ABSTRACT
The peasant condition is composed of a set of dialectical relations between the environment in which peasants have to operate and their actively constructed responses aimed at creating degrees of autonomy (Gouldner, 1978) in order to deal with the patterns of dependency, deprivation and marginalization entailed in this environment. Responses and environment mutually define and shape each other; it is impossible to understand one without the other. There is no ‘external’ relation between them: the two are linked by internal relations through which the responses shape the environment as much as the environment generates the responses. Such mutual articulation unfolds dynamically over time as each side of the equation impacts upon the other. Typical of the peasant condition is that the responses unfold by means of constructing a resource base that allows for the co-production of man and nature.
