Changing Paradigms Of Rural Management

Changing Paradigms of Rural Management

Mahatma Gandhi, in his famous speech during the Lahore session of the Congress in 1929, said, “India lives in her villages.” It is relevant even today after eight decades progress and an astonishing invasion of technology. Technological progress and the tremendous development of the IT sector often blind many of us to the toils of the rural tiller who brings our daily lunch. No effort for national development can ignore the villages; they determine the destiny of the country. Rural development is no more something that emerges from the common sense of a select few; it is the result of organized work involving the techniques of modern management. This emphasizes the need of a broad-based research in the field of rural management also reflecting in management education. This book is an attempt in that direction. I sincerely hope that this book will provide insights into the subject to faculty members, researchers and students from the management institutes, consultants, practicing managers from industry and government officers.

Contesting Views and Changing Paradigms

China's Peasant Agriculture and Rural Society

China's agriculture and rural society has undergone rapid changes in recent years. Many poorer farmers and younger people have moved to cities, and yet China has an immense challenge to feed a growing and more affluent population. This book provides a ‘bottom-up view’ of China’s agriculture, showing how the many millions of Chinese peasants make a living. It presents a vivid description of the mechanisms used by rural households to defend and sustain their livelihoods, increase their agricultural production and improve the quality of their lives. The authors examine the newly emerging trajectories of entrepreneurial and capitalist farming and assess whether such alternatives will be able to meet the enormous social, economic and environmental challenges that China faces. The book also explores the paradigm that has underpinned the organisation and development of China’s agriculture from ancient times to the present day. This shows the importance of balancing in the Chinese model as compared to the one-sided imposition of continual modernization in the western model. It is argued that such balancing is at the core of the current Sannong policy, referring to the three ruralities of food sovereignty, wellbeing for peasant households and an attractive countryside.