The rise of temporary rural work in Chile under the neo-liberal development policy: regional effects and household strategies

Abstract

This thesis deals with the development of a now social sector of Chilean society: the temporary wage workers who live. In rural shantytowns. The research, which was carried out in 1982, aimed to obtain a general overview of this population, focussing on four main fields: population changes, employment, household income and expenditure, and living conditions. The theoretical framework aims to relate the general processes of socio-economic change to the actual behaviour of households in an environment characterized by high unemployment and uncertainty. It does this through using concepts such as styles of development and differential regional capitalist expansion, together with the notions of social marginality and survival strategies. The research project was implemented by surveying 20 localities throughout the country, where new rural shantytowns had developed. These surveys wore combined with the collection of case studies of households in order to illustrate the general social tendencies. Special efforts were made to obtain labour histories, through administering questionnaires and taped interviews. Four localities were selected for special attention so that one might develop a comparative analysis of regional processes and their importance in shaping household patterns.