Presentation short abstract

This study focuses on agroecological labourers in an ethnographic case study in Zagreb. With a relational practice theory approach, it discusses the construction of agroecological productive labour and farmers’ working conditions, challenging agroecology as an anticapitalist project.

Presentation long abstract

Drawing on critical agrarian studies (Gerber 2020, Van der Ploeg 2022) and the sociology of work (Domount et al. 2015, Darnhofer 2020), this presentation shows and discusses work and working conditions of agroecological labourers (both family members of family farms and employed farm workers) of Zagreb’s market-directed farms. The study adopts a relational practice-theory approach to understand work and working conditions of agroecological labourers, focusing on daily working practices. This research is based on a 6-month ethnography, including semi-structured interviews, participant observation, field notes, and engagement with local alternative food networks.

The analysis focuses on two aspects: the construction of agroecological productive labour and farmers’ working conditions.

Firstly, it explores how the agroecological productive labour is constructed through a process of daily social learning. Several factors impact this development, including employment relationships, employees’ presence and farm mechanisation. Regardless of the farm type (business or peasant-like), the work construction process remains similar.

Independent of farm-type, business or peasant-like, gender roles associated with food production tasks remain fixed. Additionally, women perform reproductive tasks typically associated with the regular maintenance of a household.

Secondly, the analysis shows how working conditions are implemented, indicating a pattern of exploitative and precarious work experiences. Nonetheless, exploitation and precarity carry a different meaning depending on the farm employment relationship.

Overall, the practice analysis demonstrates how agroecological work is based on capitalist relations of productive and reproductive labour. It can be concluded that without a shift in labour construction, agroecology remains a food production alternative within capitalism.