Living Under Contract. Edited by Peter D. Little and Michael J. Watts. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press (1994). Reviewed by John Magistro (original) (raw)

1999, Journal of Political Ecology

Living Under Contract is a meticulously crafted compilation of comparative case studies on contract farming carried out from 1986 to 1988 in seven sub-Saharan countries under the auspices of the Institute for Development Anthropology. The editors have embarked on an ambitious journey, tackling the broad theoretical and empirical parameters under which highly amorphous and heterogeneous forms of the contracting process have emerged in recent times. In this sense, capturing the wide permutations and contours of a reconfigured agro-industrial food sector in Africa, the editors and contributors to this compendium have successfully accomplished their mission. The strength of this edited volume lies in the parity and complementarity of development narratives that so skillfully merge theory with praxis. The editors are highly adept in providing the theoretical backdrop, mapping out the historical, social, political, and economic topography of the contracting process, while each authored case study casts light on the broad configurations under which the contracting arrangement takes its variegated form and function. This volume is a study, writ large, of the reconfiguration and industrialization of the agrarian sector in sub-Saharan Africa over the past several decades, of which contract farming has become a central defining feature of the landscape. The editors are explicit in stating their theoretical affiliation from the outset in the introductory chapter, positing a neo-Marxian reading of the contracting script as "a form of industrial appropriation of discrete activities within the agrarian production process" (p.6). The introduction, by Little and Watts, followed by Watts" chapter entitled "Life under Contract," very nicely sketch out the thematic contours, historical trajectories, and interpretive theoretical frames that lie at the boundaries of the contracting process. Little and Watts set the stage by briefly situating the contract in its historical context, identifying its early forebears in the United States, Europe, and colonial Africa dating back to the 1930s and 1940s. They adopt an extended, albeit precise definition of contracting as: forms of vertical coordination between growers and buyers-processors that directly shape production decisions through contractually specifying market obligations (by volume, value, quality, and, at times, advanced price determination); provide specific inputs; and exercise some control at the point of production (i.e., a division of management functions between contractor and contractee) (p. 9). The editors are quick to point out that sound empirical studies of contract farming in Africa, grounded in field-based microeconomic data, have been quite sparse. Previous attempts at delineation of contracting have focused on "technological or commodity-based approaches," neglecting the political, historical, and social contexts that are critical in shaping the contractual process. Thus, the value-added contribution of this volume is the situationally specific, contextual locus of the contract, embedded within a larger political and historical economy. It is the complex web of intersecting political, historical, and social forces, rather than the technological attributes of the commodity per se ö according to the authors-that drives the overall performance and outcome of the contracting arrangement. Little and Watts identify four major unifying themes that underlie the range of case studies presented in this book: the saliency of historical and politico-economic contexts, the collusion of interests and institutional linkages between state and private capital, the primacy of labor dynamics and production relations, and the undercurrents of grower politics and strategies. They Reviews