• 1 The Generational Dimension in Agrarian Change
• A Crisis of Social Reproduction?
• Frameworks and Guiding Concepts
• 2 Generationing Agrarian Transformations
• Colonial Transformations
• Socialist and Post-Socialist Transformations: China and the Soviet Union
• Land Grabs and Corporate Farming
• Commodification and “Green Revolutions” in Smallholder Farming
• Generational Dimensions of Land and Agrarian Reforms
• 3 Growing Up Rural
• Households
• Generational Divisions of Labour
• Education, De-Skilling and Alienation
• Pluriactivity and Plurilocality
• 4 Waiting for Land
• Devolution: Modes of Intergenerational Resource Transmission
• Intergenerational and Intragenerational Tensions
• Intersections of Gender, Generation and Class: Structural Exclusions in Intergenerational Transfers
• 5 Who Wants to Be a Farmer?
• Future Generations, Future Agricultures
• Engaging with the Future: Rural Youth Aspirations
• Voting with their Feet: Plurilocality in the Life-Course of Rural Youth
• Rural Youth and Collective Action
• A Future for Smallholder Farming?

'This little gem of a book explores the vexed question of the apparent global aversion of young people to becoming farmers. Richly illustrated with historical and contemporary examples, it demonstrates the complex links between class, gender and generational relations in agrarian households and communities, that are necessary to proper understanding of their generational reproduction.'
Henry Bernstein, Emeritus Professor of Development Studies at the University of London

'What will happen to tens of millions of rural youth in Asia and Africa who can’t march off to the city to find jobs, but whose pathways into productive farming futures are blocked? Ben White brings a wealth of insight, conceptual clarity and empirical depth to this urgent question. Highly recommended.'
Tania Li, Dept. Anthropology University of Toronto

Ben White