The peasant and the party: Peasant options and ‘folk’ communism in a Greek village

Abstract

The article discusses the process of consciousness transformation of peasants through their involvement in nation‐wide political movements. Evidence from Northern Greece is used to reflect upon the process of mobilisation and demobilisation and upon the ability of isolated peasant communities to elaborate a global plan for the transformation of society. The theoretical underpinnings of this discussion concern the relations between micro and macro politics, social being and social consciousness, hegemony and autonomy. These relations constitute a dialectical process, in which three factors play a crucial role: experience, human agency and past cultural traditions.