or even disappearance.