Bernstein's research includes the political economy of agrarian change; social theory and globalisation and labour.
He is known for applying class analysis and marxist approaches to agrarian societies, including his theories of 'reproduction squeeze'.
[1][2] Bernstein was from a working class, Jewish, communist family in Stoke Newington that subsequently lived on a London County Council housing estate near Reigate, where he attended grammar school.
He spent a year at the Middle East Technical University in Ankara, when Turkey was under military rule.
[3] On his return to the UK he was a lecturer at the Open University and then Director of the External Programme at Wye College.