The Quest for Distinction: A Reappraisal of the Rural Labor Process in Kheda District (Gujarat), India*
通过印度凯达区的实证，研究农村劳动过程如何塑造社会身份，特别是地位，指出劳动过程是追求社会区分的主要场所，核心是家庭劳动力从商品化劳动中撤出的能力。
Abstract: In this article I examine how the rural labor process is constitutive of social identity, particularly status, by harnessing empirical evidence from Kheda District, Gujarat, and other parts of India. Emphasis is on the labor practices of the dominant Lewa Patel caste, and only secondarily on the practices of other caste groups. My central claim is that the labor process is a primary arena in which the quest for social distinction occurs and that the primary source of distinction is the ability to withdraw family labor power from the commoditized labor circuit. In this paper I seek to deepen conventional understandings of the labor process within economic geography, agrarian studies, and mainstream economics.