« Travailler pour soi ? » Les petits exploitants en Ukraine post-socialiste

• Main Author: Pierre Deffontaines
• Format: Article
• Language: fra
• Published: La Nouvelle Revue du Travail 2021-05-01
• Series: La Nouvelle Revue du Travail
• Subjects: Postsocialist spaces; agriculture; self-employed workers; inequalities; working classes; gender
• Online Access: http://journals.openedition.org/nrt/8340

This article uses a Ukrainian case study to explore the social and economic conditions that might facilitate young working class men’s conversion to independent farm work. The growing attraction of “self-employment” does not stem from some kind of entrepreneurial spirit liberated by post-socialist land reforms but instead reflects a deterioration in wage-earners’ working conditions since the 2008 financial crisis. It also hides a new dependency on market pricing and minor non-agricultural resources – all of which weakens people’s sense of autonomy. Note lastly the inference that women’s work on farms is destined to remain invisible.