SOAS Research Online

Abstract

In the past African economies were (and sometimes are even now) depicted as suffering from "urban bias", which strangled the agricultural sector and eventually caused the "African crisis". Based on ten detailed case studies, this book questions that stereotype and shows the dramatic reversal in the relative positions of farmers and wage-earners in the recent past. The implications for standard adjustment programmes and urban survival strategies are discussed. Vali Jamal is the editor of a special issue of the "International Labour Review" (vol 127, no 6) on food security in Africa, and co-author of "Tunisia: Rural Labour and Structural Transformation".