Restructuring and Functional Flexibilitation of Agricultural Labor in Argentina

GUILLERMO NEIMAN Y GERMÁN QUARANTA

LATIN AMERICAN PERSPECTIVES

Sage Publications

Lugar: Thousand Oaks; Año: 2004 p. 45 - 61

0094-582X

This article is a study of the transformation that agriculture Argentina has experimented from the perspective of the restructuring of farming activities and its effect on employment. A central premise is that these tendencies reflect transformations outside of the sector and can be understood as adaptations to new conditions. As change in the nature of capital penetration and the organization of work is occurring in agriculture and the rural environment in general. First, the flexibility of agricultural activity is taking place within the framework of a much broader restructuring that is conditioning the contents, direction, intensity, and possibilities of replication of this transformation. Secondly, this flexibilization is far from extending to all production, and therefore it is possible to detect the coexistence of a number of different labor structures and organizational. Thirdly, if there is an example of the quantitative adjustment of agricultural labor, it will be seen in the context of companies- objectives and strategies. Therefore, flexible rural labor will be the result of managerial strategies, the specific conditions of the commodity, and the general conditions of the rural environment they are immersed in. The pursuit of flexibility contributes to greater control of the labor process within a framework that ensures the competitiveness of the commodities involved by reducing production costs.