ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the transformation of Greek rural society as an externally induced process. It analyses work regarding changes in family farm strategies for survival. The chapter deals with de-agriculturalisation as a process linked to agricultural modernisation, urbanisation and economic development, leading to a reduction in agricultural employment and rural population. It also deals with de-agriculturalisation as a process of social and economic integration of Greek countryside, in which family farm strategies for survival reflect the dynamics of family farm transformation and of state agricultural policies. Rural exodus has been a historic feature of the process of economic development on a world scale and especially where integration of the agricultural sector to the market and modernisation of agricultural production released significant amounts of labour power. As far as the agricultural production structure is concerned, two tendencies were noticed: first, the relative socio-economic 'differentiation' of agricultural producers, and second, an inter-regional 'homogenisation'.
