ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with the general characteristics of small-scale producers are discussed, particularly in terms of the social resources they employ to enter into activities and further their careers. The special role of rural-urban migration in Andean industrialization has been underlined by many researchers. Not only do Andean countries like Bolivia and Peru share in the massive global movement to the cities, but perhaps in Andean countries more than in other areas, the rural communities of origin continue to play a major role in the migrants’ economic strategies. The social revolution and agrarian reform of 1952–1953 had a major impact on migration patterns. The reform led to the dismantling of haciendas, which freed the peasants who had cultivated the landlords’ lands for up to twelve man labor days a week per family in return for subsistence plots, and resulted in the distribution of most of the land among the former serfs.
