The ambivalence of the capitalist socialisation of agriculture

Capitalist undertaking of agri-economies by markets and public policies involves the sectorisation and socialisation of agriculture. As developed here, the idea of socialisation includes not only the emergence and development of social and economic policies (with their sectoral specificity), but also the way in which markets are organised and governed according to conceptions socially constructed in a specific context characterised by social, land, agricultural, food, and environmental issues. The socialisation of agriculture embraces transformations of agricultural work, access to resources, production methods, and quality representations defining the transition from ‘traditional’ to ‘modern’ agriculture. This socialisation takes different forms depending on the periods and countries, with different roles for the market and the State. Utilising the concept of ‘intangible property’ introduced by Veblen and Commons, the historical process of socialisation of agriculture and food is interpreted as an ambivalent one. To develop this argument here, the different forms of intangible property are reviewed: intellectual property, common property, and social property structuring national agricultural policies.