Rural capitalism in Ghana: an articulation of modes of production analysis
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1990
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Abstract
This thesis argues that the relationship between capitalism and the peasantry in Africa is most adequately understood through use of the analytic concept "articulation of modes of production." After an analysis of the development of the concept, some competing theoretical approaches are considered. A criticism which has been made about articulation of modes of production research is that it is too abstract to be meaningfully applied to concrete situations. This thesis argues to the contrary and applies some of the precepts of articulation of modes of production theory as synthesized by John G. Taylor to the relationship between rural capitalism and the Ghanaian peasantry from the time of first European trading contact with Ghana to the independence era. The interaction of the capitalist mode of production and the indigenous lineage mode of production is demonstrated at a lower level of abstraction by an examination of the crucial cocoa sector of the economy. It is proposed that articulation of modes of production analysis should supplant the currently dominant empirical liberal and neo-classical Marxist schools purporting to explain the low degree of class consciousness in Ghana.
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Bibliography: p. 162-189.
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Citation
Pincott, G. R. (1990). Rural capitalism in Ghana: an articulation of modes of production analysis (Master's thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca. doi:10.11575/PRISM/12477