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Cambridge Journal of Economics Advance Access originally published online on March 18, 2008
Cambridge Journal of Economics 2009 33(6):1187-1203; doi:10.1093/cje/ben005
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© The Author 2008. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Cambridge Political Economy Society. All rights reserved.

Ambivalence of class subjectivity: the sharecroppers of the post-bellum southern USA

Serap A. Kayatekin*

* The American College of Thessaloniki

Address for correspondence: The School of Art, Science and Technology, Division of Humanities and Social Sciences, The American College of Thessaloniki, Pylea, Thessaloniki, Greece; email: skayatekin{at}gmail.com

The paper argues that the economic literature on sharecropping uses a modernist notion of subjectivity that fails to explain the complexity of economic behaviour or the social context in which agency is formed. I look at the case of economic subjectivity of southern sharecropping tenants in the post-bellum USA, using non-determinist Marxist class analysis together with the concept of subjectivity drawing from postcolonial theory, in particular the work of Homi Bhabha. I argue that this alternative approach to economic subjectivity, which posits an ambivalent, or contradictory subjectivity provides us with a better analytical grasp of economic agency and a better explanation of the perpetuation or demise of a productive form such as sharecropping.

Key Words: Sharecropping • Economic subjectivity • Marxian class analysis • Postcolonial theory • Homi Bhabha

JEL classifications: B5, N51, N52, Q1

Manuscript received July 10, 2006; final version received November 12, 2007.


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