This is a study of continuity and change in rural France based on fieldwork carried out over a period of 25 years, and on historical documents spanning more than 300 years. Producer co-operatives have existed in Franche-Comté since the thirteenth century. Communities there, unlike modern English villages, are highly corporate. Robert Layton explores the relationships between inheritance rules, management of common land, household labour, and inter- household relations, as well as the impact on villages of national politics and economy. Comparison with other regions of Western Europe allows a reinterpretation of the eighteenth-century enclosures in England. Layton presents a dialogue between ethnography and social theory, and argues for a revision of the theories of Marx, Giddens, and Bourdieu so as to better explain the mechanisms of continuity, change, and adaptation in social life.
Layton's study of continuity and change in rural France, and his comparisons with other European regions, make possible a reinterpretation of the eighteenth-century enclosures in England. He presents a dialogue between ethnography and social history, and suggests a revision of the theories of Marx, Giddens, and Bourdieu.
