The chain of exploitation: intersectional inequalities,capital accumulation,and resistance in Burkina Faso's cotton sector |
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Authors: | Jessie K. Luna |
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Affiliation: | 1. Department of Sociology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, USAjessie.luna@colostate.eduhttps://orcid.org/0000-0002-6612-7632 |
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Abstract: | ABSTRACTThis paper examines how intersectional inequalities can facilitate the extraction of surplus value from agriculture. Through an ethnographic case study of the Burkina Faso cotton sector, I describe a ‘chain of exploitation’ wherein actors pass economic pressures on to less-powerful actors. People resist their own exploitation, yet justify exploiting others through discourses about intersectional inequalities – overlapping axes of social difference including class, gender, rural/urban status, and education level. I thus argue that intersectional social inequalities – exacerbated by economic pressures – can: (1) justify and thus facilitate the transfer of exploitation, and (2) fragment resistance efforts. |
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Keywords: | Agrarian question intersectionality surplus value commodity chains peasant essentialism gender |
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