Abstract

LANDINI, Fernando. The peasants' passivity seen from the point of view of the actors. Anu. investig. [online]. 2012, vol.19, n.1, pp.203-212. ISSN 1851-1686.

Traditionally, passivity and fatalism have been related to poverty and underdevelopment. Conversely, it is usual to listen to peasants describing themselves as hard-working and laborious people. Thus, given the importance of this issue for several development theories and for the peasants themselves, I conducted an investigation in the Argentinean province of Formosa in which the perceptions of the peasants and of the rural extension workers on these topics were addressed. I conclude that the peasants tend to describe themselves, when speaking as individuals or as part of the social group of peasants, as industrious people, while they tend to perceive their peers as loafers when compared to them. Additionally, it worth mentioning that rural extensionists understand many peasants' behaviors as being passive due to the differences that exist between the peasants' rationale and the technicians' one.

Keywords : Peasants; Development; Rural extensionists; Passivity.

        · abstract in Spanish     · text in Spanish     · Spanish ( pdf )