The Force Of Irony

This book challenges the belief that rural workers are passive and unaware of their surroundings. Torres provides a fresh perspective on rural workers' responses to the development of transnational production systems and the transformations of agrarian structures brought about by the complex interactions of global and local forces.

Winner of the 'Casa Chata Award' for the Best Book of 1994 (Spanish edition)In charting the paradoxical effects of power and knowledge on the everyday life of subordinate people, this book offers a major rethinking of domination and the agricultural labor process. Challenging the belief that ethnography is theoretically weak, the author provides a fresh perspective on rural workers' responses to the development of transnational production systems and the transformations of agrarian structures brought about by the complex interactions of global and local forces. In questioning ingrained assumptions about worker consciousness, the author exposes the naivete of past approaches and the role of power and hegemony in the micro-politics of human relations. This book is obligatory reading for anyone interested in current debates about resistance, development, and the future of rural societies. Review: '(Torres) presents us with a wealth of interesting ... observations and theoretical considerations'European Review of Latin American and Caribbean Studies'An interesting and thoughtful book.'Ethnos