ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses the question of what is specific to family enterprises in general in capitalist agriculture, and identifies two distinctive features: production is organised through kinship; and property and labour are combined. The dynamics of family enterprises stem from the interplay of household and business. This is perhaps most clear in cases of succession to a new generation. There are two processes by which a new generation can be accommodated: ‘fission’ or creation of a second enterprise; and ‘expansion’ to incorporate the labour of two generations. Co-operative marketing taps the property dimension of family farming. It does so whether farmers undertake co-operation on their own initiative or rely on a state board. Two things are specific to family enterprises in capitalist economies: the labour process and property relations. Family enterprises involve a specific complex of kinship and property. This complex rests on institutions principally directed towards the major forms of property and the family in capitalist societies.
