New Farmer Identity: The Emergence of a Post‐Productivist Agricultural Regime in China

Abstract The back‐to‐the‐land migration has become an emerging phenomenon in the developing countries over recent years. In this context, more and more people go to the countryside to practice peasant‐like agriculture, which gives rise to the ‘repeasantisation’. This research aims to understand the relations between new farmer identity and an emerging agricultural regime in recent years in China. It investigates how the new farmer identity is (re)constructed in their interactions with organic farming. Drawing on identity theory and concepts of ‘post‐productivism’ and ‘new peasantry’, empirical evidence shows that by performing a new agricultural regime, farmer identity has been redefined. On the one hand, the new farmer identity is shaped by their farm as a ‘significant symbol’, and is maintained and reinforced by their interactions with the farm and consumers. On the other hand, the new farmer identity is contested by common social thoughts of ‘farmer’. However, they fashion new boundaries to differentiate themselves from traditional farmers with stereotypes and elite discourses. Contributing to the post‐productivism debates, this research argues that the shifting meanings of farmer and farming in this new agricultural movement show the emergence of a post‐productivist agricultural regime in China.