This Omnibus edition, with an Introduction by Sujata Patel, brings together three classic works of Jan Breman-Of Peasants, Migrants and Paupers: Rural Labour Circulation and Capitalist Production in West India; Wage Hunters and Gatherers. Search for Work in the Urban and Rural Economy of South Gujarat; The Labouring Poor in India: Patterns of Exploitation, Subordination and Exclusion. The idea is to present one significant work in each decade of the 1970s, 1980s, and 2000. The introduction is divided into four sections. The first locates Bremans work in terms of the seventies debate on the transition from feudalism to capitalism. The second analyses his research on the nature of capitalism in Gujarat and the growth of new classes, the displacement of agrarian labour, and the introduction of labour in the migratory circulation. The third examines the debate on the theory of the informal sector on which Breman has made a singular contribution. The final section discusses how Bremans intellectual eclecticism and use of interdisciplinary methods of fieldwork and historical perspective has opened up a new perspective in the area of sociology of development, labour and migration studies.The book also carries an interview of the author by Yolanda van Ede of the University of Amsterdam.
In this candid interview, Breman talks, among other things, about his family background, his academic life, and his fieldwork.