RATIONALIZATION AND THE FAMILY ORGANIZATION OF PRODUCTION: PART-TIME FARMING IN THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF GERMANY (AGRICULTURE

The sociological and policy significance of the combination of farming with full-time off-farm employment, or part-time farming, in the Federal Republic of Germany is examined in this thesis. The central theme of this work is that policy measures promoting part-time farming were incorporated into German agricultural policy as part of a compromise between advocates of opposing policy alternatives in both Germany and the European Economic Community (EEC). The two alternatives are structural reform of the farm sector and support for the opposing value spheres, those of formal and substantive rationality.;This thesis chronicles the development of contemporary agricultural policy alternatives in West Germany and the EEC. It is argued that economic stagnation and budgetary constraints have led to a crisis in the agricultural policy of subsequent discussion goes on to demonstrate the bases for the incorporation of measures for the promotion of part-time farming into German agricultural policy.;Crucial empirical questions as to the long-run viability of this policy compromise are analyzed using data from a nationwide survey of farm operators conducted in 1980. The expected stability of full-time and part-time farms as well as the effects of part-time farming on the labor inputs of family members working on the farm are analyzed. Finally, the effects of different histories of local development on the patterns of part-time farming in rural areas, as well as the sociological and policy significance of these patterns, are evaluated on the basis of case studies of two communities conducted in 1984.