EasternEuropeanCountryside2013 19

NICOLAUS COPERNICUS UNIVERSITY
DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY
19 2013
Toru 2013
ADVISORY COUNCIL
David L. Brown (USA), Osamu Ieda (Japan), Drobinka Kostova (Bulgaria),
Fouli Papageorgiou (Greece), Gerd Vonderach (Germany), Jerzy Wilkin (Poland)
EDITORIAL BOARD
Christian Giordano Member
Andrzej Kaleta Managing Editor
Irn Szrnyin Kukorelli Member
Iwona Leniewicz Editorial Assistant
Michal Lotk - Member
Nigel Swain Member
Monika Kwieciska-Zdrenka Deputy Editor
EDITORIAL OFFICE ADDRESS
87100 Toru
ul. Fosa Staromiejska 1a, Poland
www.soc.uni.torun.pl/eec
EEC digital version is available on
www.kpbc.umk.pl/dlibra/indexsearch?startstr=E&attId=title
www.versita.com/eec
Eastern European Countryside has been on Index, Since May 2007,
Social Scisearch and Journal Citation Reports / Social Sciences Edition (IF 0,08)
he periodical is inanced by the Ministry od Science and Higher Education
ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDITOR

Jadwiga Komornicka
Copyright by Uniwersytet Mikoaja Kopernika
ISSN 12328855
NICOLAUS COPERNICUS UNIVERSITY
ul. Gagarina 11, 87100 Toru
Print: Nicolaus Copernicus University Press
Edition: 300 copies
Contents
Andrzej Kaleta Introduction the 20th Anniversary

of Eastern European Countryside . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Articles and Studies

Grzegorz Zabocki he Status Quo of Rural Sociology as Presented
in Four Periodicals Rural Sociology, Sociologia Ruralis, Journal
of Rural Studies, Eastern European Countryside . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Research Reports and Materials

Krystyna Szafraniec Looking for a Speciicity of Rural Youth.
he Polish Case . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
29
Kinga Kerekes, Bernadett Pakucs Occupational Choices

of Romanian Rural Youth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
57
Majda erni Isteni, Duka Kneevi Hoevar

Intergenerational Assistance on Family Farms in Slovenia:
Expectations and Practices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
77
Milica Vujicic, Lela Ristic, Nata Ciric Local Initiatives for Rural
Vitality and Social Inclusion: Some Experiences from Serbia . . . .
105
Gabriela Manea, Elena Matei, Iuliana Vijulie, Marian Marin,

Octavian Cocos, Adrian Tiscovschi Tradition and Modernity in
the Romanian Rural Space. Case Study: the Arges Sub-Carpathian
Foothills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
127
Eastern European Countryside 19 2013
Annemarie Burandt, Friederike Lang, Regina Schrader,

Anja hiem Working in Regional Agro-food Networks
Strengthening Rural Development through Cooperation . . . . . . .
153
Karel Janda, Gordon Rausser, Wadim Strielkowski Determinants

of Proitability of Polish Rural Micro-Enterprises at the Time
of EU Accession . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
177
Anna Szumelda Is Small Beautiful? he Debate on the Future

of Small Individual Farms in Poland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
219
Reviews and information

Elwira Piszczek Life and Work in Rural Germany . . . . . . . . . . .
251
Magdalena Sternicka-Kowalska Regional Aspects of Social

and Economic Restructuring in Eastern Europe . . . . . . . . . . . . .
261
Monika Kwieciska-Zdrenka he Polish Countryside

in Statistics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
269
Monika Kwieciska-Zdrenka Central and Eastern European

Countryside from an International Perspective (IRSA Congress
in Lisbon, 2012) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
277
Classics of Central European Rural Sociology

ukasz M. Dominiak Anton tefnek the Precursor
of Slovakian Rural Sociology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
287
Index. Our Authors and their Articles. Nos. 10/2004 19/2013

of EEC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
295
doi: 10.2478/eec-2013-0001
19 2013
Andrzej Kaleta
Introduction the 20th Anniversary of

Eastern European Countryside
Eastern European countryside (EEc) is celebrating its 20th anniversary

this year (2013). he irst issue 0 appeared in 1993.
in the current issue of our periodical as in the earlier 19 (issues
018) it is our intention to analyse the process of change in the legislative,
organisational, economic, social and cultural sphere of rural areas in
central and Eastern Europe. researchers from various academic centres
in Europe and beyond its borders write about these problems1. as always,
we include reviews of books devoted to changes in the rural areas of
central and Eastern Europe. We continue a chronicle of academic events
and present a biogram of a classic of rural sociology in order to illustrate
its accomplishments and to inform our readers that not everything of
signiicance in this discipline has only appeared and continues to appear in
the so-called West. in the contents there are two texts about our periodical:
an article showing EEc against the background of three other English
language periodicals dealing with rural development and the contents
of issues 10/200419/2013. hey both point to the passing of another
Between 1993 and 2013 the following were published in EEC: 178 articles and
academic studies (88 between 2004 and 2013), 19 reviews (respectively 11), 74 reports
from various academic events (39), 16 biograms of classics of rural sociology from central
and Eastern Europe (8).
Andrzej Kaleta
decade of the periodical and it is now time for an assessment (the irst was
presented on the occasion of its irst decade2).
an important achievement of the past decade has been the systematic
growth in readership of our periodical3, mainly due to its electronic version.
We have been accessible in this way since 2007 in the Kujawy-Pomeranian
digital library and since 2009 on the Versita electronic platform, thereby
reaching tens of thousands of libraries throughout the world.
However, the greatest achievement of the last decade was obtaining
a signiicant position on the international academic publishers market.
since 2007 articles published in EEc have been indexed by: he Social
Sciences Citation Index; Social Scisearch and the Journal of Citation Reports/
Social Science Edition, which in fact means the periodicals accreditation
on the Philadelphia list. since 2010 EEc also holds the so-called impact
factor.
We have done much to constantly improve our record, endeavouring
to obtain interesting texts which are methodologically correct and include
theoretical references which underwent a two-stage evaluation process
before publication, irstly by members of the editorial board and ater their
recommendation by external critics, i.e. academic experts in Europe, North
america and asia4. We also tried to get information about the published
texts included in as many abstract bases. other than the already mentioned
Social Sciences Citation Index, our periodical is also indexed in Sociological
Abstracts; he Central European Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities
(cEJsH), jointly presided over by he academies of sciences in Poland,
he czech republic, slovakia and Hungary; the Scopus and the Summon
bases as well as Research Papers in Economics (rePEc).
We constantly strived to reach new groups of readers and to gain
potential authors by presenting the periodical at rural sociology congresses
(he European society of rural sociologists Esrs and the international
rural sociology association irsa), beyond the rural sociology circle (e.g.
by including the development problems of rural areas into the works of the
European sociology society) and also beyond the sociological circle (e.g.
2
cf. our authors and their articles Nos. 0/19939/2003 of Eastern European
Countryside, in: Eastern European Countryside 2004, no. 10, pp. 217229.
3
he number of readers doubled in 2011.
4
a list of critics is on the periodicals website www.soc.uni.torun.pl/eec.
Introduction the 20th Anniversary of EEC
by cooperating with the organisers of conferences or editors of periodicals

in the ield of economics, social geography, urban planning etc.)
he periodicals current position is primarily due to the contribution of
the international editorial team and academic council, their determination
for the recognition of EEC, their conscientiousness as regards the high
quality of content and linguistic standard of the published texts, their
tenacity in securing inancial resources. i would like to take this opportunity
to express my thanks to all the members of both these groups for their
work and, all the more so, since it has been and will probably continue to
be carried out on a voluntary basis.
i would also like to thank Jadwiga Komornicka for her 17 years work
as our native speaker, responsible for the high linguistic standard of Eastern
European Countryside. i am sorry to have to say that the current issue of
EEC is the last of 16 (19972013) co-edited by her.
Twenty years is not only a good moment for evaluation but also high
time for change, inevitable for efective competition on the international,
global and digitalised publishing market. he forthcoming challenges
require new visions, ideas, competence as well as reference to tradition,
i.e. the best in Eastern European Countrysides past.
herefore, ater numerous consultations which have lasted almost
two years, in May this year i turned to the rector of Nicolaus copernicus
University (UMK) asking for the closure of the existing term of the EEC
Editorial Board and advisory council5, including the editor-in-chief (who
has held this position from the very beginning, i.e. 20 years) on 31 september
2013, recommending new candidates for the 20142023 term.
i am pleased to announce that the rector of UMK fully agreed with the
request of the retiring editor-in-chief and has appointed a new editorial team
for EEC, made up as follows: christian Giordano (University of friburg), lutz
laschewski (Technical University of cottbus, alcedo sozialforschung und
regionalentwicklung), iwona leniewicz (Nicolaus copernicus University)
laszlo J. Kulcsar (Kansas state University), Nigel swain (University of
liverpool), Elwira Piszczek (Nicolaus copernicus University), Monika
Kwieciska-Zdrenka (Nicolaus copernicus University).
heir names appear on the title page of the periodical.
Andrzej Kaleta
Monika Kwieciska-Zdrenka6 has been appointed editor-in-chief of

the periodical, Elwira Piszczek has been entrusted with the role of deputy
editor and iwona leniewicz with that of editorial secretary.
he rector of UMK has also appointed a new advisory council,
made up as follows: anna Bandler (slovak agricultural University), david
Brown (cornel University), feng Xingyuan (chinese academy of social
sciences), Krzysztof Gorlach (Jagiellonian University), andrzej Kaleta
(UMK), iren szrenyine Kukorelli (Hungarian academy of sciences),
Michal lostak (czech University of life science), Miguel angel sobrado
(National University of costa rica).
so, in other words, the current issue is the last prepared by the old
editorial team. he next issue (2014/20) will be the autonomous oeuvre
of the new team, for whom i personally hold high hopes in the further
development and growing academic rank of EEC.
6
dr Monika Kwieciska-Zdrenka is a sociologist employed at the institute of

sociology, Nicolaus copernicus University. Her academic interests lie around the problems
of education and youth in rural areas. she has held the position of deputy editor-in-chief
of EEC since 2006 (ater the death of dr. Barbara Weber, one of the founding members
and deputy editor-in-chief of EEC).
doi: 10.2478/eec-2013-0002
19 2013
Grzegorz Zabocki
he Status Quo of Rural Sociology as Presented

in Four Periodicals Rural Sociology,
Sociologia Ruralis, Journal of Rural Studies,
Eastern European Countryside
Abstract
his article is an analysis of diferences and similarities between four Englishlanguage journals on rural sociology. he comparison covered topics discussed
in about 600 articles published in the journals in the years 19952010 and the
regional ailiation of their authors. in the comparison, all articles and texts on
empirical research published in this period in Eastern European Countryside
were considered. in total, 141 texts were published in this annual journal. out
of the three other journals (Rural Sociology, Sociologia Ruralis, Journal of Rural
Studies) 50 articles for each of three periods: 19951996, 20022003, 20082009,
were selected.
results of the comparison show that the journals have strictly regional
proiles, and that present rural sociology does not seem to be the science on
social phenomena in world-wide rural areas. rural sociology used in the four
studied journals does not develop the knowledge that would be useful in solving
problems of the rural population. in the three journals under study (Rural
Sociology, Sociologia Ruralis, Journal of Rural Studies) almost exclusively sociology
of rural areas in Western Europe and Northern america was developed, and
their contributors were almost always authors from the two regions. he fourth
journal Eastern European Countryside was concerned, adequately to its title,
with rural phenomena in central and Eastern Europe.
10
Grzegorz Zabocki
Keywords: rural sociology, regional journals, central and Eastern Europe,

content analysis.
Introduction
Eastern European Countryside has been coming out for 20 years. hat allows
for the comparison and evaluation of the periodical as well as an evaluation
of the status quo of the discipline within which it functions.
his paper is primarily an analysis of the similarities and diferences
between four English language academic periodicals which aim to
present the top quality achievements of institutions and people engaged
in sociological analysis and research of processes taking place in rural areas
and agriculture. Two of the periodicals represent associations which are of
great importance to the global image of rural sociology: Rural Sociology is
the quarterly of the american association of rural sociology which has
been coming out for almost 80 years, and Sociologia Ruralis is the quarterly
of the European association of rural sociology which has been coming
out for over 50 years. he third periodical, Journal of Rural Studies, is an
esteemed quarterly published by Elsevier Publishers since 1985 which
concentrates on the question of rural sociology. Whereas Eastern European
Countryside is an annual published at Nicolas copernicus University in
Toru.
he idea of comparing these periodicals also emerged to evaluate the
state of rural sociology an academic discipline whose achievements are
presented in these periodicals. do the articles published in them cover
a similar collection of phenomena and processes, considered as the subject
matter of rural sociology? here are reasons to doubt that as there have
long been considerable diferences in the evaluation of speciic phenomena
and processes taking place in rural communities. an expression of these
diferences is the disparity (formulated for over 50 years) in naming
the discipline they go in for: although everyone says they glean from
the achievements of rural sociology, they in fact call their discipline the
sociology of rural areas, environmental sociology, agricultural sociology,
the sociology of traditional societies or the sociology of managing natural
resources. To what extent do the editorial teams of these periodicals make
use of a common perspective in perceiving and clarifying current social
he Status Quo of Rural Sociology as Presented in Four Periodicals
11
processes taking place outside the urban agglomerations? do they describe

their subject in a similar way?
another reason for comparing the subject matter of these four
periodicals is the recent, spectacular and highly signiicant rejection of
long-standing attempts at collective management in agriculture. hese
attempts took place on almost all the continents, afecting about a quarter of
the world population and in some cases lasted almost 70 years. hey ended
with a return to the market economy and the decline of political forces
referring to socialist ideology. it is worth checking how the results of that
social experiment (ended over 20 years ago) are perceived in periodicals
concentrating their attention on rural communities, i.e. those which in
many countries were and in others could be encompassed by such forms
of agricultural production.
he transformation of countries moving away from the centrally planned
economy is also an opportunity to look for the principles of a peaceful
move of societies to systems with more democratic political procedures.
he societies of central Europe were not the irst in this process. Examples
of earlier democratisation in Europe were given by Greece, Portugal and
spain but the changes taking place in the 1990s in the countries of the
former communist bloc are worth noticing due to their high number and
diversity of societies taking part, which means that their experiences are
more useful for those who would like to follow their example. an analysis of
the changes of the political and economic positions of the rural population
in societies democratizing their political procedures would allow for the
establishment of whether and to what extent the traditionally worse position
of rural inhabitants in comparison with their urban counterparts has
improved as a result of the democratisation of political procedures. hat
knowledge could help attain a more complete realisation of socially required
goals through similar social movements, for example in modern northern
africa. Were the changes in the position of rural populations in societies
undergoing a system transformation followed up in these periodicals and
what are the results of that research?
Comparative Methodology
a comparison of the areas of interest of these periodicals in the years
19952010 was undertaken on the basis of assigning the subject matter of
12
Grzegorz Zabocki
the articles and works reporting the results of empirical research (further:
articles), published in these periodicals to a collection of 28 categories. he
basis of assigning the topic of a given article to a speciic category was the
content of its abstract and title, and in the absence of an abstract the title
and overview of the whole article or its opening fragments.1
he periodical which made its pages available to the lowest number of
articles in the analysed period was the annual Eastern European Countryside
(further EEC), during which 141 articles were published in it.2 he same
number of articles was published in each of the other periodicals over
a period of 6 years. herefore, all the EEC articles were used for the
comparison, dividing them into 3 periods: 19951999, 20002004 and
20052010; in those periods 44, 52 and 45 articles appeared respectively.
he same number of articles was used for each of the other periodicals in
19961997 (the irst period), 20022003 (the second period) and 2008
2009 (the third period), omitting a few special issues which appeared in
those years (2/2002 and i/2003 JRS).3 as a result, over 560 articles were
1
he numbers which were used for further research showing the frequency of a given
topic in the articles from a given period were acquired by assigning a main topic and
a supporting topic (both from the collection of 28 categories, the supporting topic being
a repetition of the main topic in few cases), the summing up of the number of appearances
of each of the 28 categories and then dividing those numbers in two. categories for a given
periodical and a given period with a result below unanimity were omitted. such a method
of establishing the subject matter of articles does not provide results consonant with other
methodologies, e.g. those using key-words or a subject assigned to the articles in electronic
databases. attempts at applying such other methods did not give satisfactory results. E.g. in
the EBsco database in articles in Rural Sociology from 19952002 the subject of rurality
was given to 4 articles, and the world rurality was used in 16 articles from that period.
However, in the next period 20032010 this subject was not given to any articles, in spite
of the fact that the word rurality was used in almost twice as many articles (27 articles).
similar disparities were obtained during attempts to use key-words given to articles by
authors and also many articles (mainly in 19951999) did not have key-words.
2
hat research did not include the pilot issue of EEC which appeared in 1993, but
issues 1 16 published between 1995 and 2010.
3
he special issue 3/2008 of Sociologia Ruralis was not omitted. it was devoted to
sustainable rural development, as without that issue the total number of texts in that
periodical in 20082009 would have been lower than 40. Whereas 44 articles included
in the JRS in 19961997 came from issues 14 in 1996 and issues 12 in 1997. likewise
51 articles included in JRS in 20082009 came from issues 34 in 2008 and issues 13 in
2009 (issues 2/2008 and 4/2009 of that periodical were special ones).
13
the subject of that research and each periodical in each of those periods
had 41 to 52 articles (47 on average).
he collection of 28 categories was selected in such a way so as to
adequately relect the subject matter of the articles in each of the periodicals
while also enabling the veriication of a few hypotheses about the change
in interest in individual issues in the later analysed periods, environmental
protection, sustainable development, globalisation, family farms, social
capital, the multi-functionality of rural areas and the wide variety of sources
of income of rural inhabitants, legal protection, the wellbeing of animals
etc.
he Topics of Articles in RS, SR, JRS and EEC

he widest disparity between the periodicals concerns the changes which
started taking place in the countries of the former communist bloc at the
beginning of the 1990s. hese were mainly changes in the political system,
which led to considerable changes in the principles of functioning of a large
part of the rural population in those countries, irstly those who had been
included in the collective farming system. almost half of the 44 articles
published in the irst analysed period (19951999) in EEC were devoted to
those changes.4 Not a single article on that topic appeared in either Rural
Sociology (RS) or Sociologia Ruralis (SR) in the same number of articles
during that period (19961997). here was only one in the Journal of Rural
Studies (JRS).
he concentrated attention of EEC on issues regarding transformation
taking place in the rural areas of central and Eastern Europe and the
privatisation of the productive assets in those countries, dropped in the
later analysed periods. in 20002004 EEC devoted 1 in 7 of the 52 articles
to these processes and in 20052010 only 1 in 15. interest in these processes
in the other 3 periodicals did not grow: RS did not include a single article
on that subject, SR included 1 and JRS added 1 in the irst period and 3
in the second (20002004, precisely 2002/2003) and omitted this subject
in the third period. so the processes with a dominant signiicance for the
4
Barbara Weber drew attention to the high number of texts in EEC devoted to
transformation and privatisation in the irst singled out period in her text in issue 10/2004
of EEC [Weber, 2004:7].
14
Grzegorz Zabocki
functioning of rural inhabitants in an area covering half of Europe did not

capture the attention of 2 important rural sociology periodicals, i.e. the
periodical of the European association of rural sociology and to a small
extent of another European periodical (JRS). if not for EEC it could be
assumed that rural sociologists were not interested in what was happening
in most of asia and in the part of Europe to the east of the river laba,5 the
territory surrounding Berlin, Budapest and Prague as well as processes
taking place there were terra incognita to European and world (Englishspeaking) rural sociology.
he enlargement of the European Union in 2004, which meant the
inclusion of 10 nations from central Europe within its structures, did
not arouse a much greater response in the analysed periodicals. his
phenomenon was not the topic of a single article of over 400 published
in 3 periodicals (RS,SR, JRS) during the analysed period. he number of
articles devoted to this process by EEC was not high but at least 1 article
was devoted to it in each of the 3 periods. it is worth underlining that as
a result of this process the EU enlarged its area by a third and its population
by almost a third, mostly rural population. herefore, the lack of analysis
of the role of this process by 2 European periodicals (SR and JRS) is
surprising.
Equally, interest in the EU common agricultural Policy in the analysed
periodicals was not signiicant: a lack of articles on the subject in RS, in
the other 3 (SR, JRS and EEC) there were few such articles. SR wrote about
the EU agricultural policy relatively more oten, devoting 4 articles in the
entire analysed period.
he level of interest in family farms in each of the periodicals was
balanced. Moreover, articles on this topic appeared equally frequently in
each of the analysed periods. his important, traditional topic of interest
for rural sociology emerges here as a theme linking the 4 periodicals
although this subject matter was the central theme in relatively few articles,
representing approximately 5% of all the analysed articles. he frequency
of this topic in the analysed periodicals is shown in the graph below.
5
he conclusions of a conference held in Podbanske (slovakia) on 69 december

1999 deny that. he participants emphasized the need for research about the changes
taking place in the rural areas of central and Eastern Europe and pointed out the main
themes of that research [Brown and Bandlerov 2000: 151].
15
Figure 1. subject family farms
5
4
RS
SR
JRS
EEC
1
0
1995-1999
2000-2004
2005-2010
source: own research, 2012.
a relatively frequent topic of the articles was a group of issues, including

environmental protection and pollution, sustainable development, various
versions of ecological agriculture and ecological food. in each of the
analysed periods about 10% of the articles were devoted to these issues,
the highest being in SR,6 the lowest in EEC. he graph below shows the
diverse frequency in dealing with these issues.
Figure 2. subject Nature, organic farming and sustainable development
12
10
RS
SR
JRS
4
EEC
2
0
1995-1999
2000-2004
2005-2010

6
he high level of interest of SR in these topics in the third of the analysed periods
is partly due to including articles from the special issue 3/2008 of SR, largely devoted to
them.
16
Grzegorz Zabocki
an area which attracted growing interest during the analysed periods were
the questions of current agro-industrial systems and applied technologies
in food production, including the problems of guaranteeing high quality
food. in the irst period there are practically no texts on this issue, whereas
in the following 2 periods they were relatively numerous. here were no
articles on this topic in EEC as if those themes in that periodical were
considered as pertaining to industrial or commercial sociology rather than
rural sociology. Whereas they appeared more frequently in SR and RS as
can be seen in the graph below. he data do not take into account articles
from the special issue of JRS 1/2003, which was devoted to the alternative
networks of agri-food production. if these articles were to be taken into
account, the level of interest of JRS in this subject matter in 20002004
was highest.
Figure 3. subject agri-food systems
7
6
RS
5
4
SR
JRS
EEC
1
0
1995-1999
2000-2004
2005-2010
he diverse and growing interest in current agri-industrial systems

and modern food production technologies was not connected with the
frequency of publishing articles devoted to globalisation. Texts on that topic
appeared rarely in each of the periodicals and with a similar frequency in
the compared periods. here was far greater interest in the economic efects
of farming in rural areas. less than 1 in 10 articles covered those issues in
each of the analysed periods, less frequently in SR or EEC.
17
Figure 4. subject Economic efects
7
6
RS
SR
4
3
JRS
EEC
1
0
1995-1999
2000-2004
2005-2010
here was slightly less interest yet with a similar structure in migration and
the demographic process as well as in the level of awareness and opinions
of various groups of inhabitants in rural areas.
here was a systematic growth in the number of articles about processes
taking place in the local communities, the social and political activity of
the members of the those communities, the networks of local cooperation
and rivalry. in the irst period about 10% of the articles were devoted to
those issues and in the third about 20%. he graph below shows the level
of interest in this subject matter.
Figure 5. subject communities
14
12
10
RS
SR
JRS
EEC
2
0
1995-1999
2000-2004
2005-2010
18
Grzegorz Zabocki
describing and clarifying the processes taking place in rural areas was also
connected with pointing to the government and state institutions as the
actors on which so many of these processes depended. he articles devoted
to the role of the state (including its role as a result of the deregulation of
the economy) were less frequent than those about the social and political
activity in local communities. a greater interest in the role of the state
appeared in EEC, although if the concentration of that periodical during
the irst period on the processes of transformation and privatisation can
be connected with activities of the state authorities, maintaining that the
growing interest in the role of the state in processes described in EEC would
be unjustiied. he graph below does not include articles which concerned
the system change and privatisation.
Figure 6. subject state
10
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
RS
SR
JRS
EEC
1995-1999
2000-2004
2005-2010
he subject matter which was covered more frequently in EEC in the second
and third period concerned social inequality, poverty, marginalisation and
social exclusion among various groups in the rural population. his subject
was always present in the other 3 periodicals, whereas it only appeared in
the second period in EEC as if these phenomena were nonexistent or
insigniicant in the irst period, i.e. in 19951999. it is puzzling that the
theme of social inequality, poverty, marginalisation and social exclusion
appeared more frequently in all 3 periods in RS that in SR or JRS.
19
Figure 7. subject inequalities
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
RS
SR
JRS
EEC
1995-1999
2000-2004
2005-2010
EEC stood out for its interest in the changes in ways of using arable land and
its structure, the functioning of cooperatives as well as the socio-economic
structure of rural inhabitants and their sources of income (these questions
were covered least frequently by SR).
in the 4 periodicals the level of interest in social capital, multifunctionality of rural areas and the wide variety of sources of rural family
incomes, as well as the importance of tourism and leisure in rural areas was
equally low (such articles appeared in the 2nd and 3rd period). few articles
discussed these issues and the small diferences between the periodicals
could be noticed in a slightly higher level of interest of JRS in multifunctionality and slightly higher interest of EEC in tourism.
Under 10% of the articles were devoted to theoretical and methodological
problems of rural sociology, the upper limit being slightly higher in RS.
interest in the social aspects of gender diferences was twice as low in the
periodicals, growing in EEC while falling in rs. he 4 periodicals did not
devote many articles to the historical conditions of processes taking place in
rural areas. of all the texts there were about 5% such articles, JRS showing
a growing tendency on this topic and EEC a falling one.
in the titles of a few articles there were words such as unemployment,
animal rights, animal welfare, animal well-being but the methodology used
for establishing the subject matter led to the conclusion that articles devoted
to these issues in the discussed periods were in fact nonexistent.
20
Grzegorz Zabocki
despite their diferences, the 4 analysed periodicals should be considered

similar to one another, at least as far as the content of their articles is
concerned. he assumption that each of them is active primarily in the area
traditionally associated with rural sociology can be conirmed. Will similar
conclusions result from the analysis of physical, geographic territories
described in each of the periodicals and from the analysis of the national
identity of the authors of these articles?
he Researched Territories and the Territorial Identity

of the Authors Writing in the 4 Periodicals
readers of these periodicals know about the diferences in frequency
of references to data and research carried out in diferent parts of the
world and that the authors come from diferent parts of the world. Rural
Sociology traditionally concentrates on the United states, Sociologia Ruralis
focuses most of its attention on Great Britain. he Journal of Rural Studies
concentrates mainly on Western Europe. Eastern European Countryside
outlined its distinctive scope of objectives, its very title highlighting the
area of interest. it would be signiicant if 3 periodicals with the exception
of EEC could be considered as representing the oeuvre of rural sociology
in the widest possible sense, i.e. globally. do they really include in their
texts reports about the most important rural global social phenomena and
their sociologically most innovative analyses?
answering these questions is easier than establishing the subject matter
the periodicals focused on. hey provided the institutional identity of
almost all the authors of the articles (oten the academic institutions
the author was connected with), similarly with establishing the research
location (or what area the data covered), which the given article gave
information about.
he diferences between the 4 periodicals are considerable in this
regard. out of 143 articles in RS only 13 had authors from outside Usa
(5 were canadian, 2 australian). 13 articles had co-authors from outside
Usa (5 were representatives from canada). he rest, i.e. 120 articles had
authors who were exclusively from Usa.
SR and JRS are primarily interested in Western Europe and then with
the economically developed, English-speaking countries Usa, australia,
21
canada and New Zealand. here are very few exceptions to this rule.
he authors of almost 100 out of 132 analysed articles in SR were from
Western Europe (the authors of 40 articles being from the UK, 12 from
Greece, 11 from Norway). he authors of 12 articles were from Usa,
8 from australia, 7 from canada, 3 from New Zealand. only 3 authors
of the articles were from central Europe. 3 articles were by authors from
other non-European countries (Brazil and south africa).
he authors of almost 80 of 144 articles in JRS were from Western
Europe (UK 51 articles, Norway 5 articles, finland 5 articles). he
authors of 20 articles were from Usa, 14 articles from canada, 13
articles from australia and 6 from New Zealand. only 2 articles were
written by people from outside the mentioned territories (south africa
and Hong Kong).
one of the co-authors of 2 articles was from central and Eastern Europe
(from russia and Bulgaria) and one co-author of another 3 articles from
Mexico, hailand and argentina.
Figure 8. articles in rural sociology according to authors and co-authors
1,4
2,8
1,4
3,5
5,6
USA
USA/Canada
3,5
USA/other country
Canada
Australia
Western Europe
other country
81,8
22
Grzegorz Zabocki
Figure 9. articles in sociologia ruralis according to authors and co-authors

4,5
2,3
5,3
Western Europe
6,1
USA
10,6
Australia
Canada
New Zealand
other country
71,2

Figure 10. articles in Journal of rural studies according to authors and co-authors
4,2
1,4
9,0
Western Europe
co-author from
Western Europe
USA
9,7
Canada
Australia
New Zealand
16,0
54,2
5,6
other country
23
he regional identity of the authors publishing in EEC is justiied by

a clear, geographical deinition of the territory which the papers in that
periodical are about. over half of the 140 articles in EEC were written
by authors from central and Eastern Europe (29 articles Poles, 15
Hungarians, 8 russians, 7 czechs). However, the authors of almost
a third of all the articles in EEC were people from Western Europe and
Usa (Germany 13 articles, UK 8, finland 6, Usa 3). if one adds
to that 18 articles whose co-authors were from Usa (there were 10 such
articles) or Western Europe, it appears that in the case of 60 out of 140
articles the author or co-author was from either Western Europe or Usa.
it seems that EEC is the most open periodical with regard to authors from
outside the territory that the articles published in it are about.
he regional character of the analysed periodicals does not undergo
signiicant change ater analysing the regions of the world which the articles
in them were about. 80% of the 124 articles in Rural Sociology which
referred to a speciic part of the world were about the United states. of
the remaining 24 articles 5 were about canada, and the rest about other
regions of the world (only 1 was about a country from within central
and Eastern Europe, i.e. russia). he articles in Sociologia Ruralis oten
referred to phenomena and research in the UK, next in line came the rest
of Western Europe and inally the English speaking countries which are or
were members of the commonwealth. of almost 100 articles in Sociologia
Ruralis (from 1996/1997, 2002/2003 and 2008/2009) 37 concerned the UK,
12 Greece, 6 australia, 5 New Zealand, 4 Usa and 2 canada.
only 11 articles referred to countries outside Western Europe or those
already mentioned, of them 5 referred to phenomena in central and
Eastern Europe.
he structure of regions described in the Journal of Rural Studies is
similar. of 127 articles which were about a speciic area, 34 concerned
the UK, 13 Usa, 13 australia, 10 canada, 7 New Zealand and 7
the EU. only 17 articles were not about Western Europe or areas already
mentioned, of those 7 referred to central and Eastern Europe.
he already mentioned fact that the authors or co-authors of almost half
of the articles in EEC were people from outside central and Eastern Europe
is of particular signiicance if that is compared with data about authors in
the remaining 3 periodicals. authors from outside the territory which the
given periodical focused on, wrote in them: authors from Usa and canada
24
Grzegorz Zabocki
generally wrote about Usa and canada, authors from Western Europe
mainly wrote about Western Europe. sometimes authors from australia
or New Zealand joined that circle. he articles in those 3 periodicals give
the impression that at least 1 of the following circumstances had taken
place:
a) the social phenomena in the rural areas apart from the 2 mentioned
regions did not in fact deserve the attention of rural sociology
periodicals,
b) social phenomena in the rural areas outside the two mentioned
areas were not in fact analysed or researched by anyone in a way as
is done within the framework of rural sociology (and that is why in
rural sociology periodicals articles about these analyses or research
are lacking).
if however, one adds to the above 2 circumstances the observation that
the results of research on such areas carried out by rural sociologists in
central and Eastern Europe, latin america, india, Japan or china were
scarcely published in RS, SR or JRS, then the conclusion that perhaps for
those 3 periodicals rural sociology meant only whatever referred to the
Usa or Western Europe and an article in a rural sociology periodical
could only be a text whose author or co-author represented the Usa or
Western Europe. Exceptions to this rule were very rare in the 3 discussed
periodicals.
However, considering that the authors or co-authors of almost half of
the articles published in the entire period 19952010 in EEC, which referred
to phenomena taking place in central and Eastern Europe, were people
from Western Europe and Usa, the following conclusion can be made:
a) the social phenomena in rural areas outside Western Europe and
Usa were interesting for rural sociologists (rural sociologists from
Usa and Western Europe were interested in them),
b) social phenomena in rural areas outside Western Europe and Usa
were analysed and researched as is done by rural sociologists (they
were analysed and described in EEC by rural sociologists from
Western Europe and Usa).
herefore, the fact that in RS, SR and JRS the areas outside Western
Europe, Usa, canada, australia and New Zealand were written about very
rarely and when that did occur, the authors or co-authors of those articles
were oten people from the mentioned regions, points to the regional
25
character of these periodicals. hey portrayed 2 or 3 relatively small areas

of the world and portrayed them through the eyes of specialists from those
2 or 3 regions.
hat state of afairs did not change. in the later analysed periods the
number of articles referring to other regions and the number of articles
written by authors from other regions continued to be very low.
Summary Who Needs what Kind

of Rural Sociology?
he presented analyses show that to a certain extent the 4 compared
periodicals cover similar phenomena and social processes, with the
exception of the system transformation and privatisation oten discussed
in EEC, and almost nonexistent in RS, SR and JRS. he main focus of these
periodicals as in rural sociology was supposed to be the phenomena and
social processes taking place in rural areas. hey are only really the focus
of those periodicals if they actually take place in Western Europe or Usa
(and were also researched by people from those 2 regions).
such practice could be justiied if it were considered that changes
in the worlds rural areas take place according to one common scenario
where what has occurred in the most developed regions of the world,
will repeat itself ater some time in less developed regions; privatisation
and transformation in central Europe being a short episode restoring the
development of this region to a pattern in accordance with one universal
scenario. However, it is diicult to accept such a point of view considering
that the less developed regions do not have access to such abundant natural
resources which the most developed regions have made use of until now
[World 1987], and relations between the regions of the modern world are
oten of a centre periphery character [Wallerstein 2003]. How can one
evaluate a situation when the real focus of attention of the 3 best known
rural sociology periodicals are Euro-american rural areas (described
by Euro-american authors)? is such a form of handling rural sociology
useful in the distinction and solution of signiicant problems of the current
inhabitants of rural areas?
if the aim of sociological cognition is the acquisition of knowledge
about society, helpful in solving its signiicant problems, it is a matter of
discussion of the extent to which that cognition concentrates its attention
26
Grzegorz Zabocki
on Western Europe and Usa helps solve social problems in regions of

the world which are poorly or less economically developed.7 does it help
outline directions which will permanently improve living conditions in
those regions without destabilising the climate or excessively exploiting
the worlds natural resources?
if such were to be the central problem of modern global society, the
numerous issues currently absorbing the attention of wealthy societies
would be of little signiicance. he ways of development followed by wealthy
societies should not and cannot be repeated by poor societies that is why
the knowledge about what and how things happen in wealthy societies,
is not very useful in solving the problems of poor societies and may even
be used to maintain them in the false conviction about the direction of
future development.
Hence rural sociology periodicals which regionalists have not made
their oicial, essential trait, should recognise that outside their area of
interest globally important social processes are taking place and devote
them appropriately more attention. an alternative would be the creation of
a good periodical in every world region but that is unlikely to happen soon.
a similar necessity arises in current rural sociology, where despite its
universally deined subject Euro-american sociology of Euro-american
rural areas is dominant.
referring to the question of changes in the living conditions of the
rural population in societies where democratic political procedures are
followed if those processes have relatively explicit efects,8 that would
be a factor deserving consideration in planning and supporting those
7
his was one of the issues raised by andrzej Kaleta, the initiator and editor-in-chief of
Eastern European Countryside, in an article published in EEC in 1999 [Kaleta 1999:16].
8
he author of the book describing the oeuvre of Polish sociology concerning the
system transformation gave a positive evaluation of this process without providing the
criteria of that evaluation [Kolasa-Nowak 2010: 165]. Meanwhile, the suicide rate in Poland,
which had for decades been lower in the country than in towns, has been considerably
higher in the country than in towns since the beginning of the transformation [Jarosz
1997: 86; GUs 1995:67]. he average lifespan in the countryside has been lower than in
towns [frenkel 2012:43]. in the 90s the number of students in Poland increased 300%
(from 0.4 to 1.6 million) but the number of places in student accommodation, mainly used
by rural students, only increased 13% [GUs 2001: 239 and 246]. it is diicult to consider
that data as a sign of improvement in the position of the rural population in relation to
the urban population.
27
processes.9 for at least that reason the existence of the periodical which
has been following changes in the rural areas of central and Eastern Europe
for 20 years must be considered worthwhile.
References
Brown, d. l., Bandlerov, a., 1998. research Needs for rural development
in central and Eastern Europe, Eastern European Countryside. Vol. 6, pp.
149157.
Brown, d. l., Bandlerov, a., 2000. Conclusion and Recommendations. Brown,
d. l., Bandlerov, a. (eds), Proceedings of Research Conference, Nitra, pp.
199200.
frenkel, i., 2012. Ludno wiejska (Rural population). in: Wilkin, J. and Nurzyska,
i. (eds.), Polska wie 2012. Raport o stanie wsi (he Polish Countryside. A Report
on the State of the Countryside), Warsaw: scholar, pp. 1564.
Giordano, c. 2012. Przekamana transformacja (A false transformation). in: Kaleta,
a. (ed.) Cztery dekady socjologii na Uniwersytecie Mikoaja Kopernika (Four
decades of sociology at Nicolaus Copernicus University), Toru: Wydawnictwo
Naukowe UMK, pp. 199217.
GUS, Rocznik Statystyczny 1995 (he statistical Yearbook), Warsaw.
GUS, Rocznik Statystyczny 2001 (he statistical Yearbook), Warsaw.
Jarosz, M., 1997. Samobjstwa (Suicides), Warsaw: PWN.
Kaleta, a., 1997. rural sociology on the Eve of the XXi century, Eastern European
Countryside, Vol. 5, pp. 517.
Kolasa-Nowak, a., 2010. Zmiana systemowa w Polsce w interpretacjach socjologicznych (he change of system in Poland in sociological interpretations), lublin:
Wydawnictwo UMcs.
Wallerstein, i., 2003. Emerging Issues in the 21st Century World-system, Westportlondon: Praeger
Weber, B., 2002. introduction to the 10th anniversary of Eastern European
countryside, Eastern European Countryside. Vol. 10, pp. 59.
World Commission on Environment and Development, Our Common Future, 1987.
oxford: oxford University Press.
9
he complex nature of the course and results of the system transformation in the
countries of central and Eastern Europe is thoroughly discussed by christian Giordano,
who has been a member of the editorial team of EEC for 20 years [Giordano 2012: 199217].
doi: 10.2478/eec-2013-0003
19 2013
Krystyna Szafraniec
Looking for a Speciicity of Rural Youth.

he Polish Case
Abstract
in social consciousness a view is embedded that our rural and agrarian areas
are our weakness which limits our development potential and social change.
Whatever the reasons (mostly historical) for this view, the divide into rural and
urban areas, Poland a and Poland B, is frequently referred to and just as frequently
exaggerated, supporting thus various stereotypes and prejudices.1 do they also
concern the young generation?
rural areas in Poland are subject to dynamic transformation. he image of
rural areas and its reception across society is changing positively. he favourable
balance between migration and a growing interest among young people in the
countryside as a future place of residence can be used as an example. However,
this does not mean that the problem of rural areas and regional diferences in
Poland has been resolved. Neither do the changes happen as rapidly as could have
been expected, nor do they happen in parallel in terms of geography and social
structure. Not all of them are positive. he large number of small farms (although
land concentration was expected in agriculture) is disturbing. he succession to
economically weak farmsteads (which shows that in the face of no employment
and non-agricultural life prospects an economically non-viable farm seems from
an individual perspective the best possible solution). his phenomenon gives rise
1
see: szafraniec K., 2004. Polish peasants in the process of system changes. he
socio-historical analysis. Polish Sociological Review. Vol. 4 (147) .
30
Krystyna Szafraniec
to many questions. Here, we only want to discuss the questions concerning the
young generation whether their aspirations and life goals, educational decisions,
places of residence can be conducive to change (inside and outside rural areas)
or rather impede them?
Keywords: rural youth; social, demographic and mental characteristics
Rural Areas as a Living Environment for Young People

Demographic and Social Changes
rural areas have a population of nearly 14 903 056 people, that is 39.2% of
the Polish population, which has remained constant since the end of World
War ii. he number of young people living there is also greater 21.4%
aged 017 (17.2% in cities) and 19.6% aged 1829 (18.5% in cities).2 he
social structure of rural areas has undergone considerable change (Table 1).
Table 1. social structure in rural areas (2009)
Total structure of the rural
population by social status and
employment area
farmers
7.9
private entrepreneurs
2.3
public sector employees

private sector employees
school and university
students
pensioners
7.1
15.5
21.6
retired people
15.3
7.2
Structure of the employed population

and jobs
farmers, horticulturists, ishermen,
forest oicers
parliament members, senior civil
servants, managers
specialists
oice workers
technicians and middle-level
personnel
service providers (personal
services and sellers)
blue collar workers and cratsmen
30.9
3.2
7.0
4.4
5.9
9.2
21.7
Based on: Ludno. Stan i struktura w przekroju terytorialnym. Stan w dniu

30.06.2010 r. [Population. Territorial status and structure as at 30 June 2010], 2010. Warsaw:
central statistical oice (GUs).
31
Looking for a Speciicity of Rural Yoth. he Polish Case
Table 1. social structure in rural areas (2009)

Total structure of the rural
population by social status and
employment area
homeless people
4.6
other socially passive
16.5
no data
2.1
Structure of the employed population

and jobs
machine operators and assemblers
non-qualiied workers
army
9.3
8.1
0.3
source: Based on the survey diagnoza spoeczna 2009 [social diagnosis 2009],
Halamska, M., 2011. Spoeczna kondycja polskiej wsi [Social condition in Polish rural
areas]. in: Nurzyska i., drygas, M. (eds.), Rozwj obszarw wiejskich w Polsce diagnozy, strategie i koncepcje polityki [Development of rural areas in Poland diagnoses,
strategies and policy concepts], institute of rural and agricultural development of the
Polish academy of sciences (irWir PaN), Warsaw.
on the one hand, rural areas are dominated by a professionally passive

population (over 60%) and people with a low social status among the
employed (80%), and on the other, groups non-speciic to rural areas are more
and more visible specialists, higher oicials, oice workers, entrepreneurs
(20.5%) and people with professional qualiications. farmers make up
less than 8% of the rural population and (together with horticulturists,
ishermen and forest oicers) 30% of the employed population, and their
percentage in the rural social structure is diminishing.
Figure 1. Number of young farmers changes ater 2000 in diferent age categories
source: own study based on the statistics of the labour force survey (BaEl) and
agricultural social insurance fund (KrUs).
32
Krystyna Szafraniec
Figure 2. changes in the educational status of young farmers (2009)
source: own study based on the statistics of the labour force survey (BaEl) and
agricultural social insurance fund (KrUs).
he young generation is clearly less interested in becoming farmers

(ig. 1). his process is consistent, although variably intensive in diferent
regions (ig. 2). Young people take over farmsteads mostly in the eastern
and central regions and in the Wielkopolska region, i.e. where on the
one hand there is no better alternative to agriculture, and on the other
there is a tradition of good farming.
Table 2. changes in the educational structure among the rural population
level of education of the rural population
1998
2002
2008
lower-secondary/elementary
60.9
44.0
33.6
Basic vocational education
24.2
29.2
33.6
secondary education
13.1
22.4
25.3
Higher education
1.8
4.3
7.5
100%
100%
100%
Total education
source: central statistical oice (GUs).
33
Young successors to farmsteads are increasingly better educated and

have professional knowledge. he number of people with higher education
is on the increase (from 2.1% in 2003 to 8.9% in 2009), while the number
of people with a lower educational status is decreasing (basic vocational
and lower from 70% in 2003 to 50% in 2009). his relects the qualitative
changes in agriculture, but also a more general trend changes in the
educational structure of the rural population (Table 2).
he educational proile among parents of young people in education has
deinitely improved (every 10th rural parent and every 4th urban parent
has higher-education qualiications). his brings substantial changes to the
socialising context and development conditions of rural children and young
people, nevertheless there is still a wide rural-urban gap. rural parents
do not have suicient competences to help navigate the development of
their children and educational decisions. hey believe that they do not
have a good grasp of the modern world, access to knowledge about new
lifestyles, operating of the global markets, new forms of employment, new
technological tools (internet), etc.3
similar trends (of explicit changes, although still at a distance) can
be observed in other areas. he material conditions of rural families are
improving. he monthly income per household has increased (from PlN
1887 in 2003 to PlN 2399 in 2007). he greatest dynamics can be observed
among farmers and young people. Nevertheless, the average rural income
is still 20% lower than the average income in Poland, the average urban
income is 12.5% higher.4 hese diferences as shown above are even
greater in the case of young people, and therefore satisfaction with material
status, clearly on the increase in this group since 2006, decreased in 2010
and remains at a striking distance to most of the urban centres.5
he greater number of durable goods in rural households (ig. 3), better
housing conditions (consistent with higher norms compared with cities
3
strzemiska, a., Winicka, M., 2011. Modzie na wsi. Raport z badania [rural young
people. survey report}, Pracownia Bada i innowacji stocznia, Warsaw, p. 24.
4
he greatest dynamics can be observed among families of farmers see Sytuacja
gospodarstw domowych w 2010 w wietle wynikw badania budetw gospodarstw domowych
[Households in 2010 in view of the household budget survey results]. Warsaw: central
statistical oice (GUs) , 25 May 2011, p. 21 et seq.
5
see the analyses in section 1 of this report.
34
Krystyna Szafraniec
in terms of metric area)6 change the standards of living of rural young

people.
Figure 3. durable goods in households by place of residence
source: Sytuacja gospodarstw domowych w 2010 w wietle wynikw badania budetw gospodarstw domowych [Households in 2010 in view of the household budget
survey results], 2010. Warsaw: central statistical oice (GUs), 25 May 2011, p. 12.
at the same time there are polarisation processes in rural areas. families
which belong to local elites (white-collar workers with higher education,
estate agents, rich farmers) have the best conditions. families of blue-collar
workers and non-salaried people have the least favourable conditions. he
former invest in the development and education of their children by sending
them to good schools and universities, and thus enable their advancement.
he latter are most oten weak-willed, their children have short and basic
education, following life roles observed in the closest environment.
he diferences between regions do not disappear. it is on the one
hand a division into eastern and western Poland, on the other, into
peripheral regions, where traditional agriculture prevails, and those located
6
he average metric area of an urban lat is 63.4 m2, a rural lat 93.9 m2, in the case
of farmers 116 m2 see Sytuacja gospodarstw domowych ... [Households...], p. 12.
35
around large cities. he divisions have been created to a great extent as

a result of tradition and history, but also insuicient investment which
could have activated non-agricultural labour markets and stopped the
drain of young people from speciic regions.
he regional divisions are paralleled by diferences in status. Where
traditional agriculture prevails, there are more low-status families, and there
also, to some extent automatically, symptoms of other harmful factors can
be observed: a hardly active labour market, a high rate of registered and
non-registered unemployment, low income level, poor infrastructure and
non-expansive schools in terms of overcoming environmental barriers.
Young people originating from such regions have a much greater distance to
cover not only as a result of a poorer environment, but also poorer family
socialisation and educational support. he accumulation of these factors gives
rise to problem areas which are unable to generate their own developmental
opportunities. To overcome them, an external intervention is necessary not
so targeted at a micro level (the programmes Leader and Leader Plus are known
to have been seriously criticised)7, but at long-term development strategies
for speciic regions.8
Mental Characteristics:
is the Polish Countryside Pessimistic and Helpless?
in addition to objective factors determining the conditions of socialisation
and development processes in rural areas subjective factors related to
mentality, social awareness and group views are equally important.
7
Wasielewski, K., (ed.), 2009. Tworzenie partnerstw lokalnych i ich sieci na obszarach
wiejskich. Dowiadczenia z funkcjonowania programu LEADER w Polsce w latach 20042009 [creating local partnerships and their networks in rural areas. Experience from
the lEadEr programme in Poland (20042009)]. Bydgoszcz: University of Economy
(WsG).
8
see Board of strategic advisors to the Prime Minister of Poland (Zds PrM), 2011,
Polska 2030. Trzecia fala nowoczesnoci. dugookresowa strategia rozwoju Kraju (wersja
robocza) [Poland 2030. hird wave of modernity. National long-term development
strategy (drat)], chancellery of the Prime Minister (KPrM), Warsaw 2011, and Krajowa
Strategia Rozwoju Regionalnego [National regional development strategy], 2010. Warsaw:
Ministry of regional development (Mrr).
36
Krystyna Szafraniec
among them inactivity, lack of self-conidence, pessimism (as a reverse

of optimism) oten attributed to rural communities have particular
modeling importance. depending on how very optimistic or pessimistic
we are, we have a more positive or negative attitude to life, ourselves and
our future. We feel better or worse, we either do or do not believe in our
own potential, cope with diiculties or cannot cope with them.
here is a widespread attitude that optimism/pessimism is a speciic
type of expectation of the future its postivie or negative notion. optimism
means the belief in a good, bright and safe future whereas pessimism
reversely that it will be black, bad, negative and threatening. he optimist
trusts that things wil improve whereas the pessimist does not believe
in a good tomorrrow. optimism has positive emotions and thoughts
about the future whereas pessimism has negative emotions and thoughts
about the future. due to these references to the future optimism and
pessimism understood in this way are oten described as being anticipative
(declarative)9. an optimist generally has a positive attitude to life and
a potential of life activity whereas the pessimist is passive, helpless and gives
in to diiculties. optimism or pessimism understood in this way does not
always it in with the behaviour of many people and social groups who in
spite of having bad expectations for the future, manage to act positively
to change their own lives. it is similar with the paradoxical behaviour of
optimists people who are so convinced that everything will be ine that
they do nothing (because you have to believe that the good will somehow
just come).
for that reason the approach applied in social psychology is more
reliable it emphasises that being optimists or pessimists oten lies beyond
our awareness. optimism and pessimism is a speciic (automatic) way of
expressing our daily successes or failures. We are equipped for this through
practical experience. Early socialisation and the way people from our closest
environment approach life, how they view the causes of their successes
and failures, how long they expect to experience them and how they see
their inluence on other aspects of their lives have a key signiicance10
9
siciski, a. (ed.), 1978. Styl ycia przemiany we wspczesnej Polsce (Life style
changes in Modern Poland), Warsaw: PWN.
10
seligman, M., 1993. Optymizmu mona si nauczy (optimism can be learnt)
Pozna: Wydawnictwo Media rodzina of Pozna.
37
[seligman 1993]. Pessimists believe that bad experiences in their lives

will last long, will inluence all their activities and are the result of their
own fault. optimists treat them totally diferently. hey consider failure
as being something shortlived and do not blame themselves. hey see it
as bad luck, unfavourable circumstances or caused by others. such people
are not put of by failure. hey consider difcult situations as a challenge
and try harder. he essential virtue of optimism is that it gives rise to
perseverance in pursuing ones goal (despite lack of talent or motivation)
whereas its drawback is that it deforms the view of reality and may lead
to blaming others as being responsible for ones failures. he advantage
of pesssimism is greater realism in perceiving reality, there are far more
disadvantages pessimism leads to depression, gives rise to inertia reather
than activity, is the source of negative emotions: worries, distress and
depression. it has a negative inluence on ones health and professional
career.11 hese two diferent ways of thinking about the reasons for success
and failure in life have signiicant consequences. Much research shows that
pessimists give up more easily and are more oten defeated. he opposiste
happens to optimists.
such optimism/pessimism can be analysed psychometrically and the
result which is expressed in igures can be graded on a scale from optimism
to pessimism. such a prospect, applied beside the traditional, anticipative
one in the research of rural areas gave an interesting result.12 firstly, the
research results show various levels of optimism and pessimism depending
on the applied method of measurement declarative or connected with
the style of attribution (ig. 4).
11
External attributes are a feature of the optimistic clariication of ones failures.

research was carried out in six rural communes (and two urban ones) in 2004.
apart from the questions addressed directly to the respondents about their optimistic
or pessimistic attitude to the future a scale was applied which was culturally adapted to
Polish reality and countryside as a way of constructing tools and a method of analysing
data together with detailed results, their description and interpretation. it was presented
in a book by szafraniec, K., Kapita ludzki i zasoby spoeczne wsi, (Human capital and
rural social resources) op.cit.
12
38
Krystyna Szafraniec
Figure 4. declarative optimism/ pessimism and as a style of attribution (N=1100)

100%
90%
80%
20,9
43,9
70%
35,2
60%
optimism
50%
optimism/pessimism
40%
30%
pessimism
44,4
43,9
20%
10%
11,7
0%
declared
attribution style
source: research spoeczny, edukacyjny i psychologiczny potencja polskiej wsi,

(he social, educational and psychological potential of the Polish countryside),
2004.
Figure 5. optimistic vs. Pessimistic style of attribution: diferences countryside
town (N=1100)
100%
90%
3,8
17,5
2,1
15,1
80%
70%
60%
optimist
34,2
44,1
50%
optimist/pessimist
40%
30%
moderate optimist
moderate pessimist
21,6
22,6
pessimist
20%
10%
22,9
16,1
0%
rural areas
urban areas
source: research spoeczny, edukacyjny i psychologiczny potencja polskiej wsi,

(he social, educational and psychological potential of the Polish countryside),
2004.
39
declarative research gives a far more advantageous view while there

are 11.7% declarative pessimists in the countryside, a pessimistic style of
attribution is presented by 44%. it is the reverse for optimism whereas
there are 44% declarative optimists, 21% present an optimistic style of
attribution. Neverthesss pessimism is not a speciically rural feature
among the inhabitants of the researched urban communes features of
a pessimistic style of attribution were presented by almost 40% of the
researched people, i.e. 4 points less than in the countryside (ig. 5).
it is puzzling that there are not many mental diferences between the
younger and older rural inhabitiants. although optimism/pessimism is
not a simple function of age, the expectation that young people will be
more optimistic seems justiied. in reality (in the research) they are more
pessimistic (48% vs. 45%). Why? he origin of optimism/pessimism is the
result of earlier life experiences, particularly daily learning and observing
the style of attribution applied by people in the immediate milieu and has
a strong inluence on the shaping of ones own way of thinking. analysis
shows a strong statistical connection in the style of attribution represented
by young peole with status factors. hose representing a higher status (they
have already managed to create better living conditions or have invested
in that direction, e.g. have started studying) more frequently reveal an
optimistic style. in the countryside entrepreneurs who are more educated
and the local rural intelligentsia (among them people becoming leaders in
the local community) are generally more optimistic. Pessimists are far
more frequently people who are professionally passive, workers, the owners
of not very successful farms and secondary school youth (generally pupils
in vocational schools or others with poor school results, from average or
low social status families). Young people choosing other career paths (good
secondary schools in large towns and then university studies) are open to
another type of stimulation, another way of thinking about the world and
another evaluation of their own potential. hey learn other (optimistic)
patterns of attribution and by crossing further cultural barriers overcome
patterns of thinking acquired in the family milieu (ig. 6).
his process, no matter how it functions in both categories of youth
both those who choose a short vocational education path and those
who choose a long path (leading to unversity) those following a longer
education path has a greater efectiveness. Nowhere is it automatic, the
transgressive efect of education undergoes silencing under the inluence of
40
Krystyna Szafraniec
diicult living conditions and poor future prospects. a drop in optimism

is noticed both among young people returning to the countryside ater
short vocational education and undertaking roles adequate to their status
(not too promising) as well as among those following university studies
who observe the job market and threatened possibilites of achieving their
life goals with anxiety. Education does not therefore act automatically,
supericially or permanently.13
Figure 6. optimistic vs pessimistic style of attribution among young rural inhabitants
(1735 year-olds) including educational diferences (N=435)
100%
90%
15,5
21,2
80%
70%
41,2
30,0
60%
optimistic style of
attribution
39,0
50%
33,3
40%
30%
pessimistic style of
attribution
54,7
20%
optimistic/pessimistic
39,8
25,5
10%
0%
lower than
secondary
secondary
higher
source: spoeczny, edukacyjny i psychologiczny potencja polskiej wsi, (he social,

educational and psychological potential of the Polish countryside), 2004.
While an optimistic style of attribution generally encourages people to

formulate high life aspirations, the pessimistic one usually acts helplessly
it either lowers the life aspirations in relation to the potential or generates
dreaminess which has nothing to do with undertaken actions. his inluence
can also be seen in the way of functioning in life. optimists more oten
apply expansive strategies (they aim to multiply what they have already
13
Kwieciska-Zdrenka, M., (2004). Aktywni czy bezradni wobec wasnej przyszoci?,

(Active or helpless towards their own future).Toru: Wydawnictwo Naukowe UMK, see
too: cikowicz, B., 2009., Wyuczona bezradno modziey (Learned helplessness of youth).
Bydgoszcz: Wydawnictwo Naukowe UKW.
41
achieved to give their lives a new quality). Pessimists more oten apply the
shelter strategy (upholding and defending the status quo).
Figure 7. he life strategy according to optimistic or pessimistic style of attribution
(young rural inhabitants, N=435)
100%
90%
1,9
11,7
4,7
26,3
80%
70%
31,4
optimist
60%
moderate optimist
35,1
50%
40%
optimist/pessimist
26,5
moderate pessimist
30%
17,0
pessimist
20%
10%
28,4
17,0
0%
shelter' strategy
expansive strategy
source: spoeczny, edukacyjny i psychologiczny potencja polskiej wsi (he social,

educational and psychological potential of the Polish countryside), 2004.
it is interesting that this principle is stronger in the countryside than in

towns in town a higher percentage of people with a pessimistic style of
attribution make more daring life decisions. in the countryside pessimism
leads to greater helplessness. his should not be linked with mental
diferences but is rather a question of life diferences and prospects.
Rural Young People

What and Who do hey Want to Be?
in the processes of system-wide transformation, and in particular in the
era of great civilisation challenges, the question whether or not rural young
people are suiciently open-minded and whether or not they manage,
will not stand out against urban young people, is an important issue.
Undoubtedly, they cannot be considered life minimalists. although more
modest than urban young people, they intend to pursue various careers and
42
Krystyna Szafraniec
lifestyles. 40% of rural (and nearly 60% of urban) young people aspire to
high social status. Young people are not at all interested in the prospect of
being farmers 0.1% of young people14 declared their readiness to work as
farmers in 1998, while 0.2% (a few persons against a population of several
thousand) ten years later. 30% of rural (and 50% of urban) young people
aspire to a high income (starting salary of PlN 3500). rural young people
slightly more frequently come to terms with rank and ile job positions.
Twice as oten they accept the principle of living modestly (36% compared
to 18% in cities). Nevertheless their idea about a successful life little deviates
from the ideas held by (demanding) urban young people they focus on
ailiation values, interesting jobs, good social status, and a colourful life
of luxury15 (ig. 8).
Figure 8. important matters for 19-year-old rural and urban young people
source: own study Porzucona generacja cieki edukacyjne i wchodzenie w doroso [abandoned generation educational paths and reaching adulthood], 2007.
self-descriptions of rural and urban teenagers are similar, but rural

youths more explicitly cultivate tradition-speciic traits (attachment to
14
complete population survey comprising 15-year-olds starting secondary school

in the Toru Province (N=4651).
15
szafraniec, K., 2011., Youth 2011. Poland. Warszawa: chancellery of the Prime
Minister (KPrM).
43
family, religion, modesty, thritiness, resourcefulness, artfulness), they

are more conventional, ordinary, oriented towards the acceptance of their
environment (ig. 9). hese traits are less prominent, as compared to the
past (especially morals and opinions have changed), nevertheless, in
terms of tradition (post)modernity axis, rural young people are closer
to the irst axis pole, which can be observed not as much in numbers as
in mentality.
Figure 9. self-descriptions of 19-year-old rural and urban young people
source: own study Porzucona generacja cieki edukacyjne i wchodzenie w doroso [abandoned generation educational paths and reaching adulthood], 2007.
hey are more traditional as regards marriage and the family. hey
are not only more in favour of marriage as the most suitable way of being
together but also less frequently get divorced. Nevertheless the divorce rate
in the countryside has been on the rise for many years and is relatively
more frequent among young people (ig. 10).
44
Krystyna Szafraniec
Figure 10. divorces among 1000 existing marriages in towns and in the countryside
2009
2008
2005
urban areas
2000
rural areas
1990
1980
0
10
15
source: own study on the basis of: Rocznik Demograiczny 2010, (demographic
annual 2010), 2010. Warsaw: GUs, p. 179.
Figure 11. he fertility rate of women in Poland in the years 19502008
source: Jwiak, J., Kotowska, i. and E. Matysiak, 2010. Czy liczba dzieci w Polsce
musi spada? (Does the number of children in Poland have to fall?). Warszawa: GUs.
We come across similar ambivalences when deining the family. in the

countryside the family continues to be deined in a very traditional way
not only by pointing to a couple of adults who have children but also by
adding that a church marriage is a constitutive condition.16 at the same
16
dyczewski, l., 2009. Wyobraenia modziey o maestwie i rodzinie, (Young

peoples ideas about marriage and the family) lublin: KUl.
45
time cases of cohabitation and extramarital births in the rural milieu are
becoming more clearly naturalised.17 While childlessness is not socially
acceptable in the countryside (by young people too)18 the procreation
patterns are clearly undergoing change. as a result the fertility rate as
in the whole of Poland is also falling (ig. 11).
he most surprising changes are taking place in relation to religion
and in the area of catholic morality. While the declared faith of rural
inhabitants and the level of religious practice have hardly changed over
the past twenty years, among young people changes in this regard are quite
signiicant. since 1992 the percentage of people aged from 18 to 24 who
practise regularly has fallen 21 points (from 86% to 65%) and the number
of those going to church occasionally has risen almost threefold (from
11% to 31%). However, when compared with all the people researched
between the ages of 18 and 24, the rural youth still show a relatively high
attachment to religious practice.19although rural youth are still mostly in
favour of catholic morality, the speciicity is a quesiton of minor diferences.
in 19892005 the average rate of answers approving ive catholic norms of
marital and family morality (answers unacceptable/forbidden) dropped
from 38.0% to 28.7% among the youth.20 deviations from traditional
sexual morality are so signiicant Janusz Mariaski comments the results
of research, that it can be described as a moral revolution. he moral
awareness of young catholics in relation to marriage and the family is
undergoing processes of pluralism and relativism. rigorism as regards
sexuality is clearly dropping. Many young Poles are feeling more as the
creators than the addressees of moral norms. in daily life many compromises
are reached as regards marital and family morality and hence the picture of
moral stances is neither explicit nor harmonious. in a moral evaluation of
17
slany, K., 2002. Alternatywne formy ycia maesko-rodzinnego w ponowoczesnym

wiecie, (Alternative ways of marital family life in the post-modern world). Krakw: Zakad
Wydawniczy NoMos, pp. 174194.
18
Postawy prokreacyjne Polakw (he Poles attitude to procreation), 2010. Warszawa:
cBos.
19
Dwie dekady przemian religijnoci w Polsce (Two decades of change in religiousness
in Poland), 2010. Warszawa: cBos, pp. 1723.
20
Zarba, s. H., 2008. W kierunku jakiej religijnoci? Studia nad katolicyzmem polskiej
modziey, (Towards what kind of religiousness? Studies on the catholicism of Polish youth).
Warsaw: Zakad Wydawnictw statystycznych, pp. 287321.
46
Krystyna Szafraniec
abortion, contraception and other issues of sexual morality there is a move

towards individual conscience. recommendations of the institutional
church play a secondary role, priority in formulating norms remains with
the individual.21 he main reason for these changes are the processes of
modernisation coming with post-modernism and most Polish youth also
succumb to it.22
he diferences in life patterns and lifestyle among older generations
diminish among the youngest ones (ig. 12), who are to a similar degree
in favour of a more or less conventional (or more or less sophisticated)
consumerist lifestyle.
Figure 12. life orientations of thirty-year-olds: rural areas versus urban areas
source: own study he abandoned generation educational trajectories and

entering adolescence, 2007.
it may prove that being more expansive, the inluence of consumerism

upon younger generations of youth is more efective. one in three (in
cities and rural areas) aspires to at least a satisfying social position and
decent living standard connected with a conventional idea of success
inancial security, own properly furnished apartment or house, a family,
opportunities of enjoyable leisure time. However, more of them go further
in their aspirations and perceive a successful life with less conventional
21
Mariaski, J., 2008. Emigracja z Kocioa. Religijno modziey polskiej w warunkach

zmian spoecznych, (Emigration from the Church. he Religiousness of Polish youth in times
of social change). lublin: Wydawnictwo KUl, pp. 357360.
22
Mariaski, J., 2010, Religia w spoeczestwie ponowoczesnym. Studium socjologiczne,
(Religion in post-modern society. A sociological study). Warsaw: oicyna Wydawnicza.
47
achievements which may include an interesting and dynamic professional

career, a high income and lifestyle shaped by sophisticated consumption.
Paradoxically, these expectations are rarely combined with the need for
wider participation in social life and cultural activity, with celebration of
family life and sociability (so-called sentimentalists).
Figure 13. life orientations of nineteen-year-olds: rural areas versus urban areas
source: own study he abandoned generation educational trajectories and

entering adolescence, 2007.
Figure 14. Which is better?
source: own study, 2009 (nineteen-year-olds N=846).
furthermore, there are no signiicant observable diferences in their

readiness to accept the challenges dictated by the new requirements of
the labour market and globalisation, the most fundamental of which
are mobility and lexibility. he mobility of rural nineteen-year-olds, i.e.
their declared readiness to take various forms of gainful employment,
48
Krystyna Szafraniec
changing jobs, employers or places of residence is comparable to the

declared mobility of urban youth (the highest in the case of changing
jobs 52%, and the lowest in changing the place of residence 30%) and
higher than among thirty-year-olds.
Figure 15. Which is better?
source: own study, 2009 (nineteen-year-olds N=846).
once again, the data may suggest better adaptation skills of the younger
generations of rural youth and convergence of their proile with that of
their urban peers. he above does not exclude some diferences between
them. such an assumption would be easy to refute. diferences do exist but
they result not only from the fact that one lives either in an urban or rural
area, but rather from the fact that one grows up in micro worlds shaped
by a speciic family background (parents social position, their inancial
status and the ways they think about the future of their children). Today
the above are the main determinants of rural youths life opportunities.
he area we live in takes second place, although it is crucial for quality
of the educational ofer available in rural and urban areas and poorer
educational opportunities of rural youth still being decreased by a high
low-status factor.
Educational Opportunities for Rural Young People

Pre-school education, which is the most important stage in creating equal
educational opportunities as it covers an early development phase, is
49
not common in rural areas. While in cities most 34 year olds attend
pre-school establishments, in rural areas most of them stay at home
(fig. 16). rural children are raised in a familiar environment, far away
from strangers, however they do not have stimulation providing them
with new social relations, new types of experience or a diferent type
of sensitivity. furthermore, children attending pre-school institutions,
contrary to urban children, mostly attend kindergarten units near schools,
not kindergartens (ig. 17).
he regional diferences are substantial the greatest percentage of
children attending kindergartens can be found in the western provinces
(opolskie, lskie and Wielkopolskie), the smallest in central and eastern
Poland as these regions are to a greater extent agricultural areas, and as
a consequence have a lower level of professional activity among women. as
a result, there are no institutional services of child care (because women
do not work either way), and in this context they are secondarily related
to the traditional roles, which reinforces diferences between regions.
Figure 16. Percentage of urban and rural children attending pre-school
establishments
source: Owiata i wychowanie w roku szkolnym 2009/10 [Schooling and education in

the school year 2009/2010], 2010. Warsaw: central statistical oice (GUs), p. 54.
50
Krystyna Szafraniec
Figure 17. Urban and rural pre-school education establishments

8000
6930
7000
6000
5609
kindergardens
5000
4000
kindergarden units near

elementary schools
2832
3000
pre-school education
units
2073
2000
1000
650
169
0
Urban areas
Rural areas
source: Owiata i wychowanie w roku szkolnym 2009/10 [Schooling and education in

the school year 2009/2010], 2010. Warsaw: central statistical oice (GUs), p. 54.
he later commencement of relations with the extra-familial environment

and education is the second apart from poorer primary socialisation
factor which contributes to the distance between rural and urban young
people. his is further fostered by the working conditions of rural schools,
poorer in terms of infrastructure (four times as few laboratories, twice as
few gym halls and more limited educational services in foreign languages as
compared to urban schools), culture (due to the cultural capital brought to
school and the quality of social support, rural schools start at a disadvantage
and have a greater distance to cover). other factors which contribute to this
distance is the institutional poverty of rural areas underlying the lack of
cultural stimulation and meeting places where young people can spend their
free time together, discover and develop their interests.23 in practical terms,
this means the constant presence of family- and environment-generated
23
strzemiska, a., Winicka, M., op. cit., p. 2425, 52 et seq.
51
stigmas in the consciousness and self-assessment of young people, and as

a consequence, in their educational decisions based on smaller risk.24
Table 3. Percentage of rural and urban youth in diferent types of upper-secondary
schools
school
type
dwelling place
2003
2009
countryside
small
town
big city
countryside
small
town
big city
vocational
15.3
3.2
9.5
13.0
3.7
8.8
technical
secondary
35.2
31.2
26.9
38.9
33.0
30.3
general
secondary
49.5
65.6
63.6
48.1
63.3
60.8
Total
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
source: domalewski, J., 2010. spoeczne, rodowiskowe i edukacyjne uwarunkowania drg szkolnych modziey dynamika zmian (social, environmental and educational conditions of young peoples school paths the dynamic of change). Warsaw:
irWir PaN, seminar 5 february 2010.
rural young people, as a majority of Polish young people aspiring

to higher education, choose mainly general secondary schools (56% of
lower-secondary students), usually, however, these are schools with a lower
standard of teaching and requirements. More and more oten they choose
technical upper-secondary schools. over a period of 6 years, interest in
these schools has increased by 10 pp (from 24.4% in 2003 to 34.1% in
2009).25 for over a decade rural young people have been observed to show
24
domalewski, J., 2006. szkoa wiejska katalizator czy inhibitor zmian systemowych?
[rural school a catalytic agent or inhibitor of system-wide changes?], doctoral thesis,
Toru: institute of sociology at Nicolaus copernicus University (is UMK).
25
domalewski, J., 2011. Wymiary i uwarunkowania zrnicowania szkolnictwa
ponadgimnazjalnego [he context and conditions underlying the diferences in uppersecondary schools]. in: domalewski, J., Wasielewski, K. (eds.), 2011. Zmiany w edukacji
szkoa i jej spoeczne otoczenie [Changes in education school and its social environment],
Toru: Wydawnictwo adam Marszaek.
52
Krystyna Szafraniec
a strong interest in higher education (up to nearly 70% of secondary school

graduates at its peak). in the traditional academic establishments rural
young people make up on average 21% of the total number of students,
in the new ones up to 35%. rural young people usually choose those
universities and courses which ofer more lenient enrolment procedures
lower competition at the start, the greater percentage of rural young people.
another important factor underlying their preferences and educational
decisions is the certainty of employment guaranteed by speciic university
studies rural secondary school graduates more oten enrol in traditional
courses which enable acquiring a speciic profession (e.g. teachers),
imaginable to them. hey also apply to those universities which have fewer
applicants. hey employ characteristic progressive strategies gradually
raise their standards and reach successive goals, which is greatly supported
and promoted by experienced successes and new challenges. due to their
exceptional motivation to learn combined with intellectual advantages, rural
young people are frequently better students than their urban peers.26
he Future of Rural Areas from the Perspective

of Young Peoples Life Decisions
What future awaits the countryside? Will it be teeming with life or become
depopulated? at the end of the last decade it was still considered a worse
place to live in. Today, these views have signiicantly changed which is as
much a result of positive changes in rural areas as of the increased risk of
living elsewhere. he view that rural areas ofer no prospects for young
people is to a greater extent characteristic for the rural elderly (60%) than
young people (45%) which is a considerable change in comparison with the
past. 50% of rural and 13% of urban young people declare their willingness
to live in the countryside. hese are more oten young people from families
with relatively lower status, more oten boys than girls, people with less
successful educational careers and who are less demanding towards life,
but concerned about ecology, living far from city noise, oriented towards
life harmony.
26
Wasielewski, K., 2012. Drogi modziey wiejskiej na uniwersytet [Educational paths

of rural young people to university]. Toru: Wydawnictwo Naukowe UMK.
53
However, who returns to live in rural areas having completed their

education and why? on the one hand, these are people with lower-status
education and less useful professional qualiications who cannot aford
an independent life in the city. in rural areas they most oten fuel the
ranks of the unemployed,27 emigrants28, members (or successors) of their
fathers farmstead. on the other hand, these are graduates of secondary
schools and universities (also from cities) who ind employment in
self-government administration, NGo networks or local cultural and
educational institutions.
Who does not return to live in rural areas? Most university graduates
(2/3) do not come back. hey are attracted to urban agglomerations and
regions with greater development dynamics. Brain drain processes start as
soon as the selection of university the best secondary school graduates
leave their own regions and go to centres with greater dynamics and
development (e.g. from Warmia-Masuria to Warsaw, Pozna or Gdask).
here are more women among them. he reasons include the labour
market, or rather the lack thereof in rural areas, also the aspiration of
contemporary women for independence and life partners with a higher
or at least comparable status and promising life prospects.
if in the second half of the 1990s we still wondered whether rural young
people were able to face the challenges of the transformation period
whether they would manage to integrate into the newly emerging series of
changes and be able, with their (educational, life) decisions and choices, to
overcome the social structure reproduction processes in rural areas, then
these concerns have now disappeared. hese young people are diferent than
their peers from the past and represent the greatest mental similarities to
urban young people. it is not that the speciic features of rural young people
are fading away. hey are still more traditional, more conventional in their
choices and less pampered by life. hey more oten accept such a situation.
at the same time their problem is that their awakened life aspirations can be
expressed neither in rural areas nor elsewhere the possibilities ofered in
rural areas are not suiciently diversiied and extensive, while large urban
27
in 2007 there were 59.1% unemployed people aged 34, in 2009 63.7%; in cities
51.3% and 52% respectively.
28
Young residents in rural areas are the largest group of emigrants: 43.6% permanent
emigrants and 85.6% temporary emigrants.
54
Krystyna Szafraniec
centres are too competitive and expensive for a start into an independent
life. he decision to live in the countryside is still considered an emergency
option, it guarantees safer survival for those who are not suiciently ready
to compete for a social position in a city.
he agricultural sector although not entirely unattractive for young
people shows astonishing survival ability. he reasons for that include
on the one hand positive changes in agriculture and management,
while on the other, the absorptive power of non-agricultural labour
markets which narrow down the possibilities of rural young people. he
processes of generational exchange accelerate the internal polarisation of
rural areas which will contribute both to a greater emergence of modern
agriculture and rural entrepreneurship, and expansion (especially in some
regions where the modernisation processes are poorly advanced) of
poverty margins serviced by social transfers. he reduced opportunities
of economic migration to EU countries, afected in some respects with
a much more serious downturn in the economy than Poland, can intensify
social problems in rural areas. he inertness in reviving labour markets
in agricultural regions will deepen the existing diferences between the
centre and the peripheral areas. herefore, it is so important to develop
management strategies for large investments which will prevent the
establishment and extension of diferences between regions equally
important as the investments in the development of digital network and
infrastructure in rural areas which could not only change the occupational
prospects of the young generation, but also reduce the mental, social and
civic exclusion thanks to the availability of such areas where most urban
young people live.
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doi: 10.2478/eec-2013-0004
19 2013
Kinga Kerekes, Bernadett Pakucs
Occupational Choices of Romanian Rural Youth
Abstract
his paper tries to identify the main factors inluencing the decisions related to
occupational choices of rural youth from cluj county, romania, thus contributing
to a better understanding of the problems and opportunities of romanian rural
communities. in order to achieve this, the results of two surveys are compared: the
irst one was carried out in 2007 and the second in 2011. he two surveys adopted
the same methodology, thus allowing us to test the stability of the outcomes over
a period of four years and highlight the main changes occurring in that period.
in 2011 information was collected also regarding the current situation of young
people belonging to the irst generation, thus the cross-sectional analysis has been
completed with a longitudinal analysis. results show that the educational choices
of rural youth from cluj county were not essentially modiied in the period
20072011, but there is a growing uncertainty regarding their future profession.
Most of them want to work in the services sector, the preference for agriculture
remaining low and there is a clear and persistent gender division among chosen
professions. he main factors identiied as having an inluence on continuing
education are: gender (more girls opting for continuing education than boys),
school results and parents attitude towards education. Based on the conclusions
of the analysis, some policy implications are also discussed.
Keywords: rural area, youth, education, occupational choice, employment
58
Introduction
several studies demonstrate that people with a low level of education face
more diiculties in inding a job and when employed, earn less (Berryman
et al. 2007; fazakas and Kzdi 2007; fekete and Velkey 2002; Kertesi
and Varga 2005; kes 2007). hose who completed tertiary education
in romania earn on average 55% higher salaries than those who only
completed basic education (World Bank 2008). low education level had
also been identiied as a factor limiting the capacity to develop and run
a business (Jakimovski 2010). Jsz (2010: 169) found a clear causal link
between a disadvantaged situation and a low level of schooling and
Jakimovski (2010: 148) concluded that education is one of the crucial
dimensions in social stratiication. a World Bank report on romanian
labour market vulnerabilities (World Bank 2008) pointed out that schooling
increases the likelihood of an individuals being employed in the services
sector and decreases the likelihood of being employed in agriculture. he
services sector requires well educated employees (olh 2010).
in all oEcd countries, the most important disadvantages faced by
youth let behind are the lack of a recognized qualiication or diploma,
the immigrant/minority background and living in disadvantaged/rural/
remote neighbourhoods (oEcd 2009). hus, rural young people with low
or no education face cumulated disadvantages.
statistical data in romania, as well as in other parts of the world, reveal
that people living in rural areas are less educated than people living in urban
areas (Kerekes and Vincze 2009). he low level of human and social capital
represents a challenge for the future of rural areas (Katonn Kovcs 2010:
33). furthermore, low aspirations of the children can lead to a low skills
equilibrium where employers do not relocate to an area because of lack
of skills, and young people do not seek to acquire skills owing to lack of
skilled job opportunities (fieldsend 2011: 149).
recognizing the importance of education for rural young people, this
paper presents the empirical results of ield research carried out in cluj
county. he main research questions addressed by this paper are:
What are the choices of rural young people regarding continuing
education, future profession and place of work?
59
What are the main factors inluencing the choice for continuing
education?
according to the provisional data of the 2011 Population census1,
romania has a total population of 19,043,000 persons, 52.8% living in
municipalities and towns (forming the urban area) and 47.2% in communes
(administrative units composed of villages, forming the rural area). Towns
and communes are grouped into counties (NUTs3 level regions). cluj
county, where the ield research was carried out, is more urbanized as the
country average, 65.9% out of its total population of 434,400 live in the
urban and 34.1% in the rural area.
1.2%
2.0%
0.8%
1.6%
No school
and no
response
1992
2002
Urban
29.8%
18.9%
34.1%
18.2%
rural
11.4%
14.3%
15.7%
19.6%
Primary
education
3.6%
5.0%
Secondary
education
Post-high
school
education
9.5%
13.1%
Vocational
education
Tertiary
education
1992
2002
High
school
education
Romania
Table 1. he educational level of labour resources from romania in 1992 and 2002,
by urban and rural area
29.3%
23.4%
7.6%
4.9%
1.3%
1.3%
41.6%
39.7%
25.6%
5.1%
17.1%
4.3%
source: Nis 2005:75.
data from previous censuses (from 1992 and 2002) provide an insight
on the educational level of labour resources2. Between 1992 and 2002 the
share of labour resources with higher education, as well as of those who
graduated from high school increased all over the country (table 1). he
reasons are multiple. firstly, the educational level of those who grew older
than 65 between the two censuses was lower than of those who entered the
labour market in the same period. he second reason is that the number
of young people graduating from university had increased in the period
1
available at www.recensamantromania.ro
labour resources are deined as all persons aged 1564 and active persons over
the age of 64.
2
60
19922002, because ater 1990 the number of places at the state universities
increased and also many private universities were established.
despite these improvements, the educational level of the rural labour
force remained very low compared to urban areas. future prospects are not
very optimistic either, because the rate of early school leaving continues to
be high and participation in lifelong learning low (ciuc et al. 2006).
Table 2. he structure of education in romania
Age Year ISCED
6
5
4
>
19
18
Xiii
17
Xii
16
Xi
15
14
iX
13
12
11
10
9
8
7
6
Viii
Vii
Vi
V
iV
ii
ii
i
35
Qualiication
level
5
4
Level of education
University education
Post-secondary non tertiary education
Technical high
school
complementary
arts,
Technical
heoretical
year
sports and
high
high
theological
Vocational
school
school
high school
school (until
2009/2010)
2
1
2
lower secondary education (comprehensive
education)
Primary education (comprehensive education)
Kindergarten
source: http://www.edu.ro/index.php/articles/c215/.
for a better understanding of the research methods and results, an

overview of the structure of education from romania may be necessary (see
table ii). Most village schools only provide primary and lower secondary
education. for several years (including school year 2006/2007 when the irst
61
survey was carried out) there used to be an examination at the end of the 8th
year and only those passing the exam were admitted to high school (which
is a pre-condition for university education). hose who failed the exam
could enrol to vocational schools and obtain (in three years) a qualiication
in a crat. Vocational school graduates, ater further examination, could
transfer to high school. his selection system was changed in school year
2007/2008 and currently more tests are applied during the 7th and 8th
year, instead of the end-of-8th year examination; the results of these tests,
combined with yearly averages achieved, would determine admission to
a chosen high school. from school year 2009/2010, vocational schools were
transformed into technical high schools, but the admission procedures to
high schools were preserved.
Research Methods and Materials

in order to answer the research questions, two surveys were carried out
among rural young people from cluj county. during the irst survey
empirical data were collected in february-June 2007 in secondary schools
from 19 communes (25.33% of the total number of communes from cluj
county) 8th year pupils were involved in the survey. he second survey
(carried out in March-april 2011) adopted the same methodology as the
irst: the same questionnaire was applied to pupils in the 8th year from the
same communes.
communes were selected using criteria such as: geographical location,
distance from the county residence cluj-Napoca, accessibility (by road
and railway), population size, age structure and level of development.
hus it was ensured that diferent types of communes were represented
in the sample.
statistical data show that the villages from the sample have similar
trends as regards the number of pupils enrolled in lower secondary
education (ig. 1) and their share in the total population (ig. 2), as the whole
rural area from cluj county, which also demonstrates that the selection
of the villages lead to a sample representative for cluj county.
he questionnaire applied to pupils included 54 items, tackling the
following issues: choice for continuing education and school type (high
school, vocational school or not continuing education), aspiration for
university studies, chosen profession and place (locality) of work. Besides,
62
Figure 1. Trends in the number of pupils enrolled in lower secondary education

(100% = values from 2006)
104%
102%
100%
98%
Total Romania
96%
Cluj County
94%
Cluj County Rural
92%
Villages from
the sample
90%
88%
86%
84%
82%
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
source: Nis, 2012.

Figure 2. share of pupils enrolled in lower secondary education in total population
Total Romania
4,45%
4,28%
Rural Romania
4,34%
3,69%
3,32%
4,02%
Total Cluj County
3,50%
3,32%
3,34%
Rural Cluj County
3,08%
Villages from the research
sample
2006
source: Nis, 2012.
2010
63
questions were included referring to age, gender, health status, place of

residence, school results, opinion about the school, main values, family
structure, education level of the parents and siblings, parents occupation,
and the size and structure of the family farm. all 8th year pupils illed in the
questionnaires individually, supervised by the operator (one of the authors
in most cases). data were processed with the sPss programme.
as a follow-up to the questionnaires, we checked the situation of the
pupils ater admission procedures were closed. Each respondent wrote his/
her name on the questionnaire, which enabled us to check on the website
of the Ministry of Education the name and type of school she or he was
admitted to. in this way it was possible to compare intentions with reality
for both generations of young people.
another part of the follow-up research was to check the baccalaureate
results for the respondents from the 2007 generation published on the
website of the Ministry of Education as in June 2011 they should have
graduated from high school and taken this exam. he results were not
yet inal, as there were a number of pupils who chose a vocational school
and in case of continuing their education they would only graduate
in June 2012.
he visits in the villages for the second round of questionnaires allowed
us to gather data regarding the current situation of the irst generation of
young people: indirectly from the schools and directly from the young
people who were interviewed.
Results and Discussion

in 2007 a total number of 339 pupils illed in the questionnaires (170 girls
and 169 boys), while in 2011 a total number of 416 pupils (212 girls and
204 boys) did so.
he age of respondents varied from 13 (1 pupil in 2007 and 26 pupils
in 2011) to 17 (5 pupils in 2007 and 7 pupils in 2011). he 15-year-old
age group was best represented in 2007 (47.2%), and the 14-year-old age
group in 2011 (58.2%).
he highest share (69.3% in 2007 and 64.4% in 2011) of the pupils
lived in the same locality as the school, and 30.7% in 2007, respectively
35.6% in 2011 commuted to school from neighbouring villages or as in
the case of some pupils from two schools located in mountain villages
64
they stayed at boarding school during the week, because they lived too far
away to commute daily.
almost all the pupils (97.1% in 2007 and 97.8% in 2011) reported
a good health condition. in 2007 seven of them sufered from some chronic
disease and three did not answer the question, in 2011 one person reported
a poor health condition and 8 persons did not answer the question. We
can therefore conclude that the health condition of the respondents from
our sample was not an obstacle to continuing education.
Continuing Education Aspirations and Reality

according to the answers in the questionnaires, the highest share of
pupils (66.67% in 2007 and 84.38% in 2011) would like to continue their
education at high school. Because of the transformation of vocational
schools into technical high schools in the 2009/2010 school year, no choice
for vocational school was registered in 2011, even though 13.57% of the
respondents had opted for it in 2007. Quite an important share (7.96% of the
pupils in 2007, respectively 3.13% in 2011) did not want to continue their
education ater completing the 8th year, which means that they would not
have any professional qualiication and their chances of getting employed
outside agriculture were very low. We can assume that among those who
didnt know or didnt want to answer the question there were children who
planned to quit education (table 3).
answers related to continuing education and the type of school chosen
are signiicantly inluenced by the gender of the respondents; girls are
more likely to continue education (72.94% planned to choose high school,
9.41% vocational school and 5.88% planned to quit education in 2007,
while in 2011 among girls 82.55% chose high school and 2.36% planned
to quit education). he preference of boys was also high school (60.95%
in 2007 and 86.27% in 2011); 17.75% chose vocational school in 2007. he
share of boys who planned to quit school decreased from 10.6% in 2007
to 3.92% in 2011.
regarding their wish to enrol for university studies, around two thirds
of the respondents (210 in 2007 and 254 in 2011) gave an airmative answer
and far fewer gave a negative answer (109 in 2007 and 126 in 2011), nine
persons didnt know and 11 didnt answer in 2007, respectively four didnt
know and 32 didnt answer in 2011. he inconsistency between the choice
65
of university studies and the preferred profession (a diferent item from

the questionnaire) suggests that many respondents have no idea about the
role of universities (one would like to go to university to become a waiter,
another wants to go to university to become a barber). Gender inluence can
be noticed in this case, too: the share of girls who want to go to university
is much higher (76.7% in 2007 and 79.2% in 2011) than the share of boys
(55.0% in 2007 and 53.6% in 2011).
Table 3. intentions expressed regarding continuing education by gender, in 2007
and 2011
2007
female
male
no.
%
no.
%
High school 124 72.94 103 60.95
Vocational
school
16 9.41 30 17.75
dont know 12 7.06 7 4.14
No school
10 5.88 17 10.06
No answer
8 4.71 12 7.10
Total
170 100 169 100
School type
2011
Total
female
male
Total
no. %
no. % no. % no. %
227 66.96 175 82.55 176 86.27 351 84.38
46
19
27
20
339
13.57 0
0
0
0
0
0
5.60 19 8.96 9 4.41 28 6.73
7.96 5 2.36 8 3.92 13 3.13
5.90 13 6.13 11 5.39 24 5.77
100 212 100 204 100 416 100
he situation ater admission procedures difers considerably from the

aspirations. he share of those who were actually admitted to high school
in 2007 was lower with around 22% (13% for girls and 25% for boys) than
the intentions expressed and, unfortunately, also the share of those who did
not continue education (were not assigned to any school) was higher. so,
the situation was worse in reality than the picture shown in the answers.
from the questionnaires we could see a positive development in the period
20072011 regarding continuing education, but actually in 2011 the share
of those not continuing education was higher than in 2007 (table 4).
further on, if we look at the current situation of the pupils of the 2007
generation (table 5), we see that 23.01% of them took the inal examination
(the baccalaureate). another important observation is that among those
who abandoned education only a few have jobs and most of them stay with
their families, helping in the household.
66
Table 4. assigned school type by gender, in 2007 and 2011
Type of
school
High
school
Vocational
school
school not
assigned
No school
Total
female
no.
%
2007
male
no. %
Total
No. %
female
no. %
2011
male
no. %
Total
no. %
101 59.41 61 36.09 162 47.79 167 78.77 152 74.51 319 76.68
54
31.76 81 47.93 135 39.82
0
15
170
0
0
0
0
0
1 0.47 2 0.98 3 0.72
8.82 27 15.98 42 12.39 44 20.75 50 24.51 94 22.60
100 169 100 339 100 212 100 204 100 416 100

Table 5. current situation of the 2007 respondents
Intention
2007
High
school
(227)
Vocational
school (46)
dont
know (19)
No school
(27)
Admission
result
high school
(145)
vocational
school (70)
no school (12)
high school (6)
vocational
school (29)
no school (11)
high school (9)
vocational
school (9)
no school (1)
vocational
school (19)
no school (8)
Current situation
failed didnt
took
stay
no
the inal the inal show employee
home data
up
exam
exam
72
34
0
0
0
4
0
6
0
3
26
0
0
0
5
5
0
20
2
0
45
5
2
0
0
0
1
2
0
11
4
0
17
5
0
0
0
1
0
2
1
6
0
0
0
2
0
4
7
13
1
67
Table 5. current situation of the 2007 respondents (continuation)
Intention
2007
Admission
result
high school (2)

No answer vocational
(21)
school (8)
no school (10)
Current situation
failed didnt
took
stay
no
the inal the inal show employee
home data
up
exam
exam
0
2
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
1
2
7
6
2
from interviews we know that some of the girls are married and have
children. it was not possible to obtain accurate update information about
all the young people in the 2007 sample; those who were admitted to
vocational schools may still be in education, therefore more data need to
be collected ater the 2012 baccalaureate exam.
Factors of Inluence
Background information collected through questionnaires allows the
identiication of factors which inluence the choice of a young person from
the rural area to continue education or not. in this section we will present
those variables which are in statistically signiicant relationship with the
assigned school type and the baccalaureate results variables (the two-sided
asymptotic signiicance of the chi-square statistic is less than 0.05).
it could be seen from the data presented in the previous section that
gender has an inluence: girls aim for more education than boys.
school achievements are also important: a higher share of those with
good results3 in lower secondary school ended up at high school and those
with poor results abandoned education in far greater numbers than the
average (table 6).
Grades in romania are from 1 to 10, where 10 means excellent, 5 is suicient and
grades 1 to 4 mean failure.
68
Table 6. assigned school type by school results in the 8th year

Year
2007
2011
School results
poor (<6.5)
average (6.58.5)
good (>8.5)
poor (<6.5)
average (6.58.5)
good (>8.5)
High school
1
37
99
11
121
135
Vocational school
7
73
5
0
0
0
No school
5
14
3
7
25
19
over 50% of those with good results in the 8th year succeeded in the
baccalaureate exam and only 6% with average school results achieved the
same.
Table 7. Baccalaureate exam results of the 2007 generation, by school results in the
8th year
School results
Poor (<6.5)
average (6.58.5)
Good (>8.5)
No data
Total
Took
the exam
0
8
63
7
78
Failed the
exam
1
17
18
7
43
Didnt
show up
0
5
2
1
8
No data
Total
12
94
24
80
210
13
124
107
95
339
Because continuing education means extra costs for families from the
rural areas (paying for travel to the city and/or accommodation), parents
approach and inancial welfare of the family have an important inluence
on the decision regarding continuing education (Kapitny et al. 2005).
he local availability of education and training is a key part of successful
economic performance in rural areas (olh and Pakurr, 2011) and it also
increases participation in education. he results of Jakimovski (2010:149)
show that parents educational level has a positive inluence on the childrens
educational prospects and lack of funds is a serious obstacle.
69
asked about the position of their parents regarding further education,

the great majority of pupils (83.2% in 2007 and 84.7% in 2011) answered
that both of their parents wanted them to continue their studies and only
very few (two pupils in 2007 and seven in 2011) declared that neither of
their parents wanted them to continue their education.
he educational level and occupation of the parents proved to be
important inluential factors: children of more educated parents were
assigned in a higher degree to high school than those of lower educated
parents (table 8).
Table 8. assigned school type by parents education, in 2007 and 2011
Year
2007
2011
2007
2011
Parents education
Mothers education
high school and above
vocational school and 10 years
8 years or less
8 years or less
fathers education
8 years or less
8 years or less
Assigned school type

vocational
high school
no school
school
56
66
6
110
99
62
30
50
22
0
0
0
7
10
6
17
27
32
53
56
11
101
129
33
29
47
15
0
0
0
6
10
9
19
37
15
diferences between children of better and lower educated parents are

not so obvious in the case of the baccalaureate exam, but they are still
statistically signiicant (table 9).
70
Table 9. Baccalaureate exam results of the 2007 generation, by parents education

Parents education
Baccalaureate exam results

took the exam failed the exam
didnt show up
Mothers education
High school and above
Vocational school and 10 years
8 years or less
fathers education
8 years or less
31
29
2
9
23
1
4
3
0
30
22
3
11
17
5
2
5
0
children of parents who have jobs (or used to have jobs and have currently
retired) went to high school in a higher share than of those who are farming
or working in the household (table 10). he same can be noticed in the
case of the baccalaureate exam (table 11).
Table 10. assigned school type by parents occupation, in 2007 and 2011
Year
2007
2011
2007
2011
Parents occupation
Mothers occupation
employee or retired
farming, housekeeping or unemployed
employee or retired
fathers occupation
employee or retired
employee, entrepreneur or retired
Assigned school type

vocational
high school
school
no school
80
72
147
130
62
56
0
0
15
22
36
38
115
36
182
77
76
38
0
0
21
10
43
25
71
Table 11. Baccalaureate exam results of the 2007 generation, by parents occupation
Parents occupation
Baccalaureate exam results

took the exam failed the exam didnt show up
Mothers occupation
Employee or retired
farming, housekeeping
fathers occupation
44
31
18
19
5
3
53
20
29
10
7
1
Future Profession and Place of Work

Even though many of the parents are not working as employees, almost
all the respondents (93.9% in 2007 and 96.2% in 2011) considered that
it is very important to have a job; 5.7% in 2007 and 2.4% in 2011 of the
respondents considered it somehow important and only one person in
2007 and 2 persons in 2011 thought that it is not at all important to have
a job. However, there is a growing uncertainty among pupils regarding
their future profession: 280 pupils (82.60%) in 2007, respectively 320 pupils
(76.92%) in 2011 answered the question, the remaining (59 in 2007 and 96
in 2011) didnt know or didnt give an answer (see table 12). he share of
girls who didnt answer the question is higher (24.1% in 2007 and 26.4%
in 2011) than the share of boys (10.7% in 2007 and 19.6% in 2011).
around two-thirds of the respondents would like to work in the
services sector. in 2011 occupations connected to catering and tourism
were the most popular (11.3%), which in 2007 was ranked second ater
car reparation.
in the period 20072011 there was a decreased interest in construction
(from 5.3% to 1.7%), car reparation (from 12.68% to 6.49%), teaching (from
6.49% to 5.05%) and healthcare (from 5.60% to 4.33%), and a growing
interest in the inancial sector (from 3.24% to 6.73%) and professions linked
to industry (from 2.45% to 6.97%). he changes may be occurring due to
the global inancial and economic crises, as the irst survey was carried
out before the crisis emerged and the second ater the efects of the crisis
had already been felt for a couple of years.
72
Table 12. chosen profession, by gender

Profession
agriculture
car reparation
construction
Education
finances,
accountancy
forestry
Healthcare
Hotel, restaurant
industry
Public administration,
police, army
dont know, no
answer
2007
female male total
0
3
3
0
43
43
0
18
18
19
3
22
2011
%
female male total
0.88
0
5
5
12.68
1
26
27
5.31
0
7
7
6.49
17
4
21
%
1.20
6.49
1.68
5.05
10
11
3.24
25
28
6.73
0
14
22
1
4
5
13
7
4
19
35
8
1.18
5.60
10.32
2.36
0
15
30
1
1
3
17
28
1
18
47
29
0.24
4.33
11.30
6.97
14
4.13
16
3.85
41
18
59
17.40
56
40
96
23.08
only around 1% of the young people choose to work in agriculture,

although most of their families practice agriculture. hese results support
the older farmers opinion that young people dont want to be the slaves
of the land and of animals and that the number of young workers in
agriculture will decrease (Vincze et al. 2005).
Table 13. locality of employment intentions expressed in 2007 and 2011
Locality of employment
locality of origin
cluj
other place in romania
abroad
More locations in romania
More locations including abroad
dont know / no answer
2007
21
197
28
32
17
36
8
2011
37
266
15
41
11
36
10
73
We can also notice a clear gender diference among preferred

professions; only a few of the enlisted professions are chosen by pupils of
both genders.
as regards the location of their future jobs, almost two thirds of the
respondents declared that they wanted to work in cluj-Napoca (the main
city of cluj county and the second biggest city in romania ater Bucharest).
almost 20% plan to work abroad and a few (6% in 2007 and 9% in 2011)
would like to work in their home villages.
Based on the choices expressed by the respondents and the geographical
location of the villages, taking into account distances and transportation
facilities, we can assume that around 30% of young people could remain
in their villages and commute to the chosen workplace and around 40%
would most probably move. for almost one third of the respondents the
answer was not foreseeable: distances are quite long, but with better roads
and transport facilities commuting would still be possible.
However, data collected by the follow-up research for the 2007 generation
show that reality difers to a great degree from prediction based on survey
results, as a much higher share of young people remained in the family
household.
Conclusions
he educational choices of rural youth in cluj county have not been
modiied essentially in the period 20072011. he share of those who
declared to continue education increased by six percentage points, which
supports the view that in an economic slowdown young people are more
likely to stay in education or undertake studies rather than look for work.
his could be seen as a positive development, if follow-up data did not show
a diferent picture: the share of those who did not continue education in
2011 was actually higher than in 2007.
he main factors identiied as having an inluence on continuing
education are: gender (in favour of girls), school results (those with better
results in lower secondary school are more likely to continue education)
and parents attitude towards education.
a growing uncertainty regarding their future profession can be noticed
among rural young people. Most of them want to work in the services
sector and the preference for agriculture is low, showing that EU support
74
measures have not acted as motivators in this respect. here is a clear and
persistent gender division among chosen professions, only a few professions
have been chosen by pupils of both genders (such as waiter, cook, barman
or physician).
What will the future rural workforce be like? according to an optimistic
scenario, young people will complete the education they aim for, establish
homes for themselves, commute to well-paid jobs in a nearby city. hus the
population of rural areas will be maintained and the level of education and
income will increase. according to a more pessimistic scenario, over half of
the young people will move out of the villages ater completing education.
hus in rural areas the level of education will remain low and the process
of aging and impoverishment of rural areas will accelerate. here is also
a third, conservation scenario: more young people will remain at home,
because of the lack of opportunities to continue education; the age structure,
level of education and professional qualiication of the rural population
will not change, subsistence agriculture will be practiced by many families,
underemployment will remain high and living standards low.
he improvement of the rural employment situation in romania relies
on three is (Kerekes 2007):
1. information (education, vocational guidance, career planning,
professional qualiication and re-qualiication, access to data on
available jobs);
2. infrastructure (good roads, transportation and communication
facilities);
3. incentive (good salaries, motivating reward systems, decent work
conditions, positive attitude towards full-time work).
Policy initiatives should encourage teenagers to stay in education past the
age of compulsory schooling in order to boost their skills and improve
their long-term prospects for when the economy recovers. Measures to
encourage longer stay at school have proven efective in ensuring youth
leave education with a minimum skill level (oEcd 2009).
data collected through the questionnaires could be further analysed
to identify other factors of inluence (such as values, attitudes, family size,
importance of agriculture, etc.) and further follow-up information should
be collected about the young people from the sample, to have a full track
of their way through education.
75
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the lEadEr program], A Falu. Vol. XXVi(34): 2736.
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doi: 10.2478/eec-2013-0005
19 2013
Intergenerational Assistance on Family Farms

in Slovenia: Expectations and Practices
Abstract
he ageing in farm population in slovenia is accompanied by a diminishing
interest of the younger generation in farming. Hence, measures for early retirement
of farmers and assistance to young farmers were introduced in 2004 and 2005.
some results of two ensuing studies are presented here: the survey Generations
and Gender relations on slovenian farms (2007) and ethnographic study on
intergenerational solidarity (2009). he survey indings reveal that through
intergenerational assistance farm population, especially the beneiciaries of both
measures, shows speciic characteristics compared to other observed groups (nonfarmers): stronger reliance on their own family resources and weaker dependence
on state resources. he survey indings are further upgraded by the ethnographic
results, explaining more in-depth from a life-course perspective the complex
dynamics and background of intergenerational assistance on family farms.
Keywords: family farms, ageing, intergenerational assistance, rural

development, policy measures, slovenia.
Introduction
in the context of agricultural development and global demographic trends,
research focus on intergenerational assistance on family farms seems
more than relevant. on the one hand, recently voiced predictions that
78
in the pronounced competitive conditions of the global market economy

industrialised farming organised in corporate form would replace familyrun farming (Potter and Tilzey 2005) have failed. he evidence shows quite
the opposite development towards family-run enterprises (Hildenbrand
and Hennon 2005, Galdeano-Gmez et al. 2010). on the other hand,
UN demographic projections show that ensuring global food safety is
becoming the priority task. By 2050, the global population will have
increased to 9 billion, which means that it is necessary to double the extent
of agricultural production to avoid global hunger (Manning 2000).
slovenia belongs to a group of countries which do not satisfy their own
needs for agricultural and food products by domestic production only.
Ensuring food safety is one of the most important aims of agricultural
development deined by the resolution on the strategic Guidelines for the
development of slovenian agriculture and food industry (rsrsK 2011).
Next to production of quality food and food security, the resolution aims at
the permanent increase of agricultural competitiveness since family farms
in slovenia are mainly self-suicient and their economic productivity is
low. he latter is also a consequence of unfavourable education and age
structure of farmers. Nearly half of the farm operators have no formal
education, less than half have vocational or secondary education, and only
four per cent of them have completed higher, university or postgraduate
education (rsrsK 2011: 6). More than half of the operators are over
55 years old, while the share of operators under 45 is only nineteen per
cent (rdP 2008: 23).
When discussing family farming in slovenia themes related to
demography can no longer be avoided. he rural development Programme
(rdP 2008: 910) explicitly warns that the share of old people will increase
while the shares of children and labour force will start to decline. he
emigration of young people from rural areas (brain-drain) adds to the
poor demographic structure in rural regions and has also endangered the
continuity of farming.
he measures of Early retirement of farmers (2004) and setting Up
of Young farmers (2005) aimed precisely at improving both agricultural
productivity and assuring farming continuity. it became more than obvious
that only the transfers of farms to younger farmers can make an important
contribution to raised competitiveness of agriculture in slovenia. But who
these two measures actually addressed was the main research question
79
of two successive research projects: a survey on generational and gender

relations on farms in slovenia (20072008), and a follow-up ieldwork on
intergenerational assistance in farm families (20092011). he ensuing
research was designed on the surveys results. By upgrading observations,
the ethnographic study sought to provide a more in-depth description of
the complex dynamics between genders and generations in every adult
member of the farm household selected; the survey indirectly captured the
family atmosphere through the view of only one household interviewee.
in this essay, the presentation of results revolves around the question
of whether both types of farms, the beneiciaries and non-beneiciaries,
difer in the view of their developmental capacities and intergenerational
assistance.
heoretical Background
he research interest in intergenerational relationships in contemporary farm
families is relatively poor considering the topical context of unfavourable
demographic trends. on the one hand, the reason may lie in the assumption
that the development of the welfare institutions would crowd out the
private support within families at the level of the total population (Kohli
and Knemund 2003). on the other hand, however, some authors pointed
to the biased deeply anchored public image of close and supporting ties
among generations in extended farm families compared to weak family
bonds in urban settings (Hareven 1996, Melberg 2005, Jong et al 2005).
similar relections may have been the main culprit that the First Global
Rural Ageing Conference was held only a decade ago. he rationale of the
conference was, however, the current global demographic evidence, which
showed that ageing worldwide was in fact rural ageing; in the majority of
countries the share of the elderly was higher in rural than in urban areas.
in the introductory essay of the special issue of Ageing and Society, Wenger
(2001) deines aging in rural areas as a distinctive ield of research reviewing
the extant literature on the topic and summarizing the main indings
of various cases worldwide from the conference (scharf 2001, Wenger
and Burholt 2001, shenk 2001, Keeling 2001, Bhat in dhruvarajan 2001,
Keasberry 2001). among other themes the author stresses that in various
parts of the world, urbanization and rural depopulation are associated
with family diaspora: everywhere, young people are leaving rural areas
80
for job opportunities in the cities, leaving their elderly parents at home;
intimacy at a distance is becoming a practice of intergenerational solidarity
almost everywhere in the world and not only in the developed countries;
rural family values in a form of feelings of responsibility to old parents
and the opposite are identiied as stronger in rural areas; family values in
terms of commitment of adult children to caring for their elderly parents
are oten associated with a residence permit on their farm possession.
he relationship between rural landholding and family care in old age as
well as the housing issue of younger and older generations in rural areas
Wenger sees as an important area for further research (ibid.: 542). finally,
the author stresses (ibid.: 544) that intergenerational relationships are
recognised as signiicant in all discussed cases worldwide, and that the
goal of intergenerational responsibility as a reciprocal norm was evident
in all of them (ibid.: 544).
it is worth mentioning a study on the experiences of intergenerational
relationships of fathers and their adult sons in farm households of iowa
(Elder et al 1996). he study shows that mutual support among kin is
not so much correlated with the quality of their emotional ties, as with
expectations kin help out because it is expected (ibid.: 50). Elder et al also
show that the relationships among generations in rural areas should not
be considered either as only supportive or conlicting but as the complex
relations including both dimensions. similarly, some decades old studies
show (e.g. lee and cassidy 1985) that high frequency of contacts and
interactions of members on family farms should be attributed more to
economic factors than to commonly believed familialism.
research carried out in Norway (Melberg 2005) on intergenerational
assistance also emphasises the issue of paid and unpaid care of the farm
population. he author shows that a very small percentage of the farm
population, living in multigenerational families, receives unpaid care
or even requires special care. she attributes this result to the availability
of public sector services in the region. he case shows that in diferent
generations both providers and receivers of unpaid care perceive this
assistance not as a commitment among generations but as their selfevident practice (Melberg 2005: 436). contrary to expectations, the rate
of assistance did not difer between the generations and genders: women
spend more time caring for the performance of elderly parents, but also
men who provide the care, spend a considerable amount of time doing
81
so. However, in the case of childcare and more demanding practical help
to elderly parents members of both genders and generations rely more
on public welfare services. finally, the study shows that in this ield of
intergenerational activities, based on the intertwining work and home on
the farm, ambivalent feelings are presented among ofspring and elderly
parents.
although contemporary farm families are in many aspects similar to
families of other professional groups this short literature review shows
that researchers of rural ageing are increasingly aware that investigating
intergenerational relations in multigenerational farm families is
a challenging and ambitious scientiic undertaking. intergenerational
relationships mirror a signiicant part of the social structure and determine
the economic functioning of the family farm (Gasson et al 1988, Hennon
and Hildenbrand 2005). herefore, such exploration also has considerable
social relevance. he secured successor and his/her relations with the older
generation are of vital importance for the survival and maintenance of
every farm.
he aim of our study was to assess the intergenerational relationships of
farm families who are the beneiciaries of aid for early retirement and young
farmers. More precisely, our research interest was to determine whether
family farms, the beneiciaries of these two forms of aid indeed show
greater development capacities and mutual assistance between generations
compared to the non-beneiciaries.
Data and Methods

he survey Generations and Gender relations on slovenian farms was
carried out in 2007 in four observed groups of interviewees. he subsample of farmers (the irst group: 301), the beneiciaries of both types
of measures, was formed on the basis of the list of all beneiciaries in the
period 20042006 in slovenia.1 he sample of the second group of farmers,
the non-beneiciaries (106), was formed on the basis of agricultural census
2000 data. Both groups of farm respondents were additionally compared
1
here were altogether 529 beneiciaries of the setting Up of Young farmers measure
of whom 14% were women and 365 beneiciaries of the Early retirement of farmers
measure of whom 16% were women.
82
with people who live in the countryside, but were not engaged in farming
(the third group: 135) as well as with residents of urban areas (the fourth
group: 275). he respondents of both genders were aged from 18 to 83.
he results of the survey were generated on the basis of bivariate
statistical analysis, applying the chi-square Test. Univariate general linear
model (GlM) was applied when analysing the sources of intergenerational
assistance.
due to the methodological design of the survey, which was limited
to obtain information about family members of the households from
the view of only one household interviewee, these results did not enable
broader conclusions on farm family dynamics as understood by their
respective members. herefore, ensuing anthropological ieldwork was
carried out in 2009 in Pomurje (NE slovenia), the region with favourable
conditions for farming. he semi-structured interviews with adult members
of six multigenerational farm families, the beneiciaries (3) and the nonbeneiciaries (3) of both forms of aid, revolved around topics on farm history
and organisation of work on the farm and at home from a generation and
gender perspective. his presentation refers to their understanding of
living in a multigenerational farm family in order to discuss their mutual
assistance.
Survey Findings
Developmental Capacities of Farms
farm holdings managed by the beneiciaries are larger (23 ha on average)
compared to holdings owned by the non-beneiciaries (15 ha on average).
he irst group of farmers more frequently expresses the desire to continue
farming and to increase the farm capacities (30%) than the non-beneiciaries
(10%). Both groups are livestock-oriented but more so the beneiciaries
(65%) than the non-beneiciaries (32%). he farm households of both
groups mainly (over 50%) obtain their incomes from occasional or
additional agricultural activity which supports the general evidence that
in slovenia, mixed or subsidiary farms prevail.2 Both groups of farms are
2
he established socio-economic typology of family farms in slovenia distinguishes

among pure, mixed, subsidiary and aged farms. a pure farm is deined as a farm household
with all of its members employed only on the farm; at least one member of a household
83
similar as to general involvement of their household members in farm

work (mainly part-time).
Most farmers in slovenia have only practical experiences in farming,
which is to hinder rapid and efective response to technological changes and
developments on the agricultural market. he survey shows, however, that
40% of young farmers, the beneiciaries, have been trained for agricultural
or related professions in the process of regular education; among them oneith have a university degree in agriculture. among the non-beneiciaries
the situation is the opposite: only 10% of them have been trained in
agriculture during their regular education. Both young farmers (29%)
and their partners (21%) have achieved a markedly higher proportion of
any university degree compared to the non-beneiciaries (12%) and their
partners (6%).
in general, the prospects for farm succession are better on the
beneiciaries farms than on the non-beneiciaries farms. among young
farmers over half have recently taken over the farm while among the nonbeneiciaries, this event is more oten foreseen ater the death of the current
farm holder. farmers, the non-beneiciaries, plan a takeover of a farm at
the age of 35 while farmers, the beneiciaries, do so at the age of 31.
he beneiciaries farms are also more viable in a view of a number of
family members. Together with the farms of early retirees, the beneiciaries
signiicantly exceed the number of household members of the other
group. he average number of members of households of young farmers
is 4.7, early retirees households have on average 4.4 members, while the
households of the non-beneiciaries have 4 members.
literature (Barbi 1992, erni isteni 2006, 2007) quite oten mentions
that farmers in slovenia usually live in multigenerational households. in
our case this holds true for households of young farmers and early retirees
(52%), who usually live in three-generation households. Yet this is not
the case of households of the non-beneiciaries where two-generation
households prevail (43%).
he vast majority (80%) of farm households are located in villages.
only a minority of farmers live in houses outside the villages. among the
is employed on a mixed farm; nobody is employed on a subsidiary farm; people who are
over 64 live on an aged farm (Udov et al 2006).
84
latter, the households of the beneiciaries of both groups dominate: early

retired farmers (19%) followed by young farmers (15%).
To summarise, two forms of aid address those family farms that show
better developmental potential in terms of economic and demographic
aspects; they have larger estates and even plan to extend their operation,
have invested in agricultural education of their members and show greater
viability by secured successors and larger number of household members
than farm families, the non-beneiciaries.
Intergenerational Relations: Expectations
he respondents expectations about intergenerational assistance were
observed through three sets of statements. he irst set pertains to the
assessment, whose responsibility it is to care for dependent family members,
i.e. preschool and school children, the elderly, and whose responsibility it is
to inancially support the elderly and young families in need. according to
the respondents, the most responsible for the care of preschool and school
children is the family (53.8% and 50.2% respectively). Yet society and the
family are equally obliged (46.4%) to care for the elderly. However, for the
inancial support of the elderly and young families in need, society is the
most responsible (69.2% and 68.8%). collating these results by gender,
age and social setting, the data show signiicant diferences only among
urban-rural-farm settings regarding care for the elderly (2= 33.420; sig.=
0.000) and preschool children (2= 20.758; sig.= 0.002). a considerably
greater share of the farm population agrees that the family is responsible
for caring for dependent family members compared to their urban or rural
counterparts.3
small or even no diferences in attitudes about intergenerational assistance between

urban and rural populations mirror their professional structure. he slovenian countryside
encompasses several types of profession; farmers account for only a small proportion.
Polycentric spatial concepts of development with dispersed industrialization and a vast class
of daily commuters from rural to urban centres was a decisive factor in the transformation
of rural areas in the second half of the 20th century. By reducing the role of agriculture
in the national economy, the countryside was gradually transforming in the area with
a modern, lexible economic and social fabric of urban character (Klemeni 2006).
85
he second set of statements refers to the assessment4 of adult childrens

obligations towards their parents: children should take over the duty
to care for their parents in need, children should adjust their work to
the needs of their parents, daughters should care for their parents more
than sons, children should help their parents when they are in inancial
diiculties and Parents should move to where their children live when
they can no longer care for themselves. he majority of respondents agree
in principle that children are responsible for caring for their parents and
providing inancial assistance when their parents are in need (70% and
55%). Yet in more speciic statements, such as daughters should more care
for their parents than sons, children should adjust their work to the needs
of their parents, and Parents should move to where their children live when
they can no longer care for themselves, the shares of disagreement prevail
(65%, 41%, and 34%). comparing these results by gender, age and social
setting signiicant diferences are found only in assessing the statement
children should adjust their work to the needs of their parents; the farm
population as a whole in greater share than the urban population agree
with this statement (2= 33,183; sig.= 0,000).
he third set of statements relates to the assessment of parents
responsibilities towards their children: Grandparents should care for their
grandchildren when their parents are not able to do so, Parents should
inancially support their adult children in need and Parents should adapt
their lives when their children are in need. he majority of respondents
agree with all three statements (52.4%, 52.4% and 44.3% respectively).
according to these results, parents are recognised as those who should
show greater responsibility towards their adult children than the opposite.
signiicant diferences by social setting, gender and age are found considering
obligations of grandparents towards their grandchildren. Women, older
respondents and farmers agree with this statement. signiicant diferences
are also found assessing the statement, pertaining to inancial support of
parents to their adult children. he majority of women agree that parents
should assist their adult children when they are in inancial diiculties
(2 = 7,743; sig. = 0,022), while the older respondents agree with the
in the analysis, a ive-level likert scale from strongly agree to strongly disagree
was applied.
86
statement Parents should adapt their lives to their children in need (2 =

15,876; sig.= 0,003).
hese results show that there are no signiicant diferences in attitude
regarding intergenerational assistance between the beneiciaries and the
non-beneiciaries. Variations in expectations towards intergenerational
assistance are not in any substantial correlation with the aid received.
Intergenerational Relationships: Practices
results on the caring for old household members show no statistically
signiicant diferences among urban-rural-farm settings. However, the
shares pertaining to applicability of that kind of care indicate that this
type of activity is more oten carried out in farm households (33% among
the beneiciaries and 40% among the non-beneiciaries) and in rural
households (32%) compared to urban (28%) ones. additionally, the care for
old and disabled household members seems to be a more frequent activity
in farm households than in rural and urban ones. all respondents in the
sample (21 of them) whose household members pertain to that group
(55 and older) were found in farm households only; but only two of them
in the households of the non-beneiciaries. in fact, with mentally or/and
physically disabled persons of all ages live 14% of respondents in farm
households of the beneiciaries and 12% of respondents in farm households
of the non-beneiciaries; rural and urban households corresponding share is
only 5%. Moreover, living arrangements of older respondents also indicate
that the care for aged family members prevail in farm households. at
age 55 and over, living in three-generational households (e.g. with adult
children) is more frequent among the beneiciaries (41%) while in other
groups the share is considerably lower; 23% in rural households, 13% in the
households of the non-beneiciaries, and 6% in urban ones. comparable
values for the respondents aged 65 and over, living in three-generational
households, are: 23% in farm households of the beneiciaries, 18% in rural
households, 6% in urban households and 7% in farm households of the
non-beneiciaries. further, living alone at age 55 and over is less frequent
in farm households (2% among the beneiciaries and 2.5% among the
non-beneiciaries) than in rural and urban households (5% and 20%).
However, corresponding values for those aged 65 or over living alone are
not statistically signiicant.
87
in view of the younger generation, data show that in farm households

of the beneiciaries the share of those aged between 31 and 50 who live
with at least one parent is highest (26%); equivalent shares for the nonbeneiciaries is 6% while for rural and urban households the shares are
only 4% and 3%. data also indicates that at this age considerably more men
than women live with their parents: 50% of farm men the beneiciaries
and 7% of farm women the beneiciaries while in the households of the
non-beneiciaries 15% of men live with their parents but no women live
with them.
looking from the perspective of living arrangement of parents who
do not live with the respondent data show that this situation is more oten
present in urban settings (among fathers (40%) and even more mothers
(66%)) than on farms (31% for fathers and 59% for mothers) and rural
settings (25% for fathers and 47% for mothers). he custom of visiting nonresidential parents does not difer signiicantly among the settings. 74%
of urban respondents visit their mothers on a weekly basis; the equivalent
shares for rural and farm respondents are 75% and 68%.
considering the care and upbringing of children the results show
that regular institutionalised child care is more frequently practiced in
urban and rural settings (48% and 57%) than in farm settings. he lowest
share of inclusion of children in child care institutions is found among
the beneiciaries of both forms of aid: 27% among the beneiciaries and
33% among the non-beneiciaries. considering other types of child care
arrangements (paid nannies, prolonged stay ater regular school hours) no
signiicant diferences among groups are found but the tendency indicates
that this form of child care is more oten practiced in urban and rural
settings. correspondingly, when in need of child care assistance of other
people (non-professionals) farm parents, especially the beneiciaries more
frequently rely on their relatives and family members.
due to the low number of cases in the sample the sources of assistance
in farm households were analysed for all age groups together. hese sources
refer to expected assistance from other persons, assistance given to other
persons, own feelings entrusted to other persons and being trusted by
other persons in the last twelve months. statistically signiicant diferences
among the observed four groups were shown in the case of expected
assistance from other persons (2 = 43,665; sig. = 0,001), entrusting ones
88
own feelings to other people (2 = 52,553; sig.= 0,001) and being trusted
by other persons (2 = 53,392; sig.= 0,001).
he assistance of others is the most expected in the rural population
(98.5%) but the least among their urban counterparts (92%). he assistance
from family members and relatives is to the greatest extent expected
from the farm population irrespective of type of subsidy (60%) while
the comparative shares for the urban and rural populations are 42% and
55%. he greatest share of those expecting assistance from non-family
members pertains to the urban population (8%); the comparative shares
for the farm population are 1.7% for the beneiciaries and 0.9% for the
non-beneiciaries.
in the last twelve months, half of the respondents talked about their
feelings and experiences to other people. among them the most trusting
were urban respondents (60%) while the least trusted were the beneiciaries
of both forms of aid (40%). When farmers, the beneiciaries talked to
someone these were mainly their family members while the respondents
from urban settings rely equally on family members and others.
he group of farm beneiciaries were also the least frequently trusted
by others (in 60.5% of cases nobody showed trust towards them). he
diference among them and the other three groups is 20 percentage points.
When someone was trusting towards the farm beneiciaries this was mainly
a close family member while in the urban setting the combination of close
relatives and others prevailed.
results of multivariate analysis (GlM) related to the above mentioned
sources of assistance respondents received or gave in the last twelve months
to other persons show (Table 1) that expectations are the most strongly
predicted by the size of the farm: the larger the farm the lower are the
expectations of its household members to receiving help from others.
Giving assistance to others is predicted by gender: women give more help
to others than men. Mutual trust is also most predicted by gender and size
of farm: women are more trusting while also being more frequently trusted
by others. Yet with farm size this mutual trust decreases. his means that
on larger farms farmers are less trusting towards others while others are
less trusting towards them. considering the variable related to two forms
of aid the results also show that individuals living in the households of the
beneiciaries are less oten addressed by others than individuals living in
the households of the non-beneiciaries.
89
Table 1. social ties (GlM) f statistics
Model
intercept
Gender
age
Education
labour status
able to make both
ends meet
receipt of subsidy
income
farm size
levenes test
r
*** p<0.001
Has someone
from whom
he/she can
expect help
He/she
ofered
assistance
to someone
Talking with
someone
about his/her
feelings
Talking to
others about
his/her
feelings
1.113
631.571***
0.033
0.112
0.953
0.757
1.150
3.760*
3.906*
0.847
1.500
1.163
2.544***
59.270***
6.648**
1.211
2.587*
2.095*
2.577***
67.667***
5.688**
0.505
0.817
1.048
1.655
0.001
1.180
3.480*
0.805
0.085
1.101
0.989
0.718
0.057
0.886
0.088
0.591
0.254
1.896*
4.879**
1.641
0.175
1.929
2.636*
2.851*
3.942**
1.314
0.117
** p<0.010
* p<0.050
To sum up, in the households of beneiciaries mutual assistance among

family members is more strongly accentuated than in the households of
other observed groups. at the same time, the results indicate that from
the point of view of social ties the farm households of the beneiciaries
show their greater social isolation than farm households of the nonbeneiciaries which is even more pronounced compared to the rural and
urban population.
Fieldwork
he ensuing ieldwork was carried out in three counties close to (each
within 10 kilometres) the municipality Murska sobota in Pomurje region.5
5
Pomurje is a region situated in the northeast of the country bordering austria,

Hungary and croatia, and its main town is Murska sobota.
90
Pomurje is one of slovenias least developed regions, with economic activity

orientation to the industries producing a lower added value per employed
person. on the other hand, the region is clearly agricultural countryside
either by the share of agricultural areas or by the share of farm population
(20 per cent at the state level). livestock production is the most important
agricultural branch; the most widespread is cattle production followed by
pig production and poultry.
six three-generation farm households were chosen by snowball. he
main criterion required at least two generations to co-reside under the same
roof and earn at least a share of the familys net income from agricultural
activities. To better understand the generation and gender aspect in more
or less developed family farms, the cases selected pertain to three farms,
the beneiciaries of the measures of setting Up of Young farmers (sYf)
and Early retirement (Er), i.e. farms with a secured successor. he other
three were not the beneiciaries of the two forms of aid and were without
a secured successor during the course of the research.
he older generation belongs to the time of socialism, when agrarian
reforms signiicantly determined the farming structure and strategies in
the country. he younger generation of collocutors mainly belongs to postsocialism when slovenia proclaimed its independence (1991), joined the
EU (2004) and adapted to the caP reforms.
he use of terms older and younger generation pertains merely to the
generation sequence, not the chronological age of the family members.
following the example of the previously established database on
generations and gender relations, the collocutors discussed some a priori
designed themes related to various transfers, division of labour tasks and
assistance among their family members.
Introduction of six family farms
a review of the basic characteristics of the six selected farm families shows
that all farms are oriented to livestockcrop production and are mixed
family farms. he cases (16) are diferentiated by the number of employed
family members on and of the farm. he irst three cases (two beneiciaries
of the aid of sYf and Er, and one candidate for the aid sYf) have on
average at least one member employed outside the farm. he second three
91
(the non-beneiciaries), however, have one member employed on the farm,

usually the operator.
he education of the collocutors does not illustrate a typical pattern
among the beneiciaries and non-beneiciaries of aid. University educated
interviewees are found in both groups; however, they are always
representatives of the younger generation (three individuals from cases
1, 3, 4). among the younger generation, secondary education prevails, and
their study programmes are mostly related to regional needs: agriculture
and the textile industry. in general, the older generation the over 60
year-olds have lower education (elementary schooling prevails) compared
to the older generation the under 60 year-olds (vocational schooling
prevails).
as a rule, a son stays at home on the family farm. his applies to both
the older and the younger generation. a woman is a transferee only when
there is no other male heir (case 6), or in exceptional circumstances.
With one exception only (case 2), there are two houses on the farm.
he new house usually belongs to the younger generation and is some 10
metres away from the old house.
he holding size and the farm equipment vary substantially in view of
the time period observed: socialism and post-socialism. he introduced
land maximum in 1953 required that no family farm in this time period
exceeded 10 hectares of owned farmland. Until the late 1960s, family
farms as a rule were not equipped with machinery. However, there is an
obvious increase of the size of farmland among the younger generation at
the time of taking over the farm, particularly in the beneiciaries of sYf
(cases 1 and 2) compared to their parents generation: from 7 hectares
to 35 hectares (case 1), from 0.3 hectares to 60 hectares (case 2). case 4
was an exception (a non-beneiciary) which was one of the largest in the
village during socialist times. he present operator of this farm has also
enlarged the size of the farmland compared to his father, i.e. from 10 to
40 hectares. it is worth mentioning the enlarged capacities of the tourist
farm in the candidate for the aid sYf (case 3) compared to the business
beginnings of his parents. By the time the younger operator took over the
tourist farm in 2003, the guest house had been enlarged from a capacity of
three rooms to nine of the irst category and the size of agricultural land
had slightly increased from 11 to 16 hectares.
92
all farms substantially improved their equipment with machines ater

the introduction of tractors in the late 1960s. Unrelated to the aid received
and the size of the farmland, each farm has at least one tractor with several
attachments. Two cases (1, 3) from the beneiciary group possess two
tractors and one case (2) owns three tractors and a combine. Two cases
from the non-beneiciary group (5, 6) own one tractor; case 4 being the
exception, with four tractors.
irrespective of the time period observed, all the cases increased the
previous average number of livestock per farm holding. similarly to the
increase of holding size, the signiicant growth is observed among the
beneiciaries of the two forms of aid (sYf and Er) and in case 4 from
the non-beneiciary group. Two farms from the beneiciary group (case
1 and 2) increased the average number of livestock from 4 to 56, and from
zero to 30 breeding pigs and 500 porkers; the old case 4 farm reared 10
to 15 cattle and now, as a pig farm there are some 40 breeding pigs and
1000 porkers.
finally, all partners who married on the farm of their husbands or wives
stem from multigenerational families and farm settings.
he following analysis is limited to the family members understanding
of living in a multigenerational farm family.
Expectations and Practices of Living
in a Multigenerational Farm Family
To avoid the commonly believed myth about close kin ties in
multigenerational farm families and to clarify the inding from the 2007
survey about the commitment of the younger generation of the beneiciary
farms to provide care for the older generation, the ields of dis/agreement
among and within farm families generations were observed through their
assessments of the dis/advantages of living in a multigenerational family.
he cases of two types of families (the beneiciaries and non-beneiciaries
of two forms of aid) show no particular diference:
he majority of the older generation believe that living in
a multigenerational farm family is more of a beneit than a shortcoming
but on condition that all the members get along. Usually they expose
secured old age, intergenerational teaching: the younger from the older
and vice versa, and a feeling that you always get help when you need it.
93
for instance, the older couple from case 2 expects to stay at home in their
old age. he older operator (Er) referred to the contract where it was
clearly deined that a retired person stayed in a house (or apartment) and
the young transferee had to take care of him either at home or had to pay
for his nursing. His wife added that they had already arranged the house
properly: lower rooms, without stairs, were set up for the older people.
Grandchildren are as a rule seen more as entertainment than obligation:
I cannot describe the joy when children arrive home from school and a baby
smiles from his chair. But you have to be more careful with a tractor because
kids play everywhere in the yard (male i, 49, case 5).
Yet the minority express some criticism. he older couple in case

3 believes that a common life with various generations may lead
to disagreement. he older operator was as a child faced with such
a disagreement between his mother and his aged grandmother, his fathers
mother. His grandmother even moved to his daughters family in the other
village because she could no longer live with his mother. Yet his mother
did not get along with his wife either:
My mother-in-law was constantly giving orders. Sometimes I couldnt stand her
commands and rather without words had done quickly what was necessary.
Sometimes my husband supported me, sometimes his mother. Unfortunately he
was a mamas boy. He assisted me but he also took time for himself. And when
I asked him why he wasnt there, knowing that we had lots of guests, he replied
that I was the one who was always at home. I had to prove myself continually
(female i, 66).
his negative experience with a mother-in-law was the main reason

that she supported her children to live their way of life. his incident
also underlined her desire not to live with her adult children and their
families.
he older couple of case 4 believes that at times, there was much more
respect among generations than there is today. old people were a role
model in the house. When she married on her husbands farm, the wife of
the older operator had a good relationship with all the family members:
she was even taught how to cook with the help of her mother-in-law. as
94
the only member with a driving licence she regularly drove the parents
and grandparents-in-law to the doctor. When her parents-in-law became
seriously ill, she automatically provided nursing.
he younger generation sees the advantages of living together primarily
in better organised work; each member of the family has only some tasks
and not all of the work. he individual is disburdened and expenses per
individual are usually lower in such a community. secured help for children
is the advantage in almost all the cases. a candidate for sYf (case 3) even
believes that taking care of children by grandparents and the opposite is
a privilege of living together. He and his older sister were looked ater by
their grandfather. his was his main task as an old member of a family who
with one arm only could no longer assist in the ields. Today, the care for
his children by his parents is indispensable since the kindergarten is closed
at weekends, and that is when there is most work on the tourist farm.
he only female operator (case 6) admits that her children attended
kindergarten for only one year because there was always somebody at
home. Even her disabled grandmother, who was conined to a wheelchair
for six years, took care of them. Her children did their homework on her
bed and she supervised them. he children were also very attached to their
great-grandmother.
considering secured care for the children by grandparents, however,
some also defend clear boundaries between the generations. he older
son-in-law (case 4) is not even convinced that intergenerational solidarity
is as a rule a good thing:
Maybe it is good if possible, but as such it is not automatically good. You cannot
just transfer responsibility to someone; for instance, providing care for your
children to your parents. his efort is their good will and not an obligation. If
conlict appears, that is for sure because of kids. Grandparents are inclined to
indulgence because they feel pity for kids. But you know that this is not good
for their future life.
all young farmers from the beneiciary type of farm emphasise as an

advantage the assistance of their parents on the farm, either in the ields or
in a stable. Yet they also commonly stress as the main ield of disagreement
arguing with their fathers on how to work, when to work and who will
do something:
95
When Father was young there was another way of cultivating the land than
there is today. Older people hardly understand what is possible to do with new
machinery. hey are obsessed with the idea that we should work in the same
way as they worked in the past (female i, 42, case 1).
Particularly younger in-laws mentioned a hard entry into such a wellconnected multigenerational family. at the beginning, a partner of sfY
(case 1) had some diiculties with her partners older sister. Her partner
and his older sister worked together on both farms daily, so the sister was to
chain her brother on her. Bad relationships between the brothers partner
and his older sister resulted in worse relations with other family members,
too. in the course of time, however, they all adapted to each other and now
they get along without any problems.
a son-in-law of the older operator (case 4) had a similar experience
when he married into the best farm in the village. He is still convinced
that his parents-in-law do not respect him enough, do not trust him.
herefore, he believes that the young and the old cannot live together: the
old people follow only themselves and do not listen to young ones as they
do not know anything. His wife even prefers a separate life, maintaining
contacts with her parents from a distance. she believes that conlicts emerge
when two generations do not listen to each other. Her father, for instance,
stubbornly sticks to a certain way of work in the ield with the argument,
if ive worked in such a way up to now, i will continue. she frequently
argues with her mother, who is irresistibly convinced that meat must be
part of the daily menu, and fat must be a part of the meat. Moreover, when
common work begins in autumn, everybody is so nervous that she packs
and leaves the house.
in many cases, a separate house in a yard is a sign of a need for more
intimacy of the younger generation, which does not deny the same need of
an older member of a family. he operators mother (female i, 73, case 5)
explains that she preferred to live with her partner in the town simply
because she did not want to remain a pig-maid at home:
I knew that the grandchildren would marry and that I remained alone although
they asked me to stay. Ive known my partner for a long time and I preferred to
live with him. At home we lived a good life. We did not argue. But here, here
was simply better (female i, 73, case 5).
96
Practically, in all those cases where certain disagreements were expressed

among generations either by the older or the younger members of a family
(case 3, 4, 5), there is also a speciic view on ageing on the farm. an old
age home is preferred not only due to negative experiences with parents
or parents-in-law (as mentioned in case 2 above) but also in a sense that
you do not bother anybody or you are in better hands:
I would go to an old age home with joy. here you get the appropriate nursing
which cannot be provided at home. Everything is clean, nurses are available at
any moment, and doctors are there, and good food, there is everything. On the
farm, there are already three families! I think the home for the elderly is superb
(female i, 73, case 5)!
he home for the elderly no longer represents shame in the village. all
the collocutors admit that this attitude is changing. However, it is a solution
only for those who can inancially aford it. in general, farm pensions in
slovenia are too low (app. 400 EUr) for full coverage of expenses of such
maintenance. Particularly in the case of long-term care the expenses are
twice or three times higher. Yet the majority of collocutors agree that
nowadays, when people are also employed of the farm, in case of long-term
illness or disability the institutional home is a necessary solution. Working
on the farm and as a self-employed person, for instance, the operators wife
(case 4) could not provide demanding care for her mother who sufered
from dementia. he only reasonable solution was institutional care. at irst,
she condemned herself and her co-villagers condemned her too. But later
on she realised that her decision was the right one. following the example
of her grandmother, the operators wifes older daughter speaks in favour
of institutional care while her husband disagrees with her, being convinced
that domestic care is the best solution for elderly people. He would also
prefer this option if possible.
considering ageing at home as a preferred option in at least one
generation of all the cases and in all generations in three cases (1, 2, 6),
there are no diferences observed between two types of farms. he majority
of the younger generation believe that their parents and in-laws deserve to
die at home. such is the case of the older daughter of the older operator
(case 1) who lived with her father-in-law until his death. she alone took
care of him, sometimes assisted by her children and mother:
97
In the morning, we would wash my father-in-law. hen my mother would

bring lunch. I would have looked ater him even if he hadnt transferred the
farm to me. He ofered a lot, so he deserved to stay at home until his death.
He was not a troublemaker. Resting in bed he listened to the radio and through
the window observed people in the street. Children oten entertained him
(case 1).
she also expects her children to take care of her when she grows old. she
sincerely hopes that they will not allow a home for the elderly to become
her resort. such an institution is a good alternative only in the case of
prolonged illness or for elderly people who are alone.
Yet irrespective of generation, the care for the elderly remains and
is expected to be the main ield of womens work. strictly speaking,
a transferee or the one who stays on the farm is expected to take care of
his or her parents. But in practice, this is a womans concern. surprisingly,
regardless of the male opinion in general, even the younger generation of
women is convinced that this is their ield of obligation:
his work is diicult for a man. In our family this was always taken for granted
as being womens work. My great grandmother was at home because there
was always somebody at home. Grandmother was physically capable of
looking ater my great grandmother. My mother and I were at her disposal, too
(female i, 27, case 1).
finally, some collocutors stress that caring for the elderly or disabled
members bonds them all as a family. illustrative is the case 6: the operator
(44) and her mother took care of her grandmother who had one leg and
was conined to a wheelchair. it never occurred to them to send her to
an institution. Her grandmother was not lonely at home and loved to
participate in the kitchen. sometimes she simply cleared the things from
the table and carried them to the cupboards, and she washed the dishes
until they bought a dishwasher. he parents of the operator did not even
send her older sister, who had mental and physical troubles, to a home for
the disabled. she stayed at home until she died. Her mother (69) would
never put anybody in an institution, especially a disabled child or an elderly
person. she is convinced that these people and the care for them bonded
them as a family. hey always kept together and got along. herefore, the
98
life in a multigenerational family is something beautiful and good for her.

she also believed that all generations should still live together although
today, you hardly ind such families.
Conclusion
he results of the survey Generations and Gender relations on slovenian
farms clearly show that the measures of Early retirement of farmers
and setting Up of Young farmers encouraged family farms with better
developmental capacities in terms of economic characteristics of farms and
a number of household members. However, the survey indings did not
conirm an initial assumption that the beneiciary farm households difered
from the non-beneiciary farm households as to the attitudes towards
intergenerational assistance. Both groups of farm households expressed
similar views on who should take care of the elderly and dependent family
members. in comparison with rural and urban populations, farmers show
greater expectations towards a family as a primary provider of care for the
elderly and children. considering inancial support for the elderly and
adult children, the survey results show no signiicant diferences among
the observed groups. all respondents agreed that society is responsible for
providing this type of support. When practical intergenerational assistance
was taken into account, however, results show that a family is a major
source of various types of assistance in farm households of the beneiciaries
compared to other observed groups. a general inding of the survey may
be shortly summarised in the following way: he beneiciaries, particularly
young farmers, are willing to continue farming, live on bigger farms and
have higher education and fertility compared to the non-beneiciaries and
two other observed groups (urban and rural people). hey also expressed
greater concern in care giving for the older generation. However, the young
farmers as the most likely carriers of agricultural development in slovenia
do not participate in wider social networks; their social networks are still
limited to their closer siblings.
contrary to the survey result, the ieldwork material shows that the
operators who are the beneiciaries of both forms of aid do not difer from
the non-beneiciary operators in terms of education. in the beneiciary
group, all three levels of achieved education are represented from elementary
school to a university degree. Education matters only related to generations:
99
among the younger generation, secondary education prevails, while in the

older generation, vocational schooling is prevalent.
he type of farm does not matter either. livestock-crop production is
characteristic for all the farms observed and they all combine a family farm
budget with on- and of-farm resources. all the family farms are mixed as
to the number of employed family members on and of the farm. Yet the
two groups of farms difer depending on the number of family members
who work permanently on the farm. in the beneiciary group, at least three
family members work full-time on the farm compared to only one who is
fully employed on a farm in the non-beneiciary group.
as in the survey, the ieldwork material shows that two measures
addressed family farms which had substantially enlarged the size of
farmland, the number of livestock and the building capacities at the time
the younger operator took over the farm. as a rule, these farms are also
better equipped and mechanised compared to the non-beneiciary farms.
it seems that this improvement of the farms in the beneiciary group was
also motivated by the secured successors on these farms and in-time
transfer of the farm to the younger generation. as the young farmers
stressed, they would have continued with farming irrespective of the aid
received. herefore, both forms of aid accelerated and did not cause the
farm transfer.
irrespective of the time period observed and the farm type, the care
for the elderly and children is the working domain of women. despite the
tacit rule that a son usually takes over the farm and consequently he should
be responsible for the elderly parents, practice shows that this is the ield
of the sons wife or partner. Moreover, women are aware that this is their
task, and they take it for granted.
hat a multigenerational farm family is also a family irm is proved by
the engagement of each and every family member including the disabled
or the elderly. in such a community, work is found for everyone who is
capable of contributing to the family budget. he retired members work
on the farm ater retiring, and it seems that age and disability are not
obstacles. Younger and older members of both groups predominantly
favour a common life in a multigenerational family due to the more evenly
distributed tasks and secured care for children and the elderly. he only
precondition for a meaningful life in a multigenerational farm family is
to get along with each other.
100
ater all, the presented results may be conducive to a rare but increasing
number of case studies worldwide on intergenerational bonds in a farm
context, explaining more in-depth complex dynamics and background of
intergenerational assistance. Quite a general observation from the literature
that family values in a form of feeling of responsibility to old parents and
the opposite prevail in farm setting is explained within a particular context.
comparing expectations on the issue with its practices provide conclusion
on prevailing familialism or close kin ties on farms as too simplistic an
observation. secured successor and in-time transfer of the farm from
older to younger operator certainly contribute to farming continuity. Yet
intergenerational assistance on farms in slovenia seems more a practice
conditioned by the interrelated work on a farm, where any help contributes
to a common endeavour or business on the farm. Poor availability of
public services in farm settings and generally low pensions of farmers to
aford them does not hinder noticeable increasing beliefs among the farm
population that institutional care for children, the elderly and disabled
may be an alternative to home care. But this alternative is acceptable only
if the farm as a business cannot function properly due to time spent for
any type of caring.
despite some diagnostic common contours or similarities in attitudes on
intergenerational assistance in farm population extracted from the surveys
results, the ield material added some deeper insights of understanding the
assistance between generations showing the importance of various family
contexts in a life-course perspective. it is hoped that various approaches
and methods combined contribute to a more comprehensive picture on
the issue of intergenerational relationships in farm population that could
be more systematically included in the research agenda worldwide.
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doi: 10.2478/eec-2013-0006
19 2013
Milica Vujicic, Lela Ristic, Nata Ciric
Local Initiatives for Rural Vitality and Social Inclusion:

Some Experiences from Serbia
Abstract
he purpose of this paper is to identify the main problems related to the sustainable
development of rural communities, as well as the possible solutions to overcome
them. his paper uses an analytical and synthetic approach, method of comparison
and analogy, and descriptive analysis. he starting point of the research is actually
a brief overview of the current situation in rural serbia, while the central part of
the paper presents an analysis concerning the development of the rural economy
in the representative villages of Grabovica and ribare in the republic of serbia.
research results are given in the form of speciic guidelines for a new approach
to local rural development and strengthening the role and responsibilities of local
government in the development process. he main conclusion that follows from
the results of the research is that continued and constant work is needed in order
to empower local communities to take responsibility for their own development,
as well as to support local initiatives to this end.
Keywords: rural development, strategic priorities, local action groups,

public-private partnership, rural community, social inclusion.
Introduction
he approach issues and dilemmas on how to facilitate the development of
rural areas, as well as how it should be dealt with both from the theoretical
106
Milica Vujicic, Lele Ristic, Nata Ciric
and practical aspects are numerous. here are many diferent theories and
models of rural development, as well as numerous development strategies,
which systematize the individual scientiic and practical approaches to rural
development with a view to particular regional circumstances and available
resources. in this regard, the prevailing opinion is that the problems of rural
areas can be solved by applying an integrated approach. his approach makes
it possible that the problems of rural areas are addressed in a sustainable
and multisectoral manner, through the consideration of the environmental,
economic, social, cultural and physical aspects in order to ensure the
long-term prosperity of rural communities. identiication, assessment and
reliance on the local development potential and community members are
justiied by the heterogeneity of the area and the inluence of the multiple
socio-economic changes, which link rural development to the process
of globalization and integration into contemporary trends. a modern
approach to rural development is based on the bottom-up initiatives that
come from the local community and which are focused on strengthening
the capacities of local stakeholders and collaboration with the public sector.
he more developed rural area, the larger dependence of the success of the
rural community on the local initiative. his dependence is even greater
than dependence from the top-down initiative in cases where the central
or regional authorities set development priorities in accordance within
the local sustainable development strategy. he majority of rural areas in
serbia have adequate conditions for the successful implementation of the
concept of integrated rural development; however, sectoral imbalances,
lack of institutional infrastructure and entrepreneurial culture, have pushed
many rural communities in serbia into the background, as well as caused
poverty and led to their social exclusion. Hence, by considering the position
of EU in this respect, the integral rural development policy of serbia has
a wider scope to fulill in the years to come: to contribute to economic
growth and employment opportunities; improve the quality of life in
rural areas, the entrepreneurship and knowledge; reduce environmental
degradation. as there are no speciic studies on the participation of the
rural population, which are directly related to the resolving of speciic
problems of heterogeneous rural communities in serbia, the intention of
the authors is to point to the signiicant role of local actors in rural vitality
and social inclusion by analyzing two representative villages belonging to
the Moravica and Pomoravlje districts.
Local Initiatives for Rural Vitality and Social Inclusion
107
Background of General Socio-economic Situation

in Rural Areas and Rural Development Policy
in accordance with the rural reality of the EU member states, the integral
and diferential goals of rural development were deined both at country
and regional level through the lEadEr program activities sotte, f. (2001),
Terluin, i.J. (2003), Hill, B. (2005), casquilho, J. (2006), Njegovan, Z.
and crnokrak, N. (2012) etc. a key principle of this concept is the
reliance on the local development potentials. he development strategy
implemented by the rural community is realized through three models:
(1) the development model, which focuses on the strengthening of the
self-help capacity of local actors, Murray and dunn (1995), bottom-up
approach, Mannion, J. (1996), (2) the model of the potential of the
immovable property in creating competitive advantages in the rural
community, Bryden, J.M. (1998), according to which the economic
development of rural areas depends on a combination of tangible and
intangible assets, as well as the manner in which they are interrelated
within a local context, (3) the model of community development through
creative destruction, Mitchell, c.J.a. (1998), which assumes that the
development of the traditional villages is based on mutual relations in
terms of entrepreneurial initiative, commodiication of the rural heritage
of the destruction of the rural idyll. By comparing the results of the
empirical and theoretical models of rural development, it was conirmed
that the endogenous approach is dominant in practice, Bryden, J.M. (2000),
as well as the mixed exogenous/endogenous development approach,
Terluin, i.J., Post, J.H. (2001), which relates rural development to the
process of globalization, mainly due to the rapid technological changes
in the information and communication sector.
he opportunity to use these models in the Western Balkans and
serbia is particularly useful in the process of building more eicient rural
development management models in line with European integration.
here are numerous reasons why rural development represents an
important issue for the economy and society in serbia. he rural areas
deined in compliance with the oEcd standards of deining rural areas,
account for 85% of the territory of serbia with 55% of the countrys total
population living in them and the population density of 63 inhabitants
108
per km. he territory of serbia is divided into 165 municipalities (that

include 4,715 settlements) out of which 82.2% of municipalities, i.e. 130
municipalities (consisting of 3,904 settlements), are classiied as rural
municipalities. in the period from 19912002 (based on the census
data) the number of inhabitants in rural areas fell by 3.6%, moreover the
number of people older than 65 years of age who inhabited rural areas
is 22.4%. he unemployment rate is high (21%), and relects the lack of
employment opportunities. Both economic and social infrastructure are
fragile, underdeveloped and they negatively inluence the competitiveness
of the rural areas. GdP per capita in rural areas amounts to 74% of the
national average and approximately one million people are faced with a high
poverty rate. rural areas in serbia can be divided into four homogeneous
groups of municipalities in order to more easily identify speciic strengths
and weaknesses of these areas and develop appropriate strategies, policies
and measures for their development within the framework of the rural
development strategy Plan. he mentioned groups are (MafWM of the
rs, 2009: 811):
Region 1 a highly productive agriculture and integrated economy
the region has favourable climatic conditions and good soil,
as well as the appropriate structure of agricultural production,
where activities including intensive use of capital are predominant
compared to other rural areas in serbia. compared with other parts
of serbia, the region has signiicant human resources, pronounced
entrepreneurship, a suiciently diversiied industrial sector and
developed infrastructure.
Region 2 economic sectors typical for small urban areas, with
the type of agriculture characterized by the extensive use of the
workforce this region includes the suburban settlements in the
outskirts of urban centres and major cities. Taking into account the
proximity of such regions to the market, the structure of agricultural
production is primarily focused on intensive production.
Region 3 the industrial sectors focused on the use of natural
resources, mainly mountainous areas according to its geographic
characteristics, this region is very heterogeneous, with an extremely
unfavourable demographic structure, high unemployment rate and
pronounced rural poverty.
109
Region 4 large tourist capacities and undeveloped agriculture the

region has the greatest potential for tourism and the highest share
of the tertiary sector participation in the economic structure.
depending on the types and structural features of the area, the following
program and development strategies can be used (Vasilevska, lj. and ribar,
M., 2007:203):
complementary strategy for consolidated rural areas, where the
program activities have already given results;
diversiication and consolidation strategy for underdeveloped rural
areas, as a support to new product lines in the dominant development
sector;
recovery and renewal strategy restructuring of rural areas and
establishment of the basis for implementation of development
strategy;
rebalancing strategy for rural areas characterized by social and
spatial imbalances;
promotion strategy for rural areas with large structural and
demographic problems identiied in the early stages of program
and planning activities.
according to the size of the estate, farms smaller than 3 hectares are
dominant in serbia (59%), while the farms with plot size totalling 1 hectare
make up 27% of the total number of farm households. farms with plot
size totalling 3 to 5 hectares make up 18%, farms with plot size totalling
from 5 to 8 hectares account for 13%, farms with plot size totalling 815
hectares make up 8% of the total number of farm households, while only
2% of farm households have more than 15 hectares (statistical Yearbook
of the republic of serbia, 2010: 222).
he existing educational structure and the qualiications of the
population should be considered as a limiting factor for the development
of rural areas. he lack of young and qualiied people is one of the main
problems in the mountainous areas of serbia, most of which have already
passed beyond the critical point in terms of the biological reproduction
of the population. Given the high proportion of mountainous areas in
the total territory of the country, the rational use of their resources is of
the highest importance in order to mitigate economic, environmental
and social conlicts in the process of economic transition, and to apply
modern concepts of development, which represent a sustained and
110
sustainable process of economic, social, cultural and environmental change

designed to enhance the long-term well-being of the whole community
(Moseley 2003:4). also, a reformed EU rural development policy for
the period 20072013 is related to economic, environmental and social
elements of sustainable development. he main topics of the national rural
development programs of the EU member countries are: modernization
of agriculture; rural infrastructure development; population increase and
maintenance at the local level; landscape protection and land conservation;
diversiication of rural economy and mitigation of rural areas isolation.
a new feature for 2007 to 2013 is a greater emphasis on a coherent strategy
for rural development across the EU as a whole. his is being achieved by
implementing the National strategy Plans which must be based on the EU
strategic Guidelines (Ec, 2011).
he main strategic priorities and measures for achieving and fulilling
the rural development objectives in serbia which are included in the strategy
Plan for rural development for the period 20092013 are (MafWM of
the rs, 2009:30):
Priority Axes 1 improving market eiciency and applying the EU
standards;
Priority Axes 2 Preparation activities for application of agroecological measures and local rural development strategies;
Priority Axes 3 development of rural economy.
he ability to recognize development directions in the EU-27 is an
important criterion for guiding the rural development of serbia. it provides
valuable guidelines on possible ways of implementing the process of
reconstruction and development of rural areas, and information which
indicates how to avoid the mistakes that other countries were making
in their accession processes to the EU. in these processes, the solutions
cannot be generalized and generated, since each area requires special
considerations and speciic solutions.
Research Methodology
he subject of this research are local initiatives aimed at revitalizing
Grabovica and ribare villages in serbia, which in terms of socio-economic
development belong to diferent types of rural regions and relect the reality
of development gap and underdevelopment.
111
hese villages are analyzed in order to identify problems that residents

of these villages are facing in the process of integration into current socioeconomic trends and to identify ways in which they, as well as the local
and state institutions support the realization of this process.
for the purposes of this paper, the comparative analysis was applied
in order to compare the following characteristics of the aforementioned
villages:
geographic, demographic, economic characteristics of the settlement,
residential, cultural, educational and other characteristics of the
village;
initiatives of the villagers in relation to the revitalization and
development of the village;
the role of local self-government in the development programs and
public-private partnerships.
he parameters used for the purposes of the comparative analysis are
based on the collection of primary and secondary data by using surveys,
structured interviews based on the survey questionnaires answered by the
local community (target population were residents older than 18 years of
age, while the average size of the sample was 100 respondents per village),
community oicials, internal data from local community oice, the data of
the statistical oice of the republic of serbia and relevant websites.
Research Results
Grabovica village belongs to the underdeveloped rural areas of the Moravica
district and the residents of this village struggle through harsh living
conditions. hey are faced with numerous problems including unfavourable
geographic location, poor and undeveloped economic, inancial, social,
cultural, educational and healthcare infrastructure, which should actually
provide them with necessary services. he villagers of Grabovica are trying
to break the vicious circle of underdevelopment by themselves, since
they are aware of the fact that nobody else would do this on their behalf.
he picture of the rural milieu is similar to the other hilly/mountainous
villages in serbia.
Village of ribare, lowland village, which belongs to the Pomoravlje
district, is considered as the developed rural area compared to other
parts of central serbia. his rural settlement has signiicant human
112
capital, considerable entrepreneurial spirit, diversiied industry, developed

infrastructure and favourable socio-economic indicators of overall
development. Generally, in these types of rural areas in serbia, selfgovernance of the local population is a key factor in planning development
and an important factor in the building and strengthening of local action
groups and public-private partnerships.
Table 1. comparative analysis of the basic characteristics of the villages
GRABOVICA
1. MAIN CHARACTERISTICS
total area of the village is
about 1324 hectares
Geographic
hilly/mountainous village
and socio number of inhabitants: 443
economic
number of households: 150
structure
ethnic structure: 99.8%
serbian nationality
18.1% of working population
is employed in agriculture,
while 48.2% are employed in
processing industry
average age of population:
43.6 years of age
insuiciently diversiied
economic structure
insuiciently developed
businesses and services
State of
agriculture
low productivity level

average size of farms: less
than 3 ha
insuicient farming
equipment, etc.
RIBARE
total area of the village is
about 1200 hectares
lowland village
number of inhabitants: 3701
number of households: 1042
ethnic structure: 99.3% are
serbs (other ethnic groups
are Montenegrins, croatians
and Macedonians)
12.8% of working population
are employed in agriculture
while 43.8% are employed in
processing industry
average age of population:
38.6 years of age
diversiied economic
structure, sMEs (small and
medium enterprises)
new rural businesses and
services
high productivity level
average size of farms 3 ha
suicient farming
equipment, etc.
113
Table 1. comparative analysis (continuation)

GRABOVICA
Rural
underdeveloped, poor
infrastructure
(physical, economic and
social)
2. DEVELOPMENT POTENTIAL
Human capital low level of local potential
and education
RIBARE
suiciently developed rural

infrastructure
suicient level of local

potential and insuicient
education
Production
undeveloped partnerships
insuicient established
connectivity
slow progress in establishing
partnerships
groups and associations of insuicient networking of
producers
institutions that work on
common projects
Local self insuiciently developed
insuiciently developed
government
local action groups (laGs)
local action groups (laGs)
insuicient autonomy
innovative and eicient
in terms of inances and
local entrepreneurs and
competences
local administration
insuicient implementation donations and pilot projects
of the bottom-up approach
low inancial capacity of the
local community
3. RURAL DEVELOPMENT PRIORITIES
Main
diversiication of economic agricultural competitiveness
objectives
activities
environmental protection
productivity growth
multifunctionality
development of
infrastructure, institutional
and organizational
strengthening of all
stakeholders
Strategies
increase in employment
focus on the competences of
level and new business
the local self - governments
opportunities
through mobilization of
local resources
114
Table 1. comparative analysis (continuation)

GRABOVICA
RIBARE
mobilization of local
development of local
resources
service providers and
strategies for recovery and
private-public partnerships,
reconstruction
by implementing
lifelong learning
complementary strategy
better funding and inancial lifelong learning
support
better funding and inancial
support
Detailed Explanation of the Results

improvement of the rural economy in serbia requires strengthening of
the local self-governments capacities in terms of program and project
implementation and creation of the decentralized support system for
rural development through the establishment of local partnerships and
cooperation at all levels. a clearer picture of the initiatives of the rural
communities aimed at their own development, as well as leading local
actors and local self-governments in terms of the sustainability of rural
areas is acquired through a comparative analysis of the current state of
afairs in these rural areas.
Geographic and Demographic Characteristics
of the Villages Grabovica and Ribare
Grabovica is a village in the municipality of Gornji Milanovac which
belongs to the Moravica district, central serbia. he total area of the
village is about 1324 hectares, and its altitude is from 400 to 752 m, which
classiies this village as a scattered hilly/mountainous village. he climate
is continental with very cold and snowy winters and moderately warm
summers. he human settlement has always been located at this site;
however, it is not mentioned in the old Turkish records and in the census
115
from 1467. only later, in 1718, the austro-Hungarian census mentions the
village of Grabovica (Municipal Assembly of Gornji Milanovac, 2011).
ribare is a village characterized by a compact settlement of houses,
situated in a plain, on the let bank of the Morava river. it is also the largest
village of the municipality of Jagodina. he total area of the village is about
1200 hectares. he name of the village is believed to be linked with the
ishermen and ishing on the Morava river and its tributary the lugomir
river. he scarce written records show that about 400 years ago, there was
a village staro selo in this area, which consisted of 7 cottages (Website of
the village ribare, 2011).
from the comparison of census results from 1948 to 2002, we can
note the population decrease in Grabovica. according to unoicial results
of the census from 2011, 443 people are currently living in this village,
i.e., 54 people less than in 2002 according to the census data from that
year (index 89.3). concerning the gender structure, 51% of the inhabitants
in the village of Grabovica are women and 49% men. regarding the
age structure of the population, over 60% of villagers are older than 50.
he largest number of households have 25 members, although there is
a signiicant number of single person households (29 households), while
16 households have 69 members. here are 110 single men and women
in the village. residents of this village have mostly completed the basic
level of education, i.e. primary school (72%), 25.4% of the villagers have
a high school diploma (secondary education), while 2.6% of villagers have
a university degree.
he number of inhabitants of ribare village has been increasing, as
well as the number of households. according to the 2002 census data, the
average household consisted of 3.34 people. Most households consisted of
four people (24%), while only a few households consisted of more than
6 people (3%). single-person households made up 15% of the total number
of households. adults make up about 70% of the population. he median
age of the population is 38.6 years (37.6 for men and 39.5 for women).
he gender ratio is 49% men and 51% women (data of sors, 2010).
according to the local community records and the preliminary results of
the 2011 census, in ribare 3701 people live in 1042 households. However,
about 30 families live in the city but they also run their households in the
village.
116
Table 2. Number of inhabitants and households
Year
1948
1953
1961
1971
1981
1991
2002
2011
Village of Grabovica
Number of
Number of
inhabitants
households
875
172
890
188
897
235
623
173
578
156
523
158
497
152
443
150
Village of Ribare
Number of
Number of
inhabitants
households
2239
443
2295
484
2308
537
2515
629
2976
784
3259
845
3482
993
3701
1042
source: sors data, per year.
Economic Characteristics of the Villages

and Employment Structure
he population of the village of Grabovica is primarily engaged in cattle
breeding, crop growing and fruit production. Most of the households are
engaged in mixed production, while only 20 are registered farmers. land
parcels are small (less than 3 ha) and fragmented, however farmers are well
equipped with agricultural machinery. here are no cooperatives or farmers
associations in the village, but there is organized milk collection, as well
as selling of raspberries and blackberries, which are the only products for
market sale. other products are grown or harvested for personal use or
consumption, and the surplus of livestock is placed on the market in Gornji
Milanovac and the nearby towns and cities. he village has a signiicant
potential for rural tourism, but only one rural household is involved in
this business activity. out of the total number of the employed persons
(193), only one person works in the village (runs a convenience store),
while everyone else works in Gornji Milanovac. Many villagers, who used
to work in companies in Gornji Milanovac, lost their jobs, therefore the
social circumstances are very diicult because of the large number of
unemployed persons and pensioners (about 52%).
117
Table 3. Population by activity
Activity
agriculture, hunting and forestry
crats and industry
Trade
Healthcare and education
administration
Traic, hospitality industry and construction
other
Total
% of inhabitants
Village of
Village of
Grabovica
Ribare
18.1
12.8
48.2
43.8
7.2
13.8
4.1
9.0
2.6
2.5
11.9
10.9
7.9
7.2
100.0
100.0
source: data provided by local communities Grabovica and ribare, 2011.
he residents of the village of ribare are mainly engaged in livestock

breeding and crop growing. However, there is a great diversiication
of other activities. local people estimate that the village has about 700
unemployed persons seeking jobs, and about 500 persons were made
redundant (they used to work for companies that went bankrupt). he
number of people working abroad is about 200, and there are no returnees.
he number of people who were engaged in other business activities, but
have started to practice agriculture is about 200, as well as the number of
season workers.
Quality of Infrastructure
as far as the road network density and the quality of roads are concerned,
Grabovica is underdeveloped, because all local roads are non-asphalt roads,
except for the road that connects the village with Gornji Milanovac (built
in 1974). he nearest bus stop is located 6 km from Grabovica village.
Telecommunication network is very poor, the signal strength is weak.
here is no post oice in the village; the municipality built an automatic
telephone exchange and mobile phone tower in 2002. in terms of housing
and utility infrastructure, it should be noted that there is a spatial plan
118
of the village and the process of legalization of houses has started. here
are 14 holiday houses in the village, as well as 5 abandoned houses. he
electriication of the village was completely inished in 1961, but it did
not include streetlights. he villagers use their own wells or springs and
at the end of 2011 the majority of households were connected to the
public water supply network. an increasing number of households is
connected to city water. a container for waste disposal is placed in the
centre of the village, but only a small number of people use it for waste
disposal. Most people dispose of waste at illegal landills or dumping sites
in the wild and uninhabited mountainous part of the village. We would
like to mention that there is no school in the village, no library, no sports
facilities, no health clinic, no pharmacy, no veterinary clinic, no repair
shop for agricultural machinery and motor vehicles or any other services,
raw material suppliers, etc. he villagers must travel to Gornji Milanovac
in order to obtain necessary goods and services.
ribare throughout its history had continuous socio-economic growth,
however, each stage of development was accompanied by speciic problems,
and thus the co-operatives faced certain problems in the process of their
development. currently nine business organizations operate in ribare and
they are involved in food production, production of construction materials,
transport and hospitality industry. here are also 10 convenient stores
in the village. residents of the village ribare can have their agricultural
machinery and household appliances repaired in the village, and can
also use the services provided by hairdressers, car mechanics, car-body
mechanics, welders, lathe operators, etc. he village also has an adequately
equipped and properly stafed veterinary station (since 1970), agricultural
pharmacy (since 2006), pharmacy and ambulatory care clinic with one
full-time employed doctor. he diference between the urban and rural
areas has been slowly disappearing due to a large number of small crat
workshops and services, specialized repair shops, proximity and connection
to the city. hus, young people decide to remain in the village, which is
extremely important for the further development of the village. an old
6 km long unpaved country road runs through the village of ribare, as
well as a 20 km long paved road built in 1970, which connects the village
with the regional road Jagodina-svilajnac. here is not a bus station in the
village; however, there are 5 bus stops and the residents are satisied with
the public transport system. ribare was completely electriied in 1958.
119
he village has 105 streets with designated street names and has street
lighting. 10% of households are connected to gas supply network. it is
important to point out that the village has an organized waste collection
and disposal service, i.e. waste is collected and transported from the
village to the city landill, and thanks to the eforts of local government,
every household has a garbage bin. in the period from 20062010, many
households were connected to the city water supply network, while other
households have their own wells equipped with water pumps. in the centre
of ribare there is a park and local residents, local communitys oice and
local government tend the park themselves. a cultural centre (as well
as the Village Hall) was completely renovated in 2007, and now it hosts
concerts, seminars, forums and celebration of the village patron saints
day. People hire the cultural centre premises for weddings, birthdays,
graduation and similar celebrations. in addition, there are sports and
cultural clubs and associations in the village: a Pigeon Breeders club, dog
Breeders club and an association of Nurserymen. he oldest residents
(pensioners) also have their own premises in the renovated building of
the cultural centre. he kindergarten in ribare was opened in 1980. he
village also has one elementary school. he elementary school consisted
of three school buildings. in 2012, a new school building with classrooms,
oices, laboratories and workshops was built. over 1000 pupils attend
this school, of whom 770 pupils in ribare. he school has a library, as
well as a school kitchen and dining room. he school also has a fenced
schoolyard with outdoor sports facilities for football, handball, basketball
and volleyball (Website of the village ribare, 2011).
Active Participation of Local People
and Municipality
successful local community development requires continuous work
including strengthening and supporting the local initiatives and empowering
local people to take responsibility for the development of their community.
he state institutions that should be supporting the achievement of the
vision of the rural economy and society in which there is a sustainable
community with a demographic balance, satisfactory income and current
living standards do not adequately support greater involvement of the
120
inhabitants of the village of Grabovica to improve their living conditions.

Nevertheless, initiatives and self-organization of the villagers largely
facilitates their living. hey used their own resources and labour to build
a road, which runs through the village, as well as access roads to their
ields. Every year the villagers organize voluntary work action to maintain
this road. in addition, the villagers invested 30% of their own resources
for the construction of water supply network. hey help each other with
agricultural work and they jointly maintain wells and village drinking
fountains. hey won litigation and thanks to the inal decision issued by the
court, they managed to regain the old Village Hall in which they plan to
gather, socialize and nurture old traditional values. due to the unfavourable
age structure, there is a growing need for health care, thus residents are
actively engaged in opening a health clinic, as well as providing regular
visits of experts that assist the villagers to adequately protect their animals
and crops. some households are in the process of preparations for getting
involved in rural tourism, and are working hard to protect and preserve
the environment. according to the conducted research, the villagers point
out that today they live a little bit worse than they used to ten years ago,
and that they are facing unemployment and poverty. hey must sell their
products at lower prices, which negatively afects their social status. hey
expect more support from the local government and the state in terms of
creating favourable conditions for rural entrepreneurship and expect them
to allocate suicient resources for the rural development. hey believe in
their values and unity, they want to actively participate in decision-making
processes related to rural development and demand to have equal access
to education and vocational training. hey want a better quality of life,
which each citizen of modern serbia is entitled to. hey want to live in
modern and developed rural areas and are conident that they will achieve
this with greater support and organization of all relevant institutions. he
development of micro and small family run businesses belonging to the
food industry represents an excellent opportunity for the intensiication
of agriculture, farms, professionalization of agricultural occupations, and
diversiication of the rural economy (Vujicic, M. et al, 2006:153).
in the village of ribare, a local community oice has been established
in order to assist the villagers. according to the conducted research, the
population of this village also points out that their living standard is lower
than it used to be ten years ago, although the village is more developed than
121
its neighbouring villages. he residents of the village are of the opinion that
the biggest problems are: low purchase prices of agricultural products, lack
of education and information, unemployment, lack of inancial resources
and insuicient support from the state concerning rural development
and agriculture. Most residents of the village consider that the most
important goals achieved in cooperation with state institutions and local
self-government are: electriication, excellent telecommunication network,
socio-cultural development of the village, preserved local tradition and
customs; development of sports activities; reconstruction of primary
school buildings and the kindergarten; renovation of the cultural centre
and the Village hall, paving of the streets; connection to the public water
supply network; connection to the gas supply system; opening of small
and medium enterprises. Here is an example of successful pig breeding in
the village ribare. Marija Nisovic (44), divorced her husband and, at the
same time, lost her job in the local mill Zitomlin in Jagodina. Marija and
her two daughters decided to return to the village where her parents lived.
Today, in this village, Marija is one of the most successful entrepreneurs in
pig breeding, because from 2008 she used loans from agroinvest (founded
by World Vision international, Wa, Usa) a microinance institution that
serves the inancial needs of the rural population and micro-enterprises,
and provides consultancy services for rural households, aimed to support
economic development in rural areas (aiH, 2011).
improvement of rural economy in serbia requires strengthening of the
local self-government capacity to implement the programs and projects
in the ield of rural development. he complexity of the liabilities, powers
and limitations of the local authorities in serbia are regulated by the
law on local self-Government (oicial Gazette of rs, No. 129/2007),
which is currently being amended. he insuicient autonomy of local
self-governments, primarily in the ield of inances and autonomy in terms
of the powers of the local self-governments, as well as the insuicient
information available to the local actors regarding the deining of the
development policies, are the reasons why the bottom-up approach
is still inadequately implemented in serbia. Particularly in those areas
that are economically underdeveloped or devastated, the mechanism
of participatory redistribution doesnt have primacy and is diicult to
establish. in practice, the rural population is involved in these processes
through their representatives, who are oten physically distant from the
122
community they represent. his is particularly evident when it comes

to the participation of citizens in law and policy making regarding the
rural development at national and regional level. in the majority of rural
communities, it is their inhabitants who initiate the addressing of the
issues which are of interest to local development and they are also those
who initiate social programs in order to utilize the available funds. it is
important to note that although many non-governmental organizations
and associations declare themselves as the drivers of rural development,
few have implemented speciic projects in these villages. he citizens low
levels of knowledge, information and awareness on their own rights and
responsibilities of the government, lack of decentralization, low inancial
capacities of local self-government are oten seen as a cause of the current
state of rural development (Bogdanov, N., 2011:30). in this respect, the
concept of rural economy is reduced to the exploitation of natural resources,
while innovative solutions regarding the deining of development policies
are oten disregarded.
Conclusion
recognition and evaluation of human, economic and environmental
resources at the local level, as the key factors of development, contribute
to the diversiication of the rural economy and increase the welfare of rural
communities. Today, local communities are required to be active in relation
to global processes. hus, they are emerging as strategic groups ready to
support the development transformation, bearers of changes and carriers
of new approaches concerning the integration into modern trends. Exciting
new opportunities for self-management in rural communities, in particular,
give a strong impetus to the social and territorial cohesion, enabling the
rural population to live in dignity and take an active part in society.
rural development is considered as a countrys priority in many strategic
documents and the necessity to involve all key stakeholders in this process
and the importance of their cooperation at the national, regional and
local level in compliance with the strategy Europe 2020 is acknowledged.
However, the development of rural communities is far from the proclaimed
policy and strategy, which points to the necessity of implementing a new
approach to local rural development policy.
123
he research conducted in the village Grabovica near Gornji Milanovac

conirmed that infrastructure development is an important prerequisite
for economic diversiication and socio-cultural development, which
should in turn provide a better standard of living. it is therefore necessary
to accelerate the process of strengthening the role and responsibilities
of local government for rural development and poverty reduction, in
order to enable that rural people fulill their basic needs. it is necessary to
encourage rural entrepreneurship and help farmers to organize themselves
concerning their common interests and goals, and guide them towards the
most eicient use of resources. strategies for recovery and reconstruction,
as well as the diversiication and consolidation, can be applied in this
village, with a pronounced support and interaction of local actors and the
general environment.
as far as the village ribare is concerned it is necessary to implement
certain measures and activities in order to intensify the rural development,
although this village is actually one of the most developed villages in
the Pomoravlje district. first of all, we are referring to the initiatives
that were launched in the village, but were not implemented due to lack
of funds. for such consolidated rural areas, where there are already
results of the implemented program activities, it is possible to apply the
complementary strategy, as a means of achieving sustainable integrated
rural development.
he future of both villages, according to their residents, depends
on their own ambition, self-organization and local initiatives, greater
participation of residents of the villages in making decisions that are
important for rural development, involvement of village representatives
in local government and interaction with other stakeholders who represent
the interests of the village, state policy and the possibility of using EU preaccession funds for rural development (iPa). he development of strong
rural communities and associations which will be enable local people to
create development programs at the local level, as well as the formation
of local agencies, which would provide necessary services, together with
the active participation of local people, are very important for the eicient
development of rural communities. However, one should not forget the
importance of interaction, because rural vitality is composed of economic,
social and cultural dimensions that are all included in the rural development
process.
124
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doi: 10.2478/eec-2013-0007
19 2013
Gabriela Manea, Elena Matei, Iuliana Vijulie,

Marian Marin, Octavian Cocos, Adrian Tiscovschi
Tradition and Modernity in the Romanian Rural Space.

Case Study: the Arges Sub-Carpathian Foothills
Abstract
his paper intends to demonstrate on the basis of a case study that rural peoples
access to modern goods and services is not necessarily a relentless source
of deculturalisation, because it sometimes allows a better management and
valorisation of the main characteristics of the rural space. despite socio-economic
unrest and successive changes of political regimes that took place in romania
during the last century, the human communities within the arges foothills have
defended with dignity their traditional material and spiritual values, passing
them down from generation to generation. in the medium and long-term, the
valorisation of the romanian rural space, in general, and of that belonging to
the arges foothills, in particular, will imply the creation of a balance between
the valuable cultural potential and the quality of life of the inhabitants, who are
the keepers of rural cultural heritage. at present, the best thing to do to pass on
the traditions of this area is to proudly accept the ailiation to this geographical
space. his is true not only for the permanent inhabitants of rural settlements,
but mostly for those who have let the countryside to carry it in their minds
and souls. in our opinion, this fact is a pre-requisite for preventing the loss of
material and spiritual values of this cultural-historical space.
Keywords: rural space, tradition, modernity, lereti, Valea Mare-Prav,

the arges sub-carpathian foothills.
128
G. Manea, E. Matei, I. Vijulie, M. Marin, O. Cocos, A. Tiscovschi
Introduction
By tradition and modernity, we understand two images at various stages
of development. he expression also suggests the idea of opposite worlds,
characterized by diferent balances, which reveal diferent images of
society, increasingly humane, as the epoch is older (courville, 1993,
p. 213). Generally, tradition means an accumulation of information, saved
in ones memory, later passed from generation to generation through
interpersonal interaction. in other words, tradition is the dynamic output
of an experience based on an aggregate of idiographic (unique) practices,
disseminated through non-explicit knowledge. hrough tradition,
experiences are acquired as a whole, through their external manifestation
(courville, 1993, p. 214). on the other hand, modernity is a state of
mind, a worldview, referring to the so-called modernization processes. it
promotes new knowledge and practices, supported by the advancements
in science and technology, which alter deeply the means by which people
react to reality (courville, 1993, p. 215). at present, modernity penetrates
everywhere and puts pressure on community spaces generating constraints,
previously unknown. Big countries swallow small countries, cultures
swallow cultures. Hence, the idea that modernity causes damage by
destroying the relationship networks that once supported the local balance
(courville, 1993, p. 217).
research undertaken during the last two decades on an international
scale with respect to the impact of globalization on the life of local
communities has highlighted the fact that present processes of economic
globalization ignore or even suppress the uniqueness of local life models
and cultural identities (Mlinar, 1995, p. 1). he development of modern
industry, transport and communication technology have greatly afected
the life of rural communities. Globalization, which initially seems to be
an external phenomenon, remote from everyday concerns, is actually
a dialectical phenomenon referring to the most intimate aspects of life.
Modern communication technologies shorten the physical distances and
cancel the informational isolation of contemporary societies, including
rural ones. Under the circumstances, the individualization of rural
communities, as a reaction to globalization, is characterized (among
Tradition and Modernity in the Romanian Rural Space
129
others) by the rediscovery of traditions, which are then incorporated into

everyday life (strassoldo, 1990).
a link between past and present, rural cultural patrimony only justiies
its conservation if it has a future and will be passed on to future generations.
he patrimony can be turned from a potential wealth into a product,
resource or development factor, thus being integrated into a sustainable
development scheme (Maguelonne dejeant-Pons, 2007).
during the past half-century the romanian village has been confronted
with land coniscation, village systematization, rural light to large industrial
cities during the communist regime, and, in the last 20 years, with
problems generated by the low eiciency of agricultural, environmental
and sustainable development policies. despite all these socio-economic
diiculties, it continues however, to preserve the genuine values of country
life. his national asset has not yet been capitalized so as to stimulate the
sedentarisation of the rural population while arousing the interest of those
who are curious to discover the charm of living in the countryside. his is
especially the case of young people born and living in the city and foreign
visitors, for whom contact with the romanian village may represent a sui
generis experience and an in situ lesson in ethnography and folklore.
he present image of the romanian village reveals the close link,
consolidated in time, between the settlement, the natural setting and
the material culture of its inhabitants (cucu, 2009). he romanian subcarpathians in general and the arges foothills in particular seem to
have been destined from the beginning speciically for sheltering human
settlements []. he human agglomerations developed on these lands are
always reborn from the ashes to surge to the sky like the Phoenix (conea,
1931). in the rural space belonging to the arges foothills live people
distinguished by stability and aspiration for modern living. hrough them,
who preserve the traditional occupations and the mastery of the speciic
households, we ind the traditional traits that characterize the value of
the romanian village as a whole. hese people, [] still preserve the
indigenous popular art style of the old houses, while adapting it to the new
constructions (cucu, 2009, pp. 340).
in the last three decades of the 20th century, the attention of romanian
geographers focused pre-eminently on rural modernization problems
(sandru, 1967; Bacanaru and candea, 1977; ianos, 1979; Urucu, 1987,
et al.). his new trend brings to the fore the relation between quality of
130
life in the rural space and the preservation of the cultural identity of the
romanian village.
he study refers to the sub-carpathian space bordering on the southern
carpathians, between the arge and dambovia rivers (ig. 1). in order to
emphasize the way in which tradition and modernism combine in these
parts, two communes lying in the arges foothills were chosen as samples.
hese are situated between the mountains and the cmpulung depression,
the latter being considered by geographers as the most typical tectonicerosive sub-carpathian depression.
he arguments behind this study are numerous, most important being
the following:
the last half-century has brought about ample quantitative and
qualitative changes, which impacted on the administrative-territorial
structure, rural space functions, demographic behaviour, peoples
mentality and the proile of the activities carried out by the local
population;
the rural space, and especially the villages lying close to the cities,
has been confronted with the risk of losing its cultural identity, under
the inluence of current technological progress;
the rural space belonging to the arges foothills is an example of
continuity in the ield of ethno-folkloric and architectonic tradition,
against a background of constant preoccupation for improving quality
of life;
at present, it is necessary to promote models for preserving and
perpetuating the cultural-historical potential of romanian rural
space, as a source and resource with signiicant economic value
(which can be exploited through high- quality rural tourism).
Methodological Aspects
he study is based on retrospection and the personal experience of some
of the authors, for whom the arges foothills represent what geographers
call provincial or ethnographic mental space1 (cocean, 2002).
1
Mental space deines the territory, which a community, or an individual, integrates

into its own scale of values. he ethnographic mental space includes the territory occupied
by a population sharing the same traditions, customs, folk costumes, etc., a population
Figure 1. Geographical location of the Valea Mare-Pravat and leresti communes
source: own working.
132
he study was aimed at analyzing the relationship between the

preservation of ethno-cultural tradition and modernization tendencies,
especially in the last two decades, at identifying the inluence of the
cmpulung town on the relationship between tradition and modernity,
as well as assessing the chances for the conservation and perpetuation of
the ethno-cultural traditions in the current socio-economic context.
in order to achieve our goals, we employed classical and modern
research methods and techniques, such as introspection and retrospection,
direct observation (visual analysis), diagnostic analysis and surveys
(interviews).
Both permanent and non-permanent residents, irrespective of whether
they were born in the area or have come from elsewhere, were interviewed.
he subjects belonging to the permanent population were represented by
the mayors of the two settlements, two representatives of the local teaching
staf, two pensioners, two employees and two pupils. Besides, two persons
born in this area, who live part- time in the investigated communes, and
two people who were born elsewhere were also interviewed. he research
was carried out between July 2008 and august 2010.
Results
introspection and retrospection, the active participation of authors in
diferent events, and the results of interviews with the representatives of
the local authorities and the permanent and non-permanent residents
have all emphasized that the investigated area still preserves a valuable
ethno-cultural patrimony. its preservation is encouraged by the favourable
geographical location of the studied settlements; the intense spiritual life of
the local population; the conservatism or the promotion of various customs
from generation to generation; the temporary residents nostalgia for the
ethnographic mental space of the arges foothills, and, more recently, the
promotion of local traditions as resources for rural tourism. likewise, for
a small part of the population the cause for preserving a traditional and
that creates a genuine rural culture, very diferent from that of the neighbouring groups.
according to cocean, on the European scale, romania stands out through the number
and consistency of its ethnographic mental spaces.
133
rather rudimentary traditional life style is, unfortunately, poverty and the
lack of access to modern materials.
direct observations, discussions with the local authorities and opinions
shared by members of the investigated communities have revealed in the
irst place that preserving tradition does not mean the denial of access
to modern living means or resources. consequently, the preservation
of tradition does not threaten the continuously growing tendencies of
improving the quality of life in the investigated rural space. secondly, the
situation in the ield has also revealed a very interesting aspect, namely the
tendency to turn to account the material and spiritual assets of the local
ethno-cultural patrimony in the process of renovation and modernization
of the rural households.
on the other hand, the research has identiied the factors behind the
modernization of the investigated communities. hese are the following:
accessibility, natural resources (wood, building materials), economic
production units appeared during the communist period within the
communes, the accessing of structural funds ater 2007, public access to
information through the medium of cable TV and the internet and last
but not least, the proximity to the urban environment.
results obtained have ofered us the necessary data for drawing
conclusions regarding both the premises of promoting tradition in the
medium and long-term and the potential risk of degradation of the local
population.
Discussions
Favourability Factors for the Preservation of Tradition
a very important role for the continuity of the traditional way of life in the
investigated rural space is played by the geographical location, due to the
shelter provided by the iezer-Ppua and leaota ridges, on the one hand,
and the chain of the inner sub-carpathian foothills, on the other hand. he
climate, with mean annual temperatures of 7 80c and a precipitation of
around 700 800 mm, creates favourable conditions for animal breeding
(supported by rich pastures and hay ields) and fruit tree growing, especially
in the villages of the Valea Mare-Prav commune.
of the activities with old traditions in the study area, we can mention
the following:
134
Primitive gathering it was certainly the irst occupation of the

communes dwellers, which, although this cannot be proven by
documents, is well supported by present reality. hus, the hills and
mountains in the area abound in edible mushrooms and berries
(raspberry, bilberry, wild strawberry, rosehip and blackberry), which
still represent important foodstuf and income sources for the poorer
inhabitants.
Fruit tree growing according to data at our disposal, fruit tree
growing has never been a basic occupation for the residents of the
leresti commune. it is true that the he Geographical Dictionary
of the Muscel County of 1893 mentions that the plums allowed an
average production of 1000 decaliters of brandy, and probably the
same was also true a decade or two earlier. his makes us believe
that fruit tree growing was not an essential occupation, which could
be partly explained by the unfavourable soil (oana and oana, 2008).
instead, the apple and plum orchards have been well represented in
the Valea Mare-Pravata commune, whose inhabitants use the fruit
themselves or make a living by selling it at the market. he people
in this area are famous for the Muscel brandy, distilled from plums,
apples and pears, having a lower alcoholic content in comparison
with the strong plum brandy made in ardeal and Bihor.
Stock raising in lereti and Valea Mare-Prav stock breeding has
been one of the basic occupations of the inhabitants since memorial
times. he irst written evidence of the number and kind of animals
dates back to the 19th century. he Geographical Dictionary of the
Muscel County tells us that in 1893 there were 955 cattle, 19100
sheep, 116 horses and 160 pigs. if we take into account that the
communal pastures area was 664 ha, we can conclude that stock
raising has a good tradition in these parts. his is further certiied
by the fact that the fair of animal, wool and other similar products
was held in the saint Elias glade, on the hill hanging above the
leresti commune. at present, cattle owners graze their animals on
the communal pasture. Hay ields are properly taken care of; the hay
is dried and piled in stacks or stored in a barn arranged in the attic
(fig. 12). sheep raising was the dearest occupation of the people
living in leresti. over the years, it represented their main source
of living. his is certiied by the large number of sheep that existed
135
since the end of the 19th century until World War i, although ater
1918 the number of shepherds dropped (because of the growing
number of people who embraced the forestry occupation).
Domestic industry Based on what their households and farms
provide, the local people produce dairy products, which are sold at
the cmpulung towns markets, wool carpets and the nice and famous
veils made of gossamer, which are woven by hand. as a matter of fact,
in the 20th century weaving was a basic occupation for most women in
the study area. in the 1970s, the leresti commune held more than 500
looms, and the products were sold through the consumer cooperative
both in romania and abroad (oana and oana, 2008). Unfortunately,
since 1990 this occupation has been declining, the number of women
who still possess looms being hard to estimate, inasmuch as many
of the retirees fear they may lose their pension money by admitting
they have an additional source of income. However, during our ield
investigations such a woman, 75 years old, allowed us to take pictures
of her loom and the accomplished product, namely the traditional
veil manufactured in the arges foothills.
Figure 2. loom
source: own research.
136
Figure 3. Veil speciic for he arges foothills area
Forestry activities Most dwellers of the leresti commune were

forest workers, because there was always a demand for labour in
order to exploit the nearby woods. at the beginning of the 20th
century, the italians came to the leresti commune, as experts in
forest exploitation, to build a gutter for bringing down the logs
cut from the iezer Massif. he work was carried out with the local
labour force. from the italians, the residents of leresti stole the
crat of harvesting the wood during the ive years of exploitation.
When leaving, the italians lited (destroyed) the gutter, and from
that moment on, the exploitations were taken over by the dwellers
137
of the leresti commune, which was convenient for the state and the
great forest owners, because the local labour force was cheaper. in
this context, the people of leresti turned into specialists in this ield.
herefore, numerous teams spread all over the carpathian range, from
Moldavia to Maramure and Banat, where they stayed for months
in order to harvest the wood. as soon as the ARO Cmpulung car
plant came into being, many people abandoned forestry work for
jobs there. However, the decline of the car industry ater 1990 revived
the interest in wood harvesting.
another factor which contributed to the perpetuation of tradition is
represented by the intense spiritual life of the inhabitants. he rural identity,
deined as the material and spiritual culture of the residents of a rural
community, is determined by the natural and social settings in which they
live and interact (Barbic, 1998, p. 7).
he interviews conducted with the local population conirmed their
subjective perception regarding the attitude of the villagers towards religion
and especially religious traditions. he people living in the arges foothills
are believers, religious education and rituals playing an important part in
the everyday life of their communities. he church has always been the
hub of peoples lives, even during the communist dictatorship, which tried
unsuccessfully to impose atheism as a unique national doctrine.
Without being fanatical, the people in the arges foothills observe both
the rituals connected with the main events of life birth, marriage and
death and those dedicated to the religious holidays of the year. of the
most important events of this kind we can mention the following:
he feast of he Assumption of Mary (15th august). his holiday is
celebrated by the housewives of the Valea Mare-Prav and lereti by
preparing the litia, a rounded, fasting pancake (without ingredients
of animal nature), which is then consecrated in church, at the mass
performed on the eve. hat same evening the pancake is shared with
the other family members as a form of spiritual puriication.
Easter. he day before Easter, the housewives prepare the so-called
pretzel with egg, for which the rural settlements in he arges foothills
hold the exclusivity. on Easter Eve, people bring pretzels and red
eggs to church and crack them open in the morning, ater mass. he
baking is very important for getting high quality pretzels. in this
respect, for maximum performance, the women use roomy ovens
138
made of brick and clay, which are usually placed in the courtyard.
in Valea Mare-Prav, there are also communal ovens, used by many
families for baking their special pretzels for the Easter feast. in order
to make the pretzel with egg a local brand, in 2009 the irst edition
of the Pretzel with egg festival was organized in lereti county.
he intention of the organizers was to make the event a permanent
one, in order to disseminate this particular local Easter tradition.
Figure 4. he pretzel with egg and
the traditional communal oven (older
than 50 years)
St. Dumitrus Eve (25th october). on this occasion, in the villages

of the arges foothills people start the Sumedrus ire, for which
they use large amounts of dry leaves, ir tree twigs, seasoned wood,
and in the last two decades, for special efects, rubber tyres. he
young people standing by the ire lit at dusk call the locals to the
party crying, Come to the Sumedrus ire! he women give the
children fruit, pretzels and sweets, while the adults drink boiled
plum brandy and stum. he custom has its roots in the ancient past,
when primitive people celebrated the discovery of the ire by singing
and dancing. he christians superposed it on st. dumitrus feastday,
139
who according to the tradition is the gatherer of all bread and fruit.
his assumption is supported by the etymology of the name: saint
dumitru san dumitru san Medru su Medru sumedru
or simedru. spread all over the arges county, the custom is less
preserved in the plain areas in comparison with the arges foothills
(florea, 1994; Tudor, 1997; Manu, 2003).
Conservatism or the promotion of customs from generation to
generation stands out as a factor that encourages the preserving of local
traditions. although over time, some customs have been improved, their
essence has survived until this day, allowing us to come into contact with
practices and rituals that deine the people in these parts. an important
part in this respect is played by the consideration that people place on the
opinion of others. hus, gossip prevents the people in the study area from
abdicating from local customs and traditions, which are connected with
diferent life events: births, weddings, funerals, etc. he most important
customs and rituals in the region are the following:
a) Wedding customs
in leresti commune and throughout the entire space of the arges
foothills, one can speak about certain wedding periods, closely related
both to the occupations embraced by the people (fruiters, animal breeders,
forest workers) and to the observation of fasting periods stipulated by the
orthodox calendar, followed religiously by the locals. he ritual before
the wedding, which usually took place on sundays, had an interesting and
meaningful development. he stages of this ritual, largely observed even
today, are the following:
Pogadirea (folk term for marriage brokerage) was the prologue of
the wedding, during which the fate of the young pair was destined.
sometimes, the marriage was based on sincere and pure love, but at
other times wealth was decisive. at present, due to young peoples
access to education and information, as well as to the freedom of
movement and the inluence of the urban environment, this stage
is skipped.
he exchange of wedding rings or engagement. he exchange took
place at the girls house. he boy came there accompanied by the
godparents that he had chosen bringing the girl the wedding rings
and four objects at most as a git. in her turn, the girl ofered the
boy some objects and necessarily a traditional napkin. ater all the
140
objects were laid down on the table in front of the godfather, he

ofered them one by one to the girl and the boy. on the table there was
also a plate of wheat (nowadays with rice) boiled in milk, a spoon,
a glass and a bottle of wine. in turn, irst the boy and then the girl
tasted the rice with the spoon. he glass was then illed with wine
from the bottle and the two youngsters sipped in turns in the same
order. ater that, they all sat at the table for the feast. Nowadays, that
ritual has tended to become a memory.
he ir tree a ritual still observed nowadays. on saturday morning,
the bridegrooms friends come to make the tree, i.e. a wreath of ir
tree twigs used to adorn the gate and house poles. in the mean time,
the bride accompanied by her girlfriends walks through the village
and teaches the girls to make betelele. hese are small lowers that
the bride and her bridesmaids have chosen from her best friends,
pinned to the chest of the wedding guests on the day of the wedding.
in the evening, the bridegroom leaves for the girls place carrying
the knot-shaped bread that one of the grooms men, usually the
bridegrooms best friend, breaks in half above the brides head. hen,
the right half is given to the girl, and the let to the boy. ater that,
they dance folk dances until midnight.
he girls day wedding. sunday morning, the girl accompanied by
her closest bridesmaid and the boy accompanied by his closest
groomsman go to church to worship God. subsequently, with pomp
and circumstance, they go to the photographer (in the last decade
professional photographers have taken pictures throughout the
wedding). ater coming back, they sit at the table, at the so-called
girls day meal. close to lunch, at the bridegrooms house the shaving
ceremony takes place. all this time, back at the girls house the
wedding meal gets cooked. surrounded by her friends, the girl gets
dressed up in the traditional white dress by the druste (women in
charge of dressing the bride). he godmother arranges the wreath
with great care, so as to avoid the tangling of the golden threads,
which indicates that as a wife the bride will be put in trouble by the
housework. ater the shaving ritual, amidst his band of courageous
people the bridegroom leaves on foot, accompanied by the iddlers,
to pick up the godparents. hen, the procession heads for the
brides place where they perform the ritual of forgiveness. While the
141
bridesmaids pin the betelele (white natural or artiicial lowers) on the

lapels of the wedding guests waiting in the courtyard, the bridegroom
and the bride, together with the godfathers and accompanied by the
iddlers, enter the house and ask forgiveness from the brides parents.
once the forgiveness ritual is completed, the iddlers begin playing
hora miresei (the wedding dance) and the bridegroom, godparents
and all the people gathered in front of the house dance in the middle
of the lane. ater that, everybody goes to church for the wedding
ceremony.
b) Datul da verii si da suratele (roughly, the ceremony of making
sworn cousins and sisters). his custom is pretty old in the leresti and Valea
Mare-Pravat. Elderly people say they have learned it from their parents and
relatives since the beginning of the 20th century. Nowadays, it is considered
to be the most widespread custom in the region, people observing the
exact day and the speciic ritual passed from generation to generation. he
custom consists of a pledge made between two or more persons that have
no family relationship. his custom is embraced both by the youngsters
(even children) and by the adults. We believe the roots of this custom are
found in the past, when people tried to build good relations as a premise
for a better life. We base this assumption on the fact that the romanian
peasant, usually poor and helpless in the face of hardships, sought support,
a helping hand, from his fellows belonging to the same social category. hus,
in order to strengthen this bond he gave it the character of a commitment.
With the passing of years, this custom has become a tradition, losing its
original scope and being adopted by a lot of people. it is now associated
with the second day of he feast of Pentecost. on this day, a person of
the group that intends to make a commitment gives a feast at his place,
to which everybody brings a contribution. Porcelain cups must be placed
on the table. at the end of the feast the guests exchange the cups and say:
Surat n sus/Surat n jos/C afar e frumos (roughly, sister here/sister
there/he weather outside is fair), if it comes to the girls, or Vere n sus/Vere
n jos/C afar e frumos (roughly, cousin here/cousin there/he weather
outside is fair), when it comes to the boys (oana and oana, 2008).
c) he traditions belonging to the Arges Foothills as resources for
rural tourism hese days, people realize more and more that in modern
society traditions may contribute to the economic development of the
settlements which have national, but mostly international, tourist potential.
142
he cultural identity crisis, which threatens the villages adhering to modern

socio-economic systems, may be curbed or at least mitigated if the natural
setting and cultural heritage will be used as a local development source
and as an indispensable element of the local life style. rural tourism seeks
to turn to account the natural and unspoiled beauties of the countryside.
for the farmers families and local communities it represents a promising
economic activity, because from this point of view romania, the same
as slovenia (Barbic, 1998), has a huge potential. at the same time, the
cultural patrimony could be used to give romania a distinct note among
the other EU countries, inasmuch as elsewhere the rural traditions have
been romanticized and rather turned into a theatre, with the purpose of
entertaining tourists and maybe even the locals (Barbic, 1998).
Encouraging Factors for the Modernization

of the Investigated Rural Area
in the contemporary period, the rural population accepts the challenges
of urban life. his is also true for those who live on farms and work in
agriculture, (Majerov, 2009). in romania, the fragmentation of agricultural
land ater 1990 and the opportunities for getting non-agricultural jobs
in the cities have turned many village dwellers from full-time farmers
and forest workers into civil servants, who practice agriculture only as
a complementary activity meant to ensure them a proper living standard.
as in the case of slovenia (Barbic, 1998), the rural population working
in the urban setting has brought back home new values and elements of
urban life style, which sometimes gradually replaced the rural traditions.
some of these have been abandoned; others have been adapted to the new
conditions. as far as the arges foothills area is concerned, which is rather
stable from the socio-economic point of view, the modernization process
has not been a brutal one, inasmuch as the labour force exodus has been
lower in comparison with other parts of the country.
he study has reached the conclusion that preserving tradition does
not necessarily imply denying peoples access to modern living means
and resources. it does not threaten either the steady increasing tendency
to improve the quality of life in the study area. in many cases, within
the same household, past and present coexist through the renovation
and modernisation of old constructions, the adding of modern buildings
143
next to traditional ones, and the integration of traditional elements in the

modernisation process (ig. 10). he care of the investigated communities for
the preservation and enhancement of old wells is unusual and interesting.
hey were abandoned three or four decades ago, when the settlements were
connected to the water distribution system. in recent years, however, these
have been turned into genuine cultural-religious objects (ig. 6 and 7),
which again conirms the intense spiritual life of the people in this area
and the high regard for their ancestors (in lereti, for instance, the wells
are dedicated to the memory of local heroes).
Figure 5. Preserved wells in Valea Mare-Prav
Within the investigated communities, the modernisation process

began in the second half of the 20th century (in the communist regime),
with the development of industrial activities (machine-building industry,
chemical industry and building materials industry). here are several
factors supporting the modernisation process of local communities. one
of them is accessibility in relation to the main transport routes. from this
144
Figure 6. Well dedicated to the memory of a local hero in lereti
point of view, both settlements have direct access to the National road
73 (dN 73 or E 574) (ig. 1), which makes the connection with Pitesti
and Brasov cities very easy (ig. 2). another factor is represented by
the economic production units built in the communist era within the
communes. We here refer to the ciMUs cement plant in the Valea MarePrav, which has recently changed its name to HolciM, the aro car plant,
lying between lereti and cmpulung city and the cmpulung synthetic
fiber facility. it is important to note that the last two ended their activity
in the 10th decade of the 20th century. hese industrial production units
required the modernisation of the utilities infrastructure and consequently
boosted the development of waterworks and modern roads. on the other
hand, access to the structural funds ater 2007 allowed for the extension
of the existing infrastructure, and thus the secondary road network was
modernised, while the lereti commune was connected to the natural gas
distribution system. a factor supporting the modernisation process is the
nearness to the Cmpulung City. from this standpoint, both communes
145
are on the outskirts of the city, in its hinterland area (ig. 1). he link with
the city, which has always existed, has intensiied during the last decades.
Practically, at present, most of the population resorts more or less to the
goods and services ofered by the city. his applies to the procurement of
industrial processed foodstufs to diversify the traditional staple food based
on products obtained in peoples households and farms (eggs, milk, meat,
beans, potatoes, apples and pears); the purchase of electronic and electric
appliances; the engagement in recreation and leisure activities (especially
young people); and the use of sanitary and education facilities. he city
also leaves its imprint on the behaviour of rural communities, especially
when it comes to the young people, who adopt the urban fashion, even
though sometimes they look ridiculous. fortunately, even cmpulung city
is not faced with an exacerbated modernisation that would imply radical
structural change, because local industry is on the wane and its citizens
are more and more involved in agri-tourist activities. he pensions in the
city ofer tourist programmes that oten consist of taking guests to the
nearby rural space. in this context, we may say the city stimulates the local
traditional economy.
Figure 7. folk costume speciic
for the arge foothills area
source: www.google.ro/images
146
he ethnic-cultural elements particularly afected by modernization are

the traditional costumes (ig. 8), which began to be replaced by modern
attire, as soon as the labour force was absorbed in industrial activities.
he use of autochthonous clothes has proliferated ater 1990, during the
transition to the market economy, and has got worse since romanias
integration in the European Union. Nowadays, the owners of folk costumes
are over 85 years old and hence fewer and harder to ind. Nevertheless,
our research has highlighted the fact that in the investigated areas there
are still people, permanent or non-permanent residents, who cultivate the
typical atmosphere of the village in the arges foothills at the beginning of
the 20th century, in the context of family parties. on the other hand, the
descendants of some old and famous families in the area are coming back
to their home villages, where they restore and make the most of certain
traditions (ig. 9, 10 and 11).
Figure 8. Turning back to the time of grandparents and great-grandparents family
meeting, Valea Mare-Prav, 1993
147
Figure 9. he capitalization
of ethnographic elements in
a modern household

Figure 10. Traditional curtain made of homespun cloth in the Valea Mare-Prav
148
in their turn, the traditional human activities are also afected by the
modernisation process. access to information and the expansion of the
consumer goods market have replaced the traditional tools used in the
household with some modern ones. for instance, the motor scythe has oten
replaced the traditional scythe, while the ox and horse cart for carrying hay
has been replaced by terrain vehicles with trailers. Yet, modern households
still preserve the traditional dependencies for storing hay during winter
(ig. 12) and cellars for the storage of fruit (apples, pears) picked from the
orchards (ig. 13).
Figure 11. a house with hay barn in the Valea Mare-Prav
he last decade has seen a tendency to simplify customs and traditions

related to the main social and religious events, which is explained by the
access of the young generation to science and culture, especially through
the inluence of mass media.
149
Figure 12. a typical house in the arge foothills with high ground
and cellar for fruit storage
Conclusions
he contemporary realities of the investigated area reveal, on a small scale,
the tradition modernity relationship, which has changed permanently
throughout the entire romanian rural space. in the medium and longterm it is only up to us, all interested stakeholders involved in territorial
development (public authorities, economic agents, representatives of
education and cultural institutes and plain citizens), to harmonise our
aspirations towards emancipation with the preservation of our cultural
legacy and identity, seen as sources of inspiration, retreats and testimonies
of our ailiation to the carpathian-danubian-Pontic space.
at present, the countryside is facing a personality crisis generated by
the multitude of experiences that upset its natural historical evolution.
during the last years, more and more voices have been heard at European
level asking that rural patrimony be preserved and turned to account. his
study conirms that nowadays the enhancement of the romanian village
150
depends both on the emotional, but mostly inancial, implication of the

local and national decision-makers, and on the interest and participation
of every citizen. he modernisation of the romanian village must lead to
its economic development, as a competitive territorial system, capable of
creating surplus value and ofering viable life models. he lack of interest
in the future development of the village and the scarce investments in
tourist infrastructure and agriculture, in conjunction with informational
progress and globalisation, will afect the behaviour of young people, who
will inevitably migrate to the city or even abroad. he absence of concrete
programmes for preserving and encouraging the capitalisation of the ethnocultural patrimony will generate in the medium and long-term a tendency
of simpliication or even abandonment of the cultural models passed on
from generation to generation.
as a reaction to these potential risks, several strategic directions can be
identiied, which may contribute to the preservation of the arges foothills
area as a provincial and ethnographic mental space of the young people who
settled in the romanian cities and abroad. on the one hand, this may help
these people decide to return to their places of origin and on the other, it
may draw all those interested in discovering the authenticity of romanian
rural life. from this point of view, it is important to invest in transport
infrastructure, accommodation and especially in recreation facilities. on
the other hand, the retraining courses in marketing and tourism may play
in the long-term a very important part for the sustainable development of
rural tourism activities. his point of view is supported by the job crisis, as
well as the tourist potential of the entire area in which the two investigated
settlements lie.
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doi: 10.2478/eec-2013-0008
19 2013
Annemarie Burandt, Friederike Lang,

Regina Schrader, Anja hiem
Working in Regional Agro-food Networks

Strengthening Rural Development through Cooperation
Abstract
regional agro-food networks have an impact on the development of rural regions.
Networks give small and medium sized enterprises the opportunity to gain access
to further markets (e.g. through ofering a wider common product range), to
conduct more efective marketing or to synergize the variety of skills and knowhow of the network partners. Networks of the agricultural and food economy are
also seen as a chance for rural regions because they can positively inluence social
and cultural lives as well as the natural and economic areas in regions.
We analysed regional networks of the agricultural and food economy,
investigated the strengths and weaknesses in the structure of agro-food networks
and developed options for action to strengthen the collaboration within the
networks and their regional marketing.
in our paper we present the results of one case study in Eastern Germany.
We show our indings of a strengths and weaknesses analysis and a constellation
analysis. herefore, success factors were identiied and used to evaluate the
networks qualitatively. in addition, we discuss how regional networks can support
regional marketing and sustainable regional development.
Keywords: agro-food networks, regional marketing, sustainable regional

development.
154
Annemarie Burandt, Friederike Lang, Regina Schrader, Anja Thiem
Rural Regions and Sustainable Development

in 1989 the border between Eastern and Western Germany opened and led
to German reuniication. consequently, in East Germany a transformation
from a socialist to a capitalist economy took place. rural areas were
especially overstrained with this rapid restructuring. More than 20 years
later it can be observed that there is still a big diference between East and
West German rural areas.
he German National strategy Plan for rural development 20072013
characterizes German rural areas as villages or small towns structured
with a generally low population density. he strategy emphasizes the East/
West gap, and stresses that the sparsely populated rural regions in Eastern
Germany still lose more population than Western ones. he structural
proportion of agriculture and the average farm size is also larger. in general,
the economic power will be created even less by agriculture and forestry in
the future, thus a further decline of employment in the agricultural sector
is to be expected (BMElV 2009: 2825; see also oEcd 2007; laschewski
2009).
in order to address these problems, rural regions develop various
strategies for rural development. in doing so, sustainable development, as
a political and normative orientation that combines social questions with
questions regarding nature and environmental compatibility of economic
activities, is one of the main premises of rural development (Mlders et al.
2012: 96; see also council regulation (Ec) No 1698/2005, article 3; Kratz
and Hamm 2010: 33). he preservation of natural and societal livelihood
is of central importance for the concept of sustainability. To complete
this task in addition to a common consideration of ecological, economic
and social developments, the participation of diferent actors on decision
processes and the orientation on equity principles is decisive (Mlders et
al. 2012: 96). sustainability is development that meets the needs of the
present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet
their own needs (WcEd 1987: Part i. 2.).
he implementation of sustainable development at regional level is called
sustainable regional development. he regional level is seen as an important
competence and solution area for sustainability, because connections are
more visible and therefore comprehensible and it is easier for people to
155
assume responsibility (Hilligardt 2002: 25). here is no generally accepted

deinition for sustainable regional development (conrad 2007). However, it
is characteristic that sustainable regional development wants to achieve an
interrelation of social and economic claims on space and their ecological
requirements. it aims to construct regional viable structures by using
existing endogenous resources in regional material cycles and supply chains
and an increasing regional autonomy and stability as well as supporting
ecologically compatible products and production, typical for the region
and strengthening regional networks and cooperation with synergy efects
between regional actors (Winkelmann 2011: 1719, conrad 2007: 7778,
Tischer et al. 2008: 36, Kratz and Hamm 2010: 33). hese aims demand
intensive communication and cooperation between enterprises, consumers,
administration and social groups in networks or informal structures to
develop common sustainable solutions (Tischer et al. 2008: 28).
Regional Agro-food Networks

to Support Regional Marketing
Agro-food networks in rural regions
he term network is used in diferent ields for example in planning,
economics, legal and social sciences in diferent ways (Bommes and
Tackes 2006). in the context of rural development there is no clear deinition
of networks. in our study we refer to networks as a sociological term as
it is used in modern sociological network analysis. Here networks are
seen as an additional level of action coordination among individual or
corporative actors (Jansen 2006: 11). Networks are deined as a quantity
of actors (but also events or objects) and the relations between them
(Jansen 2006: 58). in networks the enhancement of social capital is of
great signiicance. according to Putnam social capital refers to features of
social organization such as networks, norms and social trust that facilitate
coordination and cooperation for mutual beneit (Putnam 1995: 67; see
also coleman 1990). it results from interactions between various actors
and ofers both individual and corporative actors more opportunities for
action (Jansen 2006: 26).
regional networks are important for the population and for the
development of rural regions. he social capital of these networks is
156
therefore particularly suited to develop actor interactions as a resource for

(sustainable) regional development (Elbe 2011: 215). hus, the members
of regional networks derive beneit from cooperation and communication
because they can exchange infrastructure, share knowledge and help each
other solve problems more easily (segert and Zierke 2004: 254). referring
to the discourses of regional governance (Broggi 2003; frst, lahner
and Pollermann 2005; Hammer 2001) combined with questions about
the capacity of regions to react and manage their development (frommer
2009), members of regional networks are empowered to promote regional
and endogenous development potential (Biesecker 1996).
in particular, regional agro-food networks in organic and conventional
agriculture focus on cooperation, customer orientation and sustainable
agriculture and contribute to the sustainable development of rural regions
(Marsden 1999, seyfang, 2006; sonnino et al. 2008; Psarikidou and
szerszynski 2012). hey are oten prime examples for the preservation
of traditional products and modes of production and the support of
regional material cycles and supply chains (segert and Zierke 2004; see
also deutsche Vernetzungsstelle lEadEr+ 2006; Kullmann 2007; dVl
2012). hus, the networks are not only economic initiatives but also have
a great inluence on the social, cultural and ecological development of rural
regions. To support these various objectives a powerful regional marketing
that considers structures and relationships in networks, the marketing
itself and the framework of the network is essential.
Advantages of Regional Marketing
according to the protected designation of origin (Pdo), regional products
have to be produced, processed and prepared in one geographical area
(council regulation (Ec) No 510/2006). However, in addition to regional
marketing, these regional products have to be marketed in the local or
neighbouring region, where they were produced (dettmer 2006: 44).
regional marketing of food has a variety of advantages for producers,
consumers, the environment and the region. sME have inancial and social
beneits (anders 2006: 5). he high quality of local food and the choice of
niche products enable a sales market at high prices. he products are fresher
than imported agricultural products from other countries, which have to
be harvested when unripe because of the distances. due to the minimized
157
delivery distances, a regional contribution against the global climate change

problem can be made (Ermann 2002: 131; Kullmann 2004: 3).
rural areas can beneit from regional marketing. rural areas are
characterized by bad transport connections, many small and medium
sized enterprises, many farms, and a high migration of young and
qualiied employees (Elbe 2008: 7). With the help of regional marketing
new workplaces and economic power can be developed and maintained.
hus, the region can be strengthened and become more attractive to young
employees. Participants of small regional networks are oten active in
social events and civil activities that foster the life quality of rural areas
(Mlders 2008: 197202; see also hiem 2009). a regional agro-food
network gives the members the chance to use a considerable amount of
know-how. he exchange of experience, information and knowledge enable
further development of the farms (schfer 2006). Based on mutual support,
common marketing measures can be realized, new products developed,
political lobbying promoted and reliable trading relations developed
(schmid et al. 2005: 60; see also schfer 2006).
against this background, we want to investigate regional agro-food
networks in order to describe their structures with the objective of creating
options for action and giving an impulse for the improvement of processes
in the networks. furthermore, we investigate the potential of regional
market structures in order to strengthen the distribution of the networks
regional products. in the long run, sustainable rural development will
be promoted, and so the agro-food economy and the region itself will be
strengthened.
Methodological Approach
To promote regional agro-food networks, we investigated the structure and
regional marketing of three networks in a case study and developed them
in a common process with the network members options of action for
further network management. for the analysis of the network structures
and to evaluate the potential for regional marketing, various qualitative
methods were combined.
data was collected from over 30 interviews with diferent members of
agro-food networks, such as producers, processors and distributors as well
as members of NGos, in particular key persons for the communication and
158
management of the networks were interviewed. associated persons such as

the staf of the municipalities or biosphere reserve administration were also
included. information from informal discussions and various types of text
documents such as protocols, concept papers and newspaper articles were
considered. in the interviews, questions regarding the relationship between
the network actors, the strengths and weaknesses of regional economies and
rural development were covered. herefore, a problem-centred interview
approach was chosen, because the interviews are motivated by theory
but should also be open-minded with regard to new prospects, thus the
increase of the users knowledge is enabled by an interplay of inductive and
deductive thinking (Witzel 2000). interviews were transcribed and analysed
with qualitative content analysis. he analysis ofers the possibility of
combining inductive development of categories and deductive application
of categories (Mayring 2007).
constellation analysis (ca) was used to analyse the network
structures. ca is a bridge concept for problem oriented research and
a new methodological approach designed to cope with complex situations
(Meister et al. 2005: 2; schn et al. 2007). he assumption of the ca is
that technical, natural and social developments are closely connected.
for that, the ca identiies heterogeneous elements of four types: social
actors, natural elements, technical elements, signs and symbols, and creates
a cohesive cluster called constellation to bridge these diferent areas of
expertise. he common discussion of the visualisation of elements and
their interplays provide the basis for the systematic communication of
all concerned parties (Meister et al. 2005; schn et al. 2007: 4753). With
ca we could visualize the central elements of the investigated agro-food
networks such as actors, their products and the structures of the networks,
but also the framework in which the networks are embedded.
Based on these preliminaries a strengths and weaknesses analysis
(sW analysis), following the sWoT analysis, was conducted. he sWoT
analysis has its origin in strategic management and was developed to
identify s-strengths and W-weaknesses of an enterprise or organisation
(internal perspective) as well as o-opportunities and T-threats (external
perspective) to create strategic solutions (recklies 2000; BMi 2011). he
analysis of sW deals with internal factors; the skills and resources of an
organisation. a previous identiication of the main success factors and an
analysis of strengths and weaknesses in relation to these factors is helpful.
159
he oT part identiies opportunities and threats which arise from trends

and changes in the environment of the organisation. External factors
cannot be inluenced by the organisation (hompson and strickland
1986; recklies 2000; inventool 2011). With the help of qualitative content
analysis, the strengths and weaknesses evaluated the networks for their
regional marketing potential along previously developed success factors. in
our research we investigated the strengths and weaknesses of the networks
regarding regional economies, the collaboration between network members,
and their contribution to rural development. he potential for regional
marketing in the region of lueneburg was analysed in a less structured
way.
Figure 1. Main success factors for regional marketing
source: own depiction, based on Hilligardt (2002), Teller (2005) and Kullmann
(2007).
160
for the analysis main success factors of regional marketing networks

were compiled using literature research. an essential basis was the set
of success factors identiied by Kullmann (2007), who analysed the
optimization potentials of regional marketing in German biosphere
reserves. His rather marketing oriented perspective was combined with
Hilligardt (2002) and Teller et al. (2005), who fostered the sustainability
perspective and focused more on the establishment of cooperation. hese
success factors were clustered into three categories and discussed with
representatives of the networks prior to the analysis phase. he cluster
structures and relationships in networks (on the let side in figure i)
target the orientation and aims of the network, as well as the behaviour
of the actors and their interactions with each other. he topic marketing
(on the right side in figure i) embraces the economic perspective, whereas
framework (on the bottom in figure i) focuses on the legal, political and
scenic conditions. a condensed overview of the success factors is shown
in figure i. finally, the results were presented and relected in workshops
with members of the networks and recommendations for action were
developed.
Introducing the Ark Region Amt Neuhaus

Flusslandschat Elbe
he ark region amt Neuhaus flusslandschat Elbe is currently an
informal regional network of stockmen who keep endangered livestock.
he farmer network was founded in february 2011. in spring 2012
more than 60 stockmen held 46 diferent livestock of the German red
list of hreatened species of the society for the conservation of old
and Endangered livestock Breeds (GEH) (Blank 2011). he network
receives support from the GEH, the biosphere reserve administration
Niederschsische Elbtalaue, the adjacent municipalities, the farmers
federation and many more. he initial point of the network is the protection
of diversity of livestock breeds, but it also focuses on the preservation of
peasant farming by establishing new sources of income. herefore, they are
currently establishing a common marketing policy for animal products.
he ark region amt Neuhaus the irst German ark region is part of
the ark project of the GEH. he GEH is the only association that promotes
the on-farm conservation of traditional and threatened livestock breeds at
161
German national level. he GEH red list of hreatened species includes

more than 100 endangered livestock. he object of the GEH ark project
is to maintain endangered species in agricultural production, to use their
performance and special potential and thus to ensure their conservation
in the long-term (GEH 2012). in terms of the rules of the GEH, more than
four farms with endangered breeds of livestock have to work together in an
ark region towards the goal of familiarizing the public with the situation
of endangered livestock (ibid.). one slogan of the GEH is conservation
through use. hus, by processing and selling their products, the network
members want to preserve endangered livestock breeds. To spread the idea
of an ark region, the members of the network also ofer tourist attractions.
To coordinate their eforts, the members of the network meet at irregular
intervals to exchange information about the animals, organize courses
about animal husbandry and exchange animals.
amt Neuhaus the core of the ark region is part of the Biosphere
reserve of Elbe river lands. UNEsco Biosphere reserves are model
regions for sustainable development. hey protect biodiversity, support
regional marketing and promote low-impact tourism, as well as innovative,
environmentally friendly agriculture (Mller 2007). in addition, one
objective of Biosphere reserves is the conservation of biodiversity. for
this reason the Biosphere reserve administration supports the ark region
amt Neuhaus flusslandschat Elbe (Biosphrenreservat flusslandschat
Elbe 2012).
he area of the ark region is divided by the river Elbe the former
inner-German border. he municipality amt Neuhaus is located on the
eastern side of the river. Until 1945 amt Neuhaus belonged to the federal
state of lower saxony, and thus to the region of lueneburg. ater 1945 it
became part of the German democratic republic (Gdr) and belonged to
the district of ludwigslust. following a referendum in 1993, amt Neuhaus
transferred back to the lueneburg region and lower saxony.
he agricultural structure on the eastern side of the Elbe is still inluenced
by the socialist system of the Gdr era. Because of the high pressure to join
the agricultural Production community (lPG), independent farming was
almost impossible. he land was integrated in the lPG successor farms.
hus, 20 years ater the uniication of Eastern and Western Germany, the
characteristic elements of the current farm structure in East Germany
are irstly, the continuation of a comparatively small number of very large
162
agricultural enterprises which came into existence mainly as successor

enterprises to agricultural production co-operatives (lPG). hey usually
manage more than 800 ha. secondly, there are a continuously increasing
number of highly professionalized enterprises of varied legal status, which
are large (200 to 500 ha) by international standards. finally, we ind
numerous smaller, part-time family farms. More than 50% of the farms
use less than 50 ha (laschewski 2009). amt Neuhaus, as a region in the
old border area, is dominated by smaller, part-time family farms that kept
livestock oten endangered livestock for their own use, and sold the
meat and other livestock products on the farm. for that reason, the lPGs
have not played a decisive role for the ark region. Expanding traditional
livestock farming and receiving the acknowledgement of the irst ark
region in Germany was obvious (Heckenroth 2011).
Analysis of the Ark Region Amt Neuhaus

Flusslandschat Elbe
Constellation Analysis of the Status Quo of the Ark Region
he constellation analysis igures out the structure of the network and
external factors concerning the network. in the ca of the status quo
(figure 2) you can ind all the aspects of the network which inluence the
common work and regional marketing of the network. he rectangular
symbols visualize social actors (e.g. persons or groups) in the network,
the trapezoids are signs or symbols (e.g. standards, laws, current political
or social concepts), the oval ones are natural elements (e.g. air, water,
landscape etc.) and the last are technical elements (e.g. hardware, power
stations, objects).1
in the middle of the constellation in figure 2 lies the network with its
members, the stockmen and farmers, the GEH, the farmers association
and the Biosphere reserve. he network is ruled by one key person,
supported by a core team. on the let side of the constellation lies the actual
value chain: from the stockmen, to the butcher, to the inal consumer via
cf. http://www.konstellationsanalyse.de/english/ka-sinn-und-zweck-english.html
163
farm shops, farm-gate sales and farmers markets. he exhibition about the
ark region, which is planned by the district of lueneburg, the municipality
amt Neuhaus, diferent network members and other partners, is located on
the right side of the constellation. it is obvious that common marketing or
logistics in the network are still non-existent. furthermore, the river Elbe
has an important inluence on regional marketing, as described below. it
is attractive for tourists but is also a natural border. it is remarkable that
the constellation consists of three circles, which are all connected by the
circle in the middle the network of the ark region. However, the network
circle is perforated. his symbolizes the missing internal communication
and organizational structure. hus, so far there is nearly no connection
between the stockmen and partners around the exhibition. in addition,
common marketing and logistics remain non-existent.
Figure 2. constellation of the status quo of the ark region
source: own depiction.
Strengths and Weaknesses Analysis of the Network

following the ca of the status quo, for a deeper understanding we
completed an sW analysis of the network. figure 3 gives an overview of
the most important strengths and weaknesses of the network ark region
which are described below. in accordance to the success factors we rated
diferent aspects of the network. for demonstration and communication
we visualised the sW analysis with a circle. he network has strengths in
164
those factors when the colour is on the outside of the circle, and weaknesses
when it is contained inside the circle.
Figure 3. strengths and weaknesses of the ark region
concerning our success factors of structures and relationships in

networks, especially in young networks, a strong key person is important
to create and develop the network. he key person in the ark region is
also the founder of the network. His activity for the network is diverse:
he motivates new members, supplies new domestic animals for members,
organizes information events for external persons and members, builds
new contacts with important people in the region, and works on marketing
for the network. ater a while he was able to inspire many farmers and
supporters to promote the object of protecting endangered livestock. he
key person does not have a lot of experience in marketing food products.
He develops a trail map, on which all farms will be mapped (cf. figure 2).
However, the focus is on information regarding endangered animals and
165
tourist attractions in the region, not on the marketing of products. a key

person alone cannot run a whole network with more than 60 people. in
the ark region network there is a core team to support the key person
in diferent working areas. he core team consists of one farmer who
wants to promote the marketing of the network, a farmer who acts as
speaker for the network e.g. in newspaper articles, and a woman who is
a journalist, lives in the region and writes articles about the network. he
large number of interested people and members of the network can be seen
as an important success concerning the structures and relationships of the
network. a network culture, such as regular meetings of all members, or
a system for internal communication, remains elusive. Many members do
not know who the other network members are, and there is no exchange of
information about the products ofered by diferent members. he network
is still a loose group of ark stations with no common proile.
concerning marketing, the network is still in the early stages. some
of the farmers work on a common marketing strategy. But the members
market their products themselves using direct marketing through direct
sales from their farm, in farm shops or farmers markets in the region.
Most of the products are bought by inal consumers (cf. figure 2). only one
farmer also sells his products to local and regional restaurants. To establish
common sales of the products is one objective of the farmer. one farmer
will take over the marketing of the products. He is competent in the ield
of marketing because of his former job. He wants to buy the animals, or
the meat, from the farmer of the ark region, process the products and
sell them via regional markets, regional gastronomy and/or an internet
shop. But a common marketing strategy or common logistic does not
exist. hey are still working on questions as to which products should be
marketed at which target group, which modes of transport should be used,
and what communication methods are best. he quality of the products
by the ark stations could be classiied as high. he taste of the meat of the
old species is speciic. hus they have a unique sales proposal. However,
there are no speciic product guidelines. here are guidelines concerning
the livestock breeds which are controlled by an external organization (the
GEH), but there are no guidelines on animal husbandry, production or
marketing. one of the strengths, as well as a diiculty, of the network is
the location near the river Elbe. on the one hand, the river is well known
in Germany and the area attractive to tourists. With the name of the river
166
in the network name, a geographical localization by external persons is

possible, and identiication for the inhabitants of the region is given. on
the other hand, the river is like a border. he municipality amt Neuhaus
remains relatively unknown on the western side of the river. he eastern
part of the Elbe the region is very sparsely populated, which means that
the sales market is not attractive. he network has to use the sales market
in the north-east of lower saxony. furthermore, the butcher is on the
western side of the Elbe.
concerning the success factors of the framework of the ark region,
we found that the network has strong partners, like representatives of
the administrative district and the community, the German farmers
association or the Biosphere reserve administration Niederschsische
Elbtalaue, which support the objectives of the network. he partners help
the network with inancial support and development of an exhibition (the
ark centre) on endangered domestic animals. his exhibition will contain
further information about animal products. in addition, in the building
hosting the exhibition, there will be a shop for ark products.
summarizing the results of ca and sW analysis, a lot of our prescribed
success factors are already reached by the ark region. he network has
a single, very active, person as the motor of the network who is supported
by a core team, which also has to take on the task of network management.
a key person is very important in a young network in order to motivate
the members, build new contacts with partners and promote the network
itself (Bcher 2009: 134; Kullmann 2007: 20). However, the key person
has to be supported by a core team to distribute the diferent tasks (Teller
et al. 2005: 91). an internal communication system is important for
a network to exchange information about news, problems or suggestions
for changes in the network (Teller et al. 2005: 90). he ca showed that
a good communication system does not yet exist. regarding the framework,
the network has already had its irst success. according to Bcher (2009:
134) irst successes are important, for example convincing critical people
to promote the aims of the network.
he most important success factor in the ield of marketing is the
quality of the products of a regional agro-food network (asendorf 2003:
68; Kullmann 2007: 35), which is achieved by the network members.
he study of Kullman (2007: 34) shows that with speciic and controlled
product guidelines, a regional food network has more credibility. he
167
ark region does not yet have guidelines for the production and selling
of products. in addition, the network doesnt have a common marketing
strategy in which they describe what product should be marketed to which
target group, via which distribution channels, at what price, with which
transport, and with which communication (Kullmann 2007: 31). according
to Hilligardt (2002: 162) the name of the network is important for success.
a geographical localization by external persons and identiication for the
inhabitants of the region has to be given. he ark region accomplishes
these success factors.
regarding the framework, good relationships with strong partners
in a regional agro-food network are an important success factor to gain
inancial, political and content-related support (Bcher 2009: 134; Hilligardt
2002: 139). herefore the network is well-positioned in the region.
One Desirable Constellation of the Network Ark Region
Based on the ca of the status quo and the sW analysis, we made one
possible and desirable constellation for the ark region (figure iV). in
this constellation, the network of the ark region is in the centre of the
constellation. he former perforated connection between the members is
now closed by regular meetings, e-mail contact and working groups for
diferent topics concerning the network. he diferent ields of activity of
the network are marketing, production and education. he educational part
is covered by the exhibition (ark centre) which is realized by the partners
of the network. in the ark centre there is an exhibition for tourists and
inhabitants, as well as a program of courses for the holders and farmers.
furthermore, there is a shop in the ark centre where the farmers can sell
their products.
Production is still a task for the farmers. hey keep animals on their
farms and deliver them to the butcher. here is a butcher on the eastern
side of the river Elbe. Products are then returned to the farms to sell
them as before. However, a portion of the products are sold to the farmer
in the network who oversees the marketing for the whole network. He
buys the products the other farmers have not managed to sell. He then
sells those products to tourists and inhabitants via an online shop, or to
local and regional restaurants. To guarantee the quality of the products
and use the unique selling proposition, the network has implemented
168
a system of quality criteria, which directly refers to the criteria of the

GEH. hus, the possibility is given to prove both criteria by the GEH as
an external organization. in the marketing strategy they use their unique
selling proposition and their location near the river Elbe in the Biosphere
reserve. he Biosphere reserve administration still works in the ield of
public relations for the network.
Figure 4. one desirable constellation of the ark region
With the help of the ca, in combination with the sW analysis, we

worked with diferent network members to develop a strategy for the
network concerning their internal structure and marketing. hus, we could
verify our analysis and the network could potentially identify important
options for action. in workshops with several network members, we generate
options for action with the group of participants. one option is to establish
a clear marketing strategy which includes the river Elbe as a regional and
169
natural speciality, and which stresses the unique selling proposition of the
animal products of the livestock breeds. another is the implementation of
good internal communication by regular meetings and working groups to
diferent topics. apart from those recommendations, we developed other
options for action which would go beyond the scope of this paper.
Conclusion
in the paper we could demonstrate that irstly, the developed success factors
and the methodical approach are useful to support regional marketing
networks, and secondly, that regional marketing can contribute to rural
development.
in our research we developed new and adapted existing success factors
for regional marketing networks. hese success factors were used for
a strengths and weaknesses analysis of diferent networks, inter alia the
network ark region amt Neuhaus flusslandschat Elbe. it has been
shown that these success factors, in combination with the sW analysis,
provide a framework for scientiic research, as well as practice to evaluate
the current status of the networks extensively.
for each network, two constellations were visualized. he irst
constellation was for the development of a shared understanding of the
system, the status quo of the networks, the second constellation mapped
one desirable future constellation. hese constellations provided a good
overview of the network structures and facilitated through the visualization
tool the communication with practitioners. Together with the sW analysis it
formed a good basis for transdisciplinary discussion to process possibilities
and options for action for the future orientation and strengthening of the
networks.
in summary, the methodical mix ofers good opportunities to develop
manageable strategies for regional marketing networks, and is useful for
both scientiic analysis of networks and for the cooperation of independent
work of the practitioners as feedback from the practice showed.
in the speciic case study we found that the network ark region amt
Neuhaus is generally well positioned. he described deicits in network
structures and the marketing of regional products may be a result of its
recent setup. Nevertheless the members of the network are actively engaged
in developing both, and in summary there is a high potential in the network
170
to become a successful regional agro-food network. in this speciic case

we could obtain workable solutions to support the network.
focusing on the interactions between network members, as mentioned
in sociological institutionalism, the goal of this network isnt only economic
eiciency, but the maintenance of endangered livestock, and with that,
the strengthening of local economic cycles. hus, regional networks, like
the ark region amt Neuhaus - flusslandschat Elbe, target sustainable
development of rural areas, not only by better use of endogenous resources,
but also supporting regional autonomy and stability through intensive
cooperation.
Especially in Eastern German areas, like amt Neuhaus, which are
dominated by small, part-time family farms that produce agricultural
products for direct marketing and are generally afected by problems like
migration, discontinuity of business, loss of infrastructure and thus are
categorized as under-developed regions, the strategy of marketing regional
products through networks seems to be promising for sustainable rural
development.
However, cooperative regional marketing cannot be taken for granted
for a rural development. Too oten it can be observed that networks
cannot exist on their own ater a period of high EU funding. speciic
competences are required for the development of the networks. our success
factors serve as an orientation for the development and maintenance of
regional marketing networks. Based on this, a targeted evaluation, intensive
consulting, and also scientiic support can be quite helpful in strengthening
the networks potential.
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19 2013
Karel Janda, Gordon Rausser, Wadim Strielkowski
Determinants of Proitability
of Polish Rural Micro-Enterprises at the Time
of EU Accession*
Abstract
rural micro-enterprises are an important factor in sustainable rural development
in post-transitional Eastern Europe. his paper deals with determining the key
factors inluencing proitability in rural micro-enterprises in Poland. he research
design was based on a questionnaire survey of 300 rural micro-enterprises in the
food-processing sector in rich and poor Polish provinces. he analysis carried
out in this study is centered around the Polish EU accession in May 2004. similar
to other related studies, our results show that EU accession was not perceived as
a major change by rural Polish micro-entrepreneurs and that the EU related factors
were not signiicant determinants of their proitability. However, our results also
show that the success of the rural food processing micro-enterprise in Eastern
Europe is most related to its owner/manager and enterprise characteristics. for the
owner/manager the most signiicant determinants are his/her age and risk-taking
as the main motive for establishing an enterprise. he enterprise characteristics
that determine the proitability include enterprise location within a region with
competitive situation, enterprise size (being a sole trader or family enterprise), icT
advancements in enterprise and the fact whether the enterprise has any certiicates
for its products. he results have signiicant implications for the researchers and
* he work on this paper was supported by the czech science foundation, grants
403/10/1235, 402/11/0948.
178
policy-makers and can become a basis for preparing relevant enterprise support
policies in post-transitional Eastern Europe.
Keywords: micro-enterprises, rural development, transition economies,

EU accession, linear regression model.
Introduction
his paper presents an empirically based analysis of factors inluencing
proitability in rural micro-enterprises. our focus is quite unique since as
opposed to the relatively large literature dealing with micro-enterprises
in developing countries we concentrate on rural enterprises in posttransitional Eastern Europe. our results are based on an original survey
of micro-entrepreneurs engaged in food processing both in poor and rich
parts of rural Poland. according to our knowledge, this is the irst empirical
study of the determinants of proitability of rural food processing microenterprises in any of the European post-socialist countries. our research
therefore ills the gap in the prevailing micro-enterprises literature dealing
predominantly with both the irst world and the third world (schreiner
and Woller, 2003).
our analysis is centered around the period of Polish accession to the EU
in May 2004. it relects attitudes and conditions in a two-year preparatory
period before EU accession, when Polish policies, rules, attitudes and
expectations underwent a process of alignment with EU conditions. his
alignment, especially for attitudes, continued during 2004, the irst year
of Polish EU membership. our results show that EU accession was not
perceived as a major change by rural Polish micro-entrepreneurs and that
EU related factors were not signiicant determinants of their proitability.
in our survey we asked Polish rural micro-entrepreneurs about the
shares of their sales on local, regional, countrywide and international
markets, about the support from governmental and EU programs and
about their perception of inluence of EU accession on the performance of
small rural enterprises in Poland. Both descriptive and regression analyses
of the results of the survey show that these EU related concerns were not
directly important for the success of enterprises. his is in marked contrast
to pronounced positive EU accession efects on Polish farmers (falkowski,
Jakubowski, and strawinski, 2011).
Determinants of Proitability of Polish Rural Micro-Enterprises
179
our results conirm related indings of Kadocsa and francsovics (2011)

who show that Hungarian small enterprises did not perceive any major
impacts of EU accession. he Hungarians small businesses did not capitalize
on the opportunities ofered by the EU, did not make an efort to apply for
EU grants and funds and did not attempt to penetrate new markets.
our analysis shows that the success of the rural food processing
microenterprise in Eastern Europe is most related to its owner-manager.
surprisingly, the characteristic of the owner manager which matters
the most is not his education or experience with food processing but
his age. he major policy recommendation for government authorities
dealing with support policies is therefore not so much to look at the
enterprise characteristics but to concentrate on the characteristics of the
entrepreneur. our analysis also conirms that the proitability of rural
food processing microenterprises is positively correlated with favourable
micro and macroeconomic conditions diferentiating between rich and
poor areas.
he Importance
of Polish Food-Processing Micro-Enterprises
Micro-enterprises in the Polish food-processing sector are important for
the development of the entire Polish economy. Poland is a post-communist
country that has undergone various transformational changes, including the
breaking up and consequent rebuilding of economic and social institutions,
particularly that of entrepreneurship. although private business in some
limited form, especially in agriculture, has always existed in Poland, even
during the communist regime, the structural changes of the 1990s caused
unemployment, a decrease in production and economic stagnation in the
country. Even though the Polish economy has achieved stable economic
growth (on average 34% annually), the impact of the systems change is still
apparent. Polish rural areas are the most obvious example of this fact. he
high level of unemployment and the GdP per capita below the EU average
are still their main distinguishing features. his is mainly a result of poverty
and other problems in rural areas. hus, Polish rural enterprises represent
one of the best means of alleviating poverty and increasing the standard
of living in Poland. rural irms engagement in local issues, the creation of
new jobs and opportunities for people makes them one of the key factors
180
in the development of rural Poland. herefore, the success of Polish rural

micro-enterprises that constitute most of Polish sMEs is closely connected
to the improvement of the quality of life in Poland.
in most European countries micro-enterprises share of the total
employment is 34% with about 93% of irms being micro-enterprises
(European commission, 2003; 2004a and 2004b). However, the growth
and development of micro-enterprises is usually described in the broader
context of the growth of the whole sMEs sector, of which they constitute
a large part (about 95%). hus, the issues related to micro-enterprise are
very similar to those of the issues related to sMEs as a whole and our
results may be relevant to a much wider area than the rural Polish food
industry micro-entrepreneurs covered by the research study underlying
the analysis of our paper.
Data
he analysis of this paper is based on a survey of rural food processing
micro-enterprises in Poland. a micro-enterprise is deined according to
the recommendation of the EU commission 2003/361/Ec as an enterprise
with 9 or less employees.
Two regions, represented by two Polish provinces, selected for our
analysis sharply difer in their level of economic and social development.
on the one hand, there is the less developed Warmia-Mazury province
with the highest rate of unemployment in the country, undeveloped
infrastructure and low business dynamics. on the other, there is the
wealthiest Mazowieckie province. it is the site of the capital city Warsaw
and the hub of the countrys business activity. he initial conditions for
rural enterprises in the food-processing sector in both provinces difer
considerably. While a favourable business environment and economic
development in the rich Mazowieckie province are likely to enhance the
success of rural micro-enterprises, the low level of economic development
in poor Warmia-Mazury province is likely to be an obstacle for their success.
in order to test the irst version of our survey questionnaire, 30 pilot
surveys were conducted in september-october 2004 in both WarmiaMazury and Mazowieckie provinces. all pilot surveys were completed and
no rejection was registered. he pilot survey has shown that the direct data
(numbers) on enterprise proits, incomes and turnovers are unavailable to
181
obtain and the time horizon longer than three years creates problems for
the surveyed. in accordance with this two major adjustments were made:
(i) the questions about proits, incomes and turnovers were re-arranged in
such a way that the surveyed entrepreneurs would have to choose clusters
(ranges) of the values and not the direct values themselves and (ii) the time
horizon of three years (20022004) was selected for all the variables in the
main survey. in addition to that some minor re-wording and corrections
were made.
he face-to-face questionnaire with 52 questions which was implemented
between october 2005 and february 2006 consisted of six main sections.
he main information section was used to get to know each enterprise better.
he characteristics and motivation of the owner section was designed to
obtain all relevant information about the enterprise owner/manager. section
three provided an in-depth view into the history and proile of the enterprise.
assets and sources of capital sections gave an overlook of the enterprises
most sensitive inancial information. section ive was designed to obtain
information on the enterprises market position and competition. section
six concerned an overview of subjective factors of enterprise development.
he detailed questionnaire is provided in appendix 1. he data obtained
using the questionnaire have been used in order to construct a proile of
the typical owner/manager of a Polish rural micro-enterprise in the foodprocessing sector and typical micro-enterprise in this sector and to carry
out an econometric analysis.
he scope of our questionnaire covered the main characteristics
identiied as important determinants of success, performance, proitability
in recent studies of microenterprises all over the world. for the most recent
representative studies, see adekunle (2011), anim-somuah (2011), de
Mel, McKenzie, and Woodruf (2008, 2009), Mano et al. (forthcoming),
Mmbengwa (2011), Munoz (2010), and rankhumise and rugimbana
(2010). obviously, since the realities of Polish rural areas are very diferent
from predominantly african or asian areas covered by the vast majority
of literature, the set of particular determinants of proitability in our paper
is diferent from the determinants considered in the above presented
literature dealing with developing countries.
of the 351 enterprises contacted 306 surveys were obtained. Two
surveys were not used (not complete for all variables) and the remaining
304 cases were entered into the database. on examination it was found that
182
14 cases were not appropriate for the survey. his was either because the
enterprise size was beyond the sample objectives or because the surveyed
enterprises were not classiied as strictly food-processing. in order to reach
the samples objective 10 additional surveys had to be carried out which
inally made the sample complete.
Descriptive Stastistics
of Our Sample
he general proile of the owner/manager in our sample was as follows. He
was 40 years old, male, with a college or University diploma, established
an enterprise himself using his own savings and has owned and managed
it for 10 years. his high education level of rural Polish food processing
entrepreneurs is quite an interesting feature showing an unusually high
level of human capital. obviously, the education level refers only to general
human capital, not to any speciic business training as considered by Berge,
Bjorvatn and Tungodden (2011).
he typical owner/manager in our sample never followed any economic
indicators. He came from the same province where he was currently
working and was previously employed in the same or similar enterprise.
His main motive for enterprise creation was seeking independence or risktaking, although his enterprise registration was not smooth or easy. While
the search for independence seems an obvious incentive, seeking risky
activities as a main reason for establishing an enterprise is an interesting
motivation.
he typical enterprise in our sample was established by its owner in
2000 or 2001 and it was a sole-trader company. it employed 6 people
and was engaged in bakery, confectionery or meet-processing. it never
applied for any patents or certiicates for its products but had an internet
connection (usually Broadband). he typical enterprise was doing quite
well: its turnover increased throughout the previous three years, it gained
new clients and its average annual gross proit per employee was around
8000 Zloty (about 2000 EUr). it had its own branded products and sold
them mostly on the local market.
he typical enterprise had 15 main competitors in the same parish and
it was trying to compete with them by increasing the quality of its products
and decreasing the price. it chose the region where it operated due to the
183
easy access to natural resources. he typical enterprise never received

any inancial help from local or central government and never applied
for EU funding. in fact, Polish EU accession was declared to be of no
importance for the typical small rural enterprise. he main problems faced
by the enterprise were locally and centrally-imposed taxes, fear of domestic
competition and unfair government policies towards sMEs. Generally the
typical enterprise would welcome the improvement of a favourable climate
for conducting business activity in Poland.
Regression Model
Speciications And Interpretation
Speciication of Regression Model
he linear econometric model used in our paper is a multivariate statistical
model of the form:
Y = b 0 + b1 X 1 + ... + b n X k + e i
where Y is the dependent variable deined as the enterprise proit per

employee in 2004, X1,, Xk are the explanatory variables (the full list of
variables with their description and expected signs is presented in appendix
2) and is the error term.
he results of our estimations are conditional on a set of speciication
and diagnostic tests. firstly, a heteroscedasticity test was run and
heteroscedasticity was detected. herefore, robust standard errors were
used. secondly, the Breusch and Pagan lagrangian multiplier test for
individual community efects was run. he results of the test are the
following: 2(1) = 0.33, prob > 2 = 0.5671. his means that no individual
community efects were detected. in addition, a chow test with province
dummy was run. his was done in order to test the interaction model
against the whole sample model. he results of this test are as follows:
f(50, 199) = 0.83, prob > f = 0.7809. his clearly shows that in this case
the whole sample model is better for explaining the small enterprise
proitability than using the model with detailed provincial level interaction
terms. Given the results of our testing the ordinary least squares technique
was used. he full results of the estimation are presented in appendix 3.
184
in this section, we report the results of a stepwise regression model

which was applied in order to identify the factors that are most signiicant
for enterprise success. he model was run using the stepwise procedure
in stata. he removal threshold for entering the model was set at a 15%
signiicance level (in order to see the variables which will over-bounce
the 10% signiicance level). he results of our stepwise estimation are as
follows:
Proitability = -15347 (10931)+3579 (1693) rich Province dummy**
14 (6) age squared** + 16473 (10228) risk 5609 (2393) cash** + 9994
(5230) certiicate* 2987 (1973) company limited + 1386 (575) Enterprise
age squared** 4333 (2877) family firm 1118 (530) Enterprise size**
121 (80) Enterprise age 4904 (2902) cooperative*. Numbers in
parenthesis are robust standard errors, r2 is 0.17, and *, **, ***, denote 10,
5, and 1 per cent levels of statistical signiicance respectively.
Interpretation of Regression Model

he major factors that came through as signiicant in our model are
the owner/manager age, owner/manager motive for enterprise creation,
enterprise size and enterprise location by province enterprise. Proitability
is also on a lesser degree of statistical signiicance inluenced by the legal
status of the enterprise and by the use of modern technology as proxied
by the use of international certiicates for the products manufactured by
the enterprise.
Generally, our results showed that the support of innovativeness,
entrepreneurial spirit as well as some specially-targeted programs of
entrepreneurial support might be crucial in increasing the success of
Polish rural micro-enterprises.
it stemmed from the analysis of all enterprises that the owner/managers
age and enterprises location played a key role in the enterprises success.
his suggested that those two factors should be paid some special attention
in analyzing the success of Polish rural micro-enterprises or inluencing this
success. hese results also showed that enterprises in the rich Mazowieckie
province are more proitable than those in the poor Warmia-Mazury
province.
he enterprise size and legal status (being on a more advanced legal
status e.g. being a limited company or a stock company rather then
185
a sole trader) were negatively impacting the enterprises success. his

suggested that enterprises that were created as family enterprises and
limited companies are less successful (earn less proit per employee) than
sole-trader companies. since by deinition the microenterprise cannot
have more than 9 employees, the very successful dynamically growing
enterprises are by deinition out of our sample. for the microenterprises
with less than 10 employes, the negative inluence of the size may indicate
the governance and incentive allignment problems. hese problems appear
immediately when the entrepreneur (principal) employs the irst worker
(agent). hey grow with the number of workers employed, especially when
there are more workers, maybe even as few as 3 or 4, who do not work
all the time alongside the entrepreneur so that direct management and
monitoring of their efort level by the principal is not possible. he problems
of coordination and moral hazard therefore may negatively inluence the
proitability of the enterprise as a function of its size measured by number
of employees.
factors such as Broadband internet connection in enterprise (which
was indicated as signiicant in an alternative speciication of the model),
cash motivation of the owner/manager and certiicates obtained by the
enterprise were also of considerable importance for the enterprises success.
an interesting inding was that the owner/manager`s highest level
of education did not matter for the enterprises success in most cases. in
addition, contrary to prior expectations, our working hypotheses about
the importance of the owner/managers business experience, competence
in the ield of enterprise activity and training in this ield did not prove
to be signiicant.
our statistical inference also leads to the rejection of our working
hypotheses about the importance of enterprise branded products, the
number of main competitors and areas of advantage concerned the
competitive environment for enterprise (assuming that all those would
positively inluence enterprise success). he main reason for this rejection
might be due to the fact that due to the size of most enterprises (employing
6 people or less and usually being sole traders or small companies) it
does not pay of to care too much about branded products or ighting
competition.
he insigniicance of our working hypotheses concerning hard and
sot supports: e.g. grants, subsidies, loans, etc. (hard supports) advice
186
and schooling (sot supports) also raised some questions. he main reason
for those factors to be insigniicant for enterprise success might be the
fact mentioned earlier that the majority of rural enterprises, particularly
those in the food-processing sector, did not use those supports or simply
did not know about them. an alternative argument would be that perhaps
the criteria for allocation of both hard and sot supports were set too
high and there was much paperwork and administration involved so that
it did not pay of for small entrepreneurs to apply for them considering
time and business constraints.
Conclusions
and Policy Implications
it follows from our analysis that enterprises established by the owners/
managers who were eager to engage in risky business activities were more
successful than those which were established for the owners self-realization.
additionally, enterprises that were established by the owner/manager who
did not have any inner purpose (i.e. simply needed cash or followed the
advice of family or friends) tended to be less successful than those which
were established by the owner/manager for achieving self-realization.
a wish for independence and self-eiciency of Polish rural entrepreneurs
(owners/managers of the enterprise) is, therefore, confronted with the fear
of unemployment and the need of cash. hose three factors can be equally
important motives in enterprise creation. it appears that the majority of
new enterprises established in Poland were created by people who were
trying to utilize their business opportunity, get independence and selfrealization and very few were created by individuals who were led mainly
by the necessity to improve their harsh life conditions.
hese indings about the inter-dependence of risk-seeking motive of
establishing an enterprise and enterprises success are very important as far
as they unveil an important insight of the psychological proile of owners/
managers of Polish rural micro-enterprises. Generally, they showed that
risk-averse people who started their own business in rural Poland were
less likely to become successful. Knowing this gives Polish policy-makers
very powerful information. he main policy implication for the relevant
Polish stakeholders is the need to be very careful about lending money
to people who are starting their own businesses without a speciic vision
187
or motivation. in other words, Polish government funding and various

programs of rural and entrepreneurial development should be carefully
targeted at the right groups of people. in addition, banks and inancial
institutions should not treat all Polish entrepreneurs according to the same
standards. here are diferent categories and reasons for becoming an
entrepreneur in rural Poland and those reasons may be the determinants
of business success. Polish lenders or international agencies should be very
weary to give too many loans to people who are starting their enterprises
just because they have no other employment opportunity. his investment
may be unsuccessful.
Moreover, it seems necessary for Polish policy-makers to identify the
people who are risk-takers because they may make very successful rural
entrepreneurs. in that sense, recruiting graduates at universities, schools
and other educational establishments (e.g. organizing student competitions)
may help. additionally, it seems appropriate for the Polish government to
create a good image of entrepreneurial activity in the country. due to the
rapid changes during the transformation, many entrepreneurs in the early
1990s made their money using fraud and illegal activities. hat is why, even
today, for the majority of Poles, the word entrepreneur is still a synonym
of the word thief . his image should be changed; being an entrepreneur
should not be perceived as something negative. Possible promotion may
include advertising campaigns that would highlight the excitement and selfreliance of being an entrepreneur, television spots and radio commercials in
central and local TV and radio stations, information campaigns in schools
and other educational establishments and organizing schooling for those
who show interest in opening their own business.
he results of our descriptive statistics and statistical inference indicated
that neither young nor old entrepreneurs were successful in running
their enterprises. it seems that young owners/managers may have enough
strength and energy to grow their enterprises; however, they lack credibility
and skills possessed by the old owners/managers. it seems that a compromise
between the two is the best acceptable solution.
it appears that the success of rural food-processing micro-enterprises
is stronger in enterprises owned (or run) by the middle-aged owners/
managers (with the optimal age for doing business being 40). his suggests
that policies for support of small enterprises should develop speciic forms
of support for middle-aged entrepreneurs. for instance, attention should
188
be paid to the fact that middle-aged owners/managers are not that dynamic
and innovative, not so well-acquainted with modern technologies and
do not have such a good knowledge of foreign languages as their young
counterparts. older owners/managers obtained their education during
socialism and many of them have diiculty catching up with the novel
advancements of today. if the aim of Polish enterprise policy is to increase
the success of those enterprises run by middle-aged owners/managers,
speciic forms of conveying information they lack should be found (i.e. free
courses of using the internet, language training, free information about
applying for EU structural funds, government funding, etc.).
in general, it appears that younger and more educated people may be
slightly more entrepreneurial. it also appears that more educated people
in more developed regions tend to be successful and the irms they lead
quickly surpass the limits of the micro-enterprise and grow into medium
or large enterprises or they tend to search for paid employment in large
regional centres. it is in the less developed regions in Poland that more
educated people usually create their own enterprises. his brings one
important recommendation for relevant Polish policy-makers: something
should be done to attract more educated people to establish their enterprises
in more developed regions. although paid employment in Poland may
seem less stressful and more secure for the majority of people, advantages
of running a micro business enterprise in rural areas should be highlighted.
Perhaps this can be done using some system of bonuses during enterprise
establishment (e.g. a lower interest rate on enterprise credit or larger sum
of a start-up loan) that are awarded to more educated people in more
developed regions.
here is one more implication that comes from the data analysis
and has to do with the level of education of owners/managers in rural
food micro-enterprises in Poland and with EU funding. it appears that
EU saPard funding went mostly to the enterprises headed by highlyeducated owners/managers (e.g. those with Master and Phd. degrees). he
causation, however, can be reverse: it may not be saPard funding that
makes enterprises more successful. it may be that successful enterprises
governed by the better-educated owners/managers are the ones who usually
apply for saPard funding. in one way or another, this creates an additional
recommendation for relevant Polish stakeholders and policy-makers: if
they are going to provide Polish rural entrepreneurs with more funding
189
(especially from the EU structural funds), better-educated entrepreneurs

should be the irst to receive them.
overall, it seems that allocation of people into entrepreneurship may
not be so good in poor or less-developed regions in Poland (represented
here by the Warmia-Mazury province). here are some problems with the
allocation of people and enterprises by provinces: education matters in one
province and does not matter in another. Probably poorly educated people
who become entrepreneurs should not really go into business but still do
(because they would not ind any employment). it seems that in the context
of intra-regional diferences in rural Poland, establishing a micro-enterprise
may be misused in less economically developed regions. as a result, there
are enterprises created due to the lack of other employment alternatives by
people who cannot become successful entrepreneurs. he existence of such
enterprises is doomed and their creation and existence cannot be viewed
as a meaningful contribution to the well-being of Polish rural regions.
our results suggest that conditions for establishing and running an
enterprise in rural Poland were region-speciic. it is clear that rural microenterprises located in the rich Mazowieckie province were more successful
than micro-enterprises in the poor Warmia-Mazury province.
it appears from our descriptive data analysis that establishing and
running a limited or stock company requires enormous efort to set up
and a good knowledge of enterprise-related speciics for operating in
business, such as tacit knowledge (commercial law or accounting).
Badly-educated owners/managers may not want to get involved in these
troubles and prefer to run their business as sole-traders. Given the fact that
sole-traders constitute the majority of small irms operating in Poland it
yields one important suggestion for Polish policy-makers. it may be that
simplifying the process of registering limited and stock companies can
increase their numbers in Polish rural areas. his, in turn, may lead to
increasing employment and the well-being of the population in these areas,
especially in less developed rural regions.
he fact that all forms of commercial enterprises were less successful
with respect to sole-trader can be partially explained by the existence of
the gray economy and a problem with incentives allignment in joint
decision-making in small rural enterprises when too many people (i.e.
family-members or relatives) try to run the company. his may also suggest
that many individuals who established a small business enterprise did
190
not want to get involved in the creation and maintenance of the limited
company or cooperative. Enterprise laws and tax regulations in Poland are
very complicated and intransparent, which is supported by the indings
by entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial agencies (see the report of Polish
agency for Enterprise development, 2003). Becoming a sole-trader is
seen by Polish entrepreneurs as less cumbersome, especially with regard
to enterprise administration and taxation. a clear message for the relevant
Polish stakeholders is that enterprise law should be amended considerably.
soter regulation and less pressure on enterprises, especially within the irst
years of existence, may be a good start for such a policy. his may be followed
by the introduction of considerable changes in enterprise law and labour law.
Polish policy-makers may also consider changing these laws using a more
liberal approach to entrepreneurship that exists in other EU countries.
he number of an enterprises main competitors was important in the
Warmia-Mazury province and was not important in the Mazowieckie
province. Moreover, the results of our descriptive data analysis show that
either the number of the enterprises main competitors negatively/positively
impacted enterprise proit per employee in the previous years (for which the
data is not available), or that micro-enterprises are so small and supply such
small regional units that they can ind their customers without competing
with each other. his inding may suggest a lack of development on the
respective markets. People become entrepreneurs because they have to
(although some of them should not). he number of competitors would
not matter if people were doing what they wanted to do because everybody
would be in the job. People would be going to the jobs and occupations
where the returns to their abilities and qualiications are highest (providing
that the labour market allocation process works well). if this allocation
process does not work properly, people create enterprises in the business
sectors where lots of other competing irms operate. his makes it quite
clear for newcomers that they will have to compete and will probably not do
so well. However, there is simply nothing else they can do and the creation
of a small business is oten their only opportunity. his provides some
sensible explanation of the processes that are going on the Polish labour
market. he problem about it is that there is nothing much to be done in
policy terms. Perhaps, as poor regions and provinces in Poland develop,
the situation will improve (and labour market allocation will improve).
However, if policy-makers are concerned about the labour market allocation
191
today and they think that giving assistance to entrepreneurs is crucial, they
should also realize that many potential entrepreneurs are probably not that
good. here should be a lot more screening before providing assistance to
micro-enterprises in less developed provinces, than in the more developed
ones. Enterprises that are eligible for that assistance should be carefully
selected and monitored.
additionally, the results of this study show that modern technologies
(especially information and communication) can play a very decisive role
in the success of Polish rural micro-enterprises. first of all, it appeared
that more educated owners/managers of rural micro-enterprises located
in both provinces used the internet more oten. secondly, it appeared that
the quality of the internet connection also mattered: well-educated owners/
managers of micro-enterprises in both provinces tended to use Broadband
internet connection.
Generally, it seems that the internet and, in particular high-speed
internet (via Broadband), can be very signiicant determinants of success of
micro-enterprises in rural areas. High-speed internet may be used by rural
enterprises in many ways: from iP internet telephony to buying and selling
items/products through the internet, as well as advertising products on the
internet. according to Gillet and lehr (1999), the importance of Broadband
internet access has important policy implications. he presence of the
internet in the irm induces telecommunication companies to broaden their
deinition of universal service; another aspect is that the internet can help
facilitate competition among alternative physical infrastructure networks
(telephone networks, electric utility power lines, cable television cables, or
wireless networks) which can result in the liberalization and competition
among providers of telecommunication services (Gillet and lehr, 1999).
hus, policy support should include extending the fast and reliable internet
network all over the country with a special impact on rural areas. if the
goal of national policy is to make small rural enterprises competitive and
successful, it should enable them to go hand in hand with technological
progress and innovations.
finally, it seems that micro-enterprises that were concerned about
their property rights and authorship were the ones that tended to be
more successful. Enterprises that had branded products also had broader
spread of sales (they supplied not just the local markets, but also tended
to sell country-wide and even exported). Enterprises with certiicates for
192
their products seemed to be more successful than those without them.

certiication of products still remains a problem in rural Poland: the costs
of certiication are too high and obtaining them may be problematic (Polish
agency for Enterprise development, 2006; Zolnierski, 2005). herefore,
there is a need for the relevant government policy targeted at overcoming
these barriers. for instance, the introduction of reduced fees for small
entrepreneurs or bearing the part of the certiication costs (especially with
regard to international certiicates) may be of some help in familiarizing
small irms with certiication. another question is whether rural microenterprises need those certiicates and licenses. it may be that small irms
are not interested in obtaining them. However, the strict environment of
the EU single Market and tightening competition among enterprises in
the EU and between EU and other parts of the world makes certiicates
and licenses one of the essential rules of doing business in Europe. Polish
rural micro-irms have to learn how to play by these rules.
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[194]
APPENDICES
Appendix 1
(Translation from Polish)
IDARI SURVEY
SUCCESS FACTORS OF POLISH RURAL MICRO- ENTERPRISES
A. MAIN INFORMATION
A1. Date of survey
A2. Province
Code
A3. Name
A4. Parish/community
Code
A5. When was the enterprise created?

Please ill in the year
Code
A6. Legal form of enterprise (Polish small business

classiication) (Please, mark the most appropriate)
sole-trader
family irm (joint stock company)
limited liability company
Code
Unlimited partnership
civil law partnership
cooperative
state-owned enterprise
other (What?)
A7. Structure of ownership (in %)
Physical entities
financial institutions
Code
[195]
local producer (irm) inside the main type of production
local producer (irm) outside the main type of production
foreign investor
cooperative
other (What?)
A8. Number of employees:
Code
a9. Short description of the enterprise activities:

Please, name 3 main products your enterprise produces/sells:
1. _____________________________________________
2. _____________________________________________
3. _____________________________________________
B. CHARACTERISTICS
AND MOTIVATION OF THE OWNER
B1. How did the entrepreneur start his career in the
enterprise?
created it him/herself
inherited the enterprise
Bought the enterprise from family members
Bought the enterprise from strangers
Partly inherited, partly bought
Was appointed a lead manager without owning the
enterprise
Was employed by the owner of the enterprise
other explain
B2. What is the educational level of the entrepreneur?
incomplete primary school
Primary school
college
Post-college education
Code
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Code
1
2
3
4
[196]
University 1st level
University 2nd level (M.a. or Phd.)
5
6
In case the entrepreneur does not have post-college education (last three categories
of question B2) proceed to question B4
B3. What are the most important skills the manager of the
successful irm has? (Please, mark one most appropriate)
computer literacy
1
Motivating personnel for more efort in work
2
familiarity with inances and book-keeping
3
administration skills
4
Gathering relevant information
5
familiarity with marketing and sales
6
deining of the enterprises policy
7
familiarity with technological and industrial
8
processes
other (please name)
9
B4. When did the entrepreneur take up the leading/
managerial position in the enterprise?
Year:
Code
Code
1516
B5. What was the occupation of the entrepreneur before

taking up a leading position in the surveyed enterprise?
Employed in this very enterprise
Employed in the similar enterprise
Employed in the organization or enterprise with
another form of activity
Being a student (full or part-time)
Unemployed
B6. What is the link of the entrepreneur to the region in
which the enterprise operates?
Entrepreneur comes from the region and has been
working here
comes from the region, let it and came back
Code
1
2
3
4
5
Code
1
2
[197]
came to the region regardless of the enterprise
Moved to the region to work in the enterprise
drives/comes to work from another region
B7. What is the age of the entrepreneur?
Below 29 3039
4049
5059
1
2
3
4
3
4
5
Code
6069
5
above 70
6
C. HISTORY AND PROFILE OF ENTERPRISE

C1. What was the main reason for establishing the
enterprise? (Please, mark one most appropriate)
seeking self-realization
seeking independence
seeking risky activities
Need to make money
Unemployment or threat of unemployment
following family or friends
family tradition
other (what?)
No answer
Code
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
C2. Why was your enterprise located in that region? (Please,

mark one most appropriate)
family or personal reasons
1
Wish to make extra money in non-farm activity
2
(for farmers)
favourable perspectives for entrepreneurs
3
Proximity to the resources/ what resources? state
4
explicitly.
low costs of resources used in production
5
Proximity of local agents
6
Proximity to labour sources
7
Proximity to sales markets
8
specialization of the region in the irms product
9
Code
[198]
Good infrastructure and communication
financial help from the Polish government or the EU
other forms of governmental assistance
other (please, name what)
do not know
C3. Does your irm hold:
international certiicates (iso, TUV, etc.)
licenses for speciic production
own patents for the good/s it produces
awards or diplomas (i.e. entrepreneur of the year) of
national and international importance
other (please, name what)
None of the above
C4. Does your irm have stable internet
Yes
connection?
does your irm have broad-band??
C4a. Does your irm have its own website?
Yes
10
11
12
13
14
Code
1
2
3
4
5
6
No
Code
No
Code
D. ASSETS AND SOURCES OF CAPITAL

D1. Sources of the founding capital: (Please, mark
one most appropriate)
owner or leading manager
family members
Private entities (not family members)
other enterprises, banks or inancial institutions
subsidies
do not know
D2. What is the source of the irms assets? (Please,
mark one most appropriate)
income of the enterprise
loans from physical entities
Bank loans
subsidies
Code
1
1
1
1
1
1
Code
1
1
1
1
[199]
D3. Share of the own capital in the enterprise in
2002 (in %)
own capital
Code
5962
D4. If you were to compare the level of irms assets

3 years ago and now, what would be the change?
No change
increase (% increase)
decrease (% decrease)
Code
1
2
3
If there was a change in capital, please answer question D5

D5. What was the increase/decrease of irms
physical capital in the last 3 years?
increased by:
decreased by:
D6. Which of the following ranges best describes enterprises
annual turnover in each of the last three years?
PLN
2002 2003 2004
less than 59 thousand PlN
1
1
1
60 thousand PlN 99 thousand PlN
2
2
2
3
3
3
4
4
4
5
5
5
6
6
6
7
7
7
8
8
8
More than 450 thousand PlN
9
9
9
Code
Code
D7. Has the enterprise had gain or proit* in the last three years?
Code
2002
2003
2004
Loss
Loss
Loss
Proit Proit Proit
If your irm has achieved proit, please mark which cluster better describes its value
Proit up to 19 thousand PlN
1
Proit from 20 ths. PlN to 39 ths. PlN
2
[200]
Proit above 600 thousand PlN
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
* proit is deined as the gross proit (revenues minus costs) per enterprise per
year (before taxing)
D8. What is the age of: machines and equipment used in your
irm?
buildings and warehouses used in production process?
Code
E. FACTORS OF THE ENTERPRISE DEVELOPMENT

Position on the market
E1. What was the structure of the irms sales in each of the
following years according to the geographic spread of sales
(in %)
2002 local markets
region
rest of the country
abroad
2003 local markets
region
rest of the country
abroad
2004 local markets
region
rest of the country
abroad
Code
[201]
E2. What was the share of the marked products in the whole
volume of sales in 2004 (in %)?
No trademark
own trademark
With a trademark of a processor
With a trademark of a distributor
With other trademarks
Code
E3. How many new clients did your irm gain in the last three
years?
none
1
25
6 -19
20 - 49
50 +
1
2
3
4
5
6
Code
E4. How does your enterprise distribute its products?

own shop
Warehouses
supermarkets
small retail shops
Bazaars
Code
General conditions for competition

E5. How many enterprises in the county/region produce
similar products to what your enterprise produces?
Code
if question E5 states that there are no such enterprises, please proceed

to question E7
E6. What gains and losses for your enterprise bring the presence
of competition in the region? (Please, mark one most appropriate)
firms bidding for qualiied workers
(buying them out)
Production at lower costs but with lower quality
No gains
Possibilities of informal marketing and distribution
1
1
1
1
Code
[202]
Possibilities of formal cooperation in marketing
1
and distribution
Easier access to new technologies
1
Easier access to the sources of raw materials
1
Easier access to the local labour force
1
selling your products in another region
1
selling your products abroad
1
other gains (please name which)
E7. In which of the following spheres does your
enterprise compete more oten?
Prices
services
Product
innovativeness of the
and clients
quality
product
care
1
2
3
4
Code
F. EXTERNAL FACTORS OF DEVELOPMENT

F1. What regional factors either helped or impacted negatively on the
development of your enterprise in the last 3 years? (Please, mark one most
appropriate)
Positive
No
Negative
Code
inluence inluence inluence
strategy of local
1
2
3
government (support
of sMEs)
financial help of local
1
2
3
government for sMEs
attitude of local
1
2
3
government to sMEs
locally-imposed taxes
1
2
3
(regional tax)
centrally-imposed taxes
1
2
3
(i.e. income tax)
organization of thematic
1
2
3
schooling for rural
society
access to resources
1
2
3
[203]
access to sales markets of
products and services
costs of entering the
business
other (please, specify)
F1a. What factors represent the most serious barriers to the development of
small and medium (SMEs) enterprises in the country? (Please, mark one most
appropriate)
fears of competition with the irms from the old EU
Code
fears of Polish competition
inexistence of business networks and cooperation
between Polish sMEs
Unfair competition of foreign enterprises operating on
the Polish market
loss of the Eastern markets (former Ussr)
Unfair competition between Polish sMEs
Economic crisis in Poland and in the EU
availability and cost of labour force
availability and cost of service necessary for your
business
Unstable and unclear laws concerning sMEs
Unclear and inexplicit state tax and revenue system
inexistence of formal groups lobbing for the sMEs of
agricultural and food sector
costs of innovation
Technology used in production process
Gaining new qualiications
Gaining new methods of production and accounting
Unsatisfactory work of the self-governments
Problems with entering the EU single Market
Quality norms introduced by the EU
Unclear government policy towards sMEs
[204]
consumption of goods and services by consumers
(consumers purchasing power)
other (please specify):
F2. Has your enterprise received:
Yes
a preferential credit for your business in the
1
last 3 years?
a business credit for your business in the last
1
3 years?
No
0
Code
If the answer to the above question is yes please answer question F2a.
F2a. How has the level of credit (interest rates) impacted the growth of your
enterprise?
Nature of impact
Positive
No
Negative
Code
inluence
inluence
inluence
1
2
3
F3. What economic processes evolved positive or negative inluence on the
enterprises success in the last 3 years? (Please, mark one most appropriate)
Positive
No
Negative
Code
inluence inluence inluence
Exchange rate
1
2
3
Per cent (level) of credit
1
2
3
central government taxes
1
2
3
local taxes
1
2
3
level of inlation
1
2
3
Enterprise creation
1
2
3
procedure
Purchasing power of the
1
2
3
consumers
Economic growth in the
1
2
3
country
labour law
1
2
3
opening of EU single
Market for Polish goods
other (please specify):
[205]
F4. Whether the enterprise has been receiving public assistance (governments
and local governments) in the last 3 years? (Please, mark the appropriate).
Nature of assistance YES Regional
Central
EU sources
Code
sources governmental (SAPARD)
soures
Grants or investment
1
2
3
4
loans
funds for research
1
2
3
4
and development
funds for the
1
2
3
4
promotion of local
production groups
assistance in
1
2
3
4
schooling of the
personnel
space for the
1
2
3
4
enterprise (housing)
Export guarantees
1
2
3
4
consulting in the
1
2
3
4
sphere of governance
General economic
1
2
3
4
consulting
other (please, specify)
1
2
3
4
Has not recieved
If the answer to the question F3 is has not received, please proceed to question E5.
If your irm has received some assistance from EU SAPARD fund, please answer the
following question:
F5. What was the amount of funds your enterprise has
received from EU SAPARD program in the last 3 years?
(Please, mark the appropriate cluster)
funds below 8 thousand PlN
funds 9 thousand - 19 thousand PlN
funds 20 thousand 39 thousand PlN
funds 40 thousand 59 thousand PlN
Code
1
2
3
4
5
[206]
100 thousand 149 thousand PlN
150 thousand 179 thousand PlN
above 250 thousand PlN
6
7
8
F6. How does your irm participate in EU Single Market ater

the Polish accession to the EU?
We are not interested in this issue/the EU accession has
1
not impacted on our irm
Participation in schooling and conferences
2
looking for new partners on EU single Market
3
improving the quality of our own products and services
4
learning foreign languages by the management of the
5
irm
increasing of export
6
looking for new markets in the EU
7
other (what?)
8
No answer
9
Code
F7.Regarding Polish EU accession, what could be the main

reasons for SMEs in rural Poland to go bankrupt or leave the
business? (Please, mark one most appropriate)
low quality of products created by Polish sMEs
1
High production costs of Polish sMEs
2
inability to cope with EU standards
3
lack of basic capital
4
lack of managerial skills
5
takeover by foreign competitors
6
other (what?)
7
No threats
8
do not know
9
Code
F8.What are the most relevant actions local governments

can undertake to help the development of your enterprises?
(Please, mark one most appropriate)
Playing mediators in the potential conlicts between
1
sMEs
Code
[207]
creation of suitable environment for sMEs
supporting enterprises using the means of local
governments
interconnecting the success of sMEs with the strategy of
regional development
inluencing competitiveness between sMEs through the
policy of issuing licenses and permits
others (please, mark the appropriate)
2
3
F9. Do you know the development strategy of

your parish?
If the answer to the question F9 is yes, please
proceed to question F9a
Yes
No
F9a. Is the growth of SMEs foreseen in the

development strategy of your parish?
Yes
1
No
0
4
5
6
F10.Which targets of the regional policy are the most relevant

from your point of view for the success of your enterprise?
(Please, mark one most appropriate)
creation of work places
1
War with unemployment by modernization of
2
production of trade and services
creation of favourable environment for conducting
3
business activity
support of the production and services
4
War on unemployment by re-animating the traditional
5
sectors of economy
creation of favourable climate for the increased inlow
6
of fdi
Helping enterprises to enter the EU single Market
7
rebuilding Polish entrepreneurial tradition lost in
8
socialism
increasing the competitiveness of Polish sMEs
9
supporting innovation and research in sMEs
10
others (please, mark the appropriate)
11
Code
Code
Code
[208]
F11. Would you describe local authorities as
open for negotiations with SMEs concerning
reducing local taxes and providing favours for
entrepreneurs?
No
0
Code
F12. How would you describe the process of registering your

irm at the local parish economic oice? (please mark up to
two relevant answers)
Quick and easy
Transparent
Taking no time and energy
Code
Yes
1
slow and complicated

Taking too much time and energy
Excessively bureaucratic
is not transparent, includes giving bribes to the oicials
other (what?)
None of the above
F13. Do you follow the main economic indicators in your
daily business? Please, mark the ones you do follow:
PlN/EUr (or Usd) exchange rate
GdP growth of Polish economy
stock exchange indices
interest rate as set up by the Polish central Bank
Economic indicators/price variations in the EU
level of inlation
i do not follow any indicators
Code
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
hank you for your cooperation!
[209]
Appendix 2
Table A1. Variables used in the econometric model for testing the main research
hypotheses and their categories (levels)
Name
Variable Deinition
Variable type
Enterprise success (dependent variables)
Y
X1
Enterprise gross proit

per employee in 2004
owner/manager reason
for establishing an
enterprise
X2
owner/manager
education
X3
owner/management
business experience
owner/manager
training
X4
X5
X5
X6
owner/manager age
owner/manager age
squared
owner/manager
previous sector
experience
Expected sign
Polish Zloty (PlN)

1 = self-realization
2 = independence
3 = risk
4 = need of cash
5 = threat of
unemployment
6 = inluence of family
and friends
7 = family tradition
1 = primary
2 = secondary
3 = college
4 = university second
level
5 = university third
level
Years
dummy (1 = obtained
some training in the
ield related to the irm
area of business, 0 =
otherwise)
Years
Years
dummy (1 =
experience in the same
sector of economy, 0 =
otherwise)
+
self-realization,
independence and
risk are expected to
have higher inluence
on enterprise success
+
relationship between
education and
enterprise success
+
+
+
+
[210]
Name
Variable Deinition
Variable type
X7
owner/manager ties to dummy (1 = close ties,
the region
0 = otherwise)
X8
age of the enterprise
Years
X8
age of the enterprise
Years
squared
X9
Establishing of
dummy (1 = strategic
enterprise on local
reasons, 0 = otherwise)
market
X10
legal form of the
1 = sole-trader
enterprise
2 = family enterprise
3 = limited liability
company
4 = unlimited
partnership
5 = civil law partnership
6 = cooperative
X11
location of the
dummy (1 =
enterprise by the
Mazowieckie province,
province
0 = Warmia-Mazury
province)
X11
location of the
Parish dummy
enterprise by parish
X11
location of the
community dummy
enterprise by
community
X12
distance from the
Kilometers
parish to the regional
centre
X13
size of the enterprise
Number of employees
X14
ownership of the
dummy (private
enterprise
sources =1, 0 =
otherwise)
X15
X16
internet in the
enterprise
Broadband in the
enterprise
Expected sign
+
relationship between
+
sole-traders
are expected to
perform better
than commercial
companies
Expect some regional

diferences

diferences
diferences
Expect some
diferences
dummy
Enterprises owned
by physical entities
of families tend to be
more successful
+
dummy
[211]
Name
Variable Deinition
Variable type
Expected sign
Enterprise product/
1 = products of vegetal Expect some product
good
origin
diferences
2 = products of animal
origin
3 = secondaryprocessed products
4= beverages
X17
he fact that enterprise dummy
+
has branded products
X18
Number of enterprises Number of irms
main competitors
X19
areas in which
1 = prices
enterprise is exploiting 2 = services
+
its advantage
3 = quality of products
+
4 = innovativeness of
+
products
X20
Enterprises innovation 1 = know-how
+
2 = international
+
certiicates
+
3 = licenses
+
4 = patents (valid on the
national level)
X21
Government inancial
dummy
+
support
X22
Negotiations with local dummy
+
governments on tax
reduction
X23
EU saPard funds in
dummy
+
the enterprise
Enterprises that
managed to obtain
funds from EU
program are more
successful
X24
Public non-monetary
dummy
+
assistance to the
enterprise
[212]
Name
Variable Deinition
Variable type
Expected sign

X25
X26
X27
X28
Enterprise participation
in local schooling
he fact whether
enterprise obtained the
credit
Enterprise distribution
of sales in 20022004
impact of Polish
EU accession on the
enterprise
dummy
dummy
dummy (1 = local
market and beyond
(local market +), 0 =
local market)
dummy (1 = some
impact, 0 = no impact)
Enterprises with
broader distribution
of products are more
successful
+
enterprises
that utilize the
opportunities of EU
accession tend to be
more successful
[213]
Appendix 3
Table A2. complete results of the model estimation
Whole
Sample
Model
Poor
Rich*Dummy FullFull
independence -4879.227** 7690.613*
-450.965
[2326.191] [4465.039]
[1661.613]
risk
-860.405
28914.773*
15417.722
[2310.763] [16175.833]
[10854.081]
cash
-839.787
-7230.869
-5516.105*
[1720.035] [4790.153]
[2828.158]
Unemployment 1163.376
-841.91
225.34
[1616.715] [6714.343]
[2688.016]
family and
friends
-3698.703
-3893.988
25.796
[2471.873] [9969.158]
[2804.136]
family
tradition
8376.180*** -14295.651** 488.691
[2253.847] [6380.053]
[2823.775]
secondary
4050.646
-6209.66
-108.404
[3223.200] [14239.394]
[7309.527]
college
6705.950** -5179.548
2977.408
[3029.934] [16226.303]
[8129.896]
University
second level
2683.841
-1351.674
799.034
[2990.964] [14920.651]
[7702.123]
University
hird level
2242.24
-6835.293
-2621.97
[2567.331] [14926.355]
[7612.109]
Years of
Experience
174.264
-399.713
-132.575
[143.960]
[345.798]
[207.997]
Training
1126.89
-6490.381
-2476.185
[1587.154] [8859.795]
[3319.756]
Interact Model
Rich
Province
Only
RichFull
2811.386
[3870.294]
28054.368*
[16258.082]
-8070.657*
[4539.981]
321.466
[6617.805]
Poor
Province
Only
PoorFull
-4879.227**
[2295.371]
-860.405
[2280.148]
-839.787
[1697.246]
1163.376
[1595.295]
-7592.691
[9807.537]
-3698.703
[2439.124]
-5919.471
[6061.203]
-2159.014
[14084.777]
1526.402
[16187.983]
8376.180***
[2223.986]
4050.646
[3180.496]
6705.950**
[2989.790]
1332.166
2683.841
[14844.368] [2951.337]
-4593.053
2242.24
[14931.813] [2533.316]
-225.449
[319.280]
-5363.491
[8851.576]
174.264
[142.053]
1126.89
[1566.126]
[214]
Poor
23.923
[665.867]
-0.892
[7.654]
Whole
Sample
Model
Rich*Dummy FullFull
2483.228
1747.731**
[1557.164]
[846.488]
-23.349
-17.119**
[15.584]
[8.328]
Rich
Province
Only
RichFull
2507.150*
[1429.433]
-24.242*
[13.786]
Poor
Province
Only
PoorFull
23.923
[657.045]
-0.892
[7.553]
-2101.268
[1959.161]
794.288
[5825.875]
-285.37
[2145.442]
-1306.98
[5571.615]
-2101.268
[1933.205]
-1792.893
[1788.102]
87.053
[212.427]
1950.517
[6426.071]
-801.108
[658.448]
1508.339
[2549.664]
-404.269
[368.048]
157.624
[6267.951]
-714.054
[632.900]
-1792.893
[1764.412]
87.053
[209.613]
-5.041
[4.493]
17.766
[13.929]
6.137
[7.342]
12.725
[13.389]
-5.041
[4.433]
-1709.12
[1615.801]
-2315.448
[4425.126]
2717.529
[4021.753]
-2560.523
[6810.199]
-187.852
[2079.895]
-3938.441
[2902.323]
1008.408
[3739.974]
-4875.971
[5256.825]
-1709.12
[1594.394]
-2315.448
[4366.498]
-1586.57
[2247.897]
-7728.254
[6462.077]
-3122.072
[2674.628]
-9314.825
[6152.403]
-1586.57
[2218.115]
-2221.737
[2147.831]
8996.111
[9099.524]
1967.436
[3560.811]
6774.374
[8979.462]
-2221.737
[2119.374]
2220.713
[1631.208]
2278.973
[3913.659]
2330.49
[6876.313]
-18820.948**
[9244.871]
4486.705
[3651.632]
-6955.796*
[3569.493]
4551.203
[6783.572]
-16541.975*
[8505.434]
2220.713
[1609.596]
2278.973
[3861.807]
-20.814
[18.671]
-121.57
[88.179]
-42.513
[29.462]
-142.384
[87.516]
-20.814
[18.424]
Interact Model
age
age squared
Previous
Experience
Ties to the
region
Enterprise age
Ent. age
squared
Position on
local Market
family firm
company
limited
Unlimited
partnership
civil law
Partnership
cooperative
distance from
city
[215]
Poor
-967.166**
[420.548]
2523.141
[4437.272]
1090.495
[1590.438]
3140.063
[2392.986]
Whole
Sample
Model
Rich*Dummy FullFull
-652.12
-1279.577**
[866.398]
[534.684]
-7953.918
-2871.24
[8743.351]
[4322.631]
-3694.233
571.427
[5681.551]
[2236.916]
4624.058
2801.958
[5815.045]
[2692.783]
Rich
Province
Only
RichFull
-1619.286**
[769.227]
-5430.777
[7650.481]
-2603.739
[5538.946]
7764.121
[5381.992]
Poor
Province
Only
PoorFull
-967.166**
[414.976]
2523.141
[4378.483]
1090.495
[1569.367]
3140.063
[2361.282]
-1122.974
[4190.953]
-5054.812
[10168.009]
-2915.222
[4855.725]
-6177.786
[9407.733]
-1122.974
[4135.427]
-2215.041
[3590.915]
-4326.46
[3305.966]
2592.625
[1683.782]
-4017.584
[9364.197]
-17121.936
[12772.391]
-6566.443
[4182.132]
-3302.457
[4455.974]
-4870.743
[5758.735]
-302.534
[2487.619]
-6232.625
[8782.371]
-21448.396*
[12528.343]
-3973.817
[3887.534]
-2215.041
[3543.340]
-4326.46
[3262.165]
2592.625
[1661.474]
-159.748*
[93.856]
200.885*
[115.027]
-25.547
[55.386]
41.137
[67.530]
-159.748*
[92.613]
-1912.327
[3928.881]
1084.647
[1722.795]
210.43
[3730.567]
2122.757
[1374.587]
14828.549
[11287.980]
2988.28
[4039.091]
13576.37
-1252.179
[11252.787] [2123.043]
15228.401**
[6851.433]
2903.644
[2457.365]
14089.179** -1139.222
[6735.781] [1693.596]
-514.506
[9255.640]
5367.254
[4297.290]
4390.796
[7255.504]
Interact Model
Enterprise size
ownership
internet
Broadband
animal origin
Products
secondaryprocessed
Beverages
Trademark
No. of Main
competitors
competition in
Price
2122.757
[1393.043]
competition in
services
-1252.179
[2151.548]
competition in
Quality
-1139.222
[1716.336]
competition
Novel Products 4905.301
[5883.812]
4905.301
[5805.858]
[216]
Whole
Sample
Model
Poor
Rich*Dummy FullFull
3208.438*
380.21
2885.171
[1862.799] [6079.570]
[2871.604]
1131.176
9206.492
7793.001
[3337.758] [9380.597]
[4768.458]
-452.309
-1972.354
-3448.77
[2734.045] [6885.605]
[3249.927]
-6600.508** -820.65
-5804.595
[3229.641] [7983.597]
[3834.470]
-3960.001
7164.805
-2364.786
[2837.151] [8688.956]
[3292.034]
356.509
-1495.901
1220.802
[1617.087] [7421.758]
[3569.590]
12133.332 -16640.746*
3818.879
[7613.062] [9710.799]
[4038.077]
1683.613
-2609.099
313.698
[1517.101] [4397.404]
[1899.377]
-134.354
-2855.972
-571.255
[1584.994] [4377.676]
[2588.190]
Rich
Province
Only
RichFull
3588.648
[5876.853]
10337.668
[8902.578]
-2424.663
[6417.489]
-7421.158
[7414.347]
3204.804
[8340.000]
-1139.392
[7355.718]
-4507.413
[6121.779]
-925.486
[4191.391]
-2990.327
[4143.916]
Poor
Province
Only
PoorFull
3208.438*
[1838.119]
1131.176
[3293.536]
-452.309
[2697.822]
-6600.508**
[3186.852]
-3960.001
[2799.562]
356.509
[1595.662]
12133.332
[7512.197]
1683.613
[1497.001]
-134.354
[1563.995]
448.821
[1528.661]
133.583
[4301.986]
576.558
[2182.191]
582.404
[4083.556]
448.821
[1508.408]
-1291.968
[1643.119]
-747.8
[4417.382]
-159.882
[1749.315]
-2039.767
[4163.973]
-1291.968
[1621.349]
6349.443*
[3339.157]
-17957.776
[19064.051]
299
0.23
-11423.405
[35873.601]
141
0.41
10693.742
[13471.900]
158
0.47
Interact Model
innovation
certiicates
licenses
Patents
financial Help
Tax Neg.
saPard
schooling
credit
distribution of
Products
Polish EU
Membership
rich Province
dummy
constant
observations
r-squared
10693.742
[13652.785]
299
0.43
robust standard errors in brackets; * signiicant at 10%; ** signiicant at 5%; ***

signiicant at 1%
source: own estimations.
[217]
Table A3. results of the tests used in computations of the large model
Cook-Weisberg test
for heteroscedasticity
using itted values
of proit per
employee in 2004
(dependent variable)
Ho:
constant
variance
chi2(1)
1101.57
Prob > chi2 0.0000

source: own estimations.
Breusch and
Pagan Lagrangian
multiplier
test for random
efects
Chow test with

province dummy
Chow test
without
province
dummy
proit_per_
employee_2004
[nscomm,t] = Xb
+ u[nscomm] +
e[nscomm,t]
chi2(1)
0.33
Tests interactions
model against the
full model
Tests
interactions
model against
the full model
f(50, 199) = 0.83
f(50, 199) =
0.83
Prob > f =
0.7809
Prob > chi2 0.5671 Prob > f = 0.7809
doi: 10.2478/eec-2013-0010
19 2013
Anna Szumelda
Is Small Beautiful? he Debate on the Future

of Small Individual Farms in Poland
Abstract
he main concern of this article is to collect and discuss cases that are advanced
for and against small agricultural farms at the international level in the EU and the
national level in Poland and to make an assessment of these cases in the context
of sustainable rural development. cases concerning small farms and put forward
by diferent actors relect their visions of agriculture and rural development.
Taking a closer look at those cases is interesting in the context of sustainability
considerations, as there is a widespread programmatic demand for sustainable
rural development, but at the same time visions for rural development may difer
widely, and the question what exactly is meant to be sustainable oten remains
unanswered. Before the various arguments raised for and against small farms are
discussed, some evidence from two Polish rural regions is presented. he empirical
research was conducted in april and May 2012 in Eastern and southern Poland
in the context of my Phd-thesis. ater presenting statements made by Polish
smallholders, an assessment of the initially collected cases is made in the context
of sustainable rural development. a comparison of cases made for and against
small farms and indings from empirical research shows that small farms do in
fact have the potential to contribute to sustainable rural development.
Keywords: Poland, semi-subsistence farming, small farms, rural

development, sustainability.
220
Anna Szumelda
Introduction
When in 2004 and 2007 a total of twelve, mainly Eastern European countries
(EEc) joined the European Union (EU), not only did the EUs territorial
extent and the number of its people grow enormously, but so also did the
number of its agricultural holdings. and it was not only the number of
agricultural holdings that rose considerably, the diversity of rural areas,
cultures and the agrarian structure also increased substantially.
However, the New Member states (NMs) today display a wide variety
of agrarian structure, which also varies within the states themselves. While
e.g. there is a rather large-scale agrarian structure in terms of utilized
agricultural area (Uaa) in the czech republic, we ind a very small-scale
structure in Bulgaria and romania. at the same time, some countries show
pronounced diferences in the agrarian structure within the country itself
e.g. in Poland we ind rather big farms in the north and west of the country
and rather small ones in the south and east. hese diferences are related
to a large extent to the agricultural policy applied in the respective EEcs
during their socialist regimes and to the restructuring policy in the agrarian
sector ater the regime changes introducing among other things the
capitalist system, the free market economy and private property rights. But
they are also a legacy of historical developments dating back a long way.
regardless of the structural diferences among and within the NMss,
the last two eastward enlargements of the EU in 2004 and 2007 brought an
addition of millions of small farms into the EU by 2007, the number of
farms of a size of up to 5 ha had grown by 313 % to more than 3 million1.
although the main centre of small farms is in Eastern and southern Europe,
farms of this size are in fact found in great numbers throughout the EU, and
thus there is an intense political and academic debate on their future in the
EU and its individual member states (cf. inter alios davidova, fredriksson
and Bailey 2009: 2).
small agricultural farms are of interest for several reasons and there
are sound arguments which can be made for and against them. from
an economic point of view, small farms are considered to be ineicient,
1
source: own calculations based on EUrosTaT agricultural statistics, see http://

epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/portal/page/portal/agriculture/data/database
Is Small Beautiful? he Debate on the Future of Small Individual Farms
221
non-competitive and unproitable. heir productivity, land and labour

eiciency and integration with markets are low and they hardly ever provide
a suicient household income (ENrd 2010: 7). hey are also thought to
impede agri-structural change and thus economic growth in rural areas
(cf. inter alios rosner and stanny 2007). for these reasons their raison
dtre has been questioned and it has been argued that they represent only
an intermediate stage of agrarian structure which has to be overcome as
soon as possible. on the other hand, it has also been argued that small
farms are not as ineicient as they are oten claimed to be and that they
provide important social, cultural and environmental services and beneits
such as a bufer against poverty, the creation and protection of the cultural
and natural heritage and the maintenance of the liveliness of rural areas,
for all of which reasons, it has been argued, they have to be saved from
disappearing.
in Poland, small agricultural farms can claim interest for similar reasons
as the ones just mentioned. as there is a great number of them and they
predominate in the agrarian structure in some parts of the country, their
success or failure afects millions of people and a large proportion of
rural areas. What makes them interesting besides is that they are not an
outcome of the agricultural reforms that took place ater 1989, as was the
case in many post-socialist countries, but can look back on a centuries-old
tradition, having developed as they did in the 18th century at the latest and
never disappeared during socialism.
in this contribution, i irst want to collect and discuss the various
arguments for and against small farms, before making an assessment of
these arguments in the context of sustainable rural development. arguments
concerning small farms and put forward by diferent actors relect their
visions of agriculture and rural development. Taking a closer look at those
arguments is interesting in the context of sustainability considerations,
as there is a widespread programmatic demand for sustainable rural
development, but at the same time visions for rural development may
difer widely, and the question what exactly is meant to be sustainable
oten remains unanswered.
his contribution will be structured as follows: first, i will point out
the diiculties of deining the terms subsistence farm, semi-subsistence farm
and small farm. ater clarifying these terms i will give a brief survey of the
history of the origin of small farms in Poland and show their distribution
222
Anna Szumelda
in Poland and in the EU. he main concern of this paper is to give an

overview of arguments that are advanced for and against small agricultural
farms on the international level in the EU and the national level in Poland.
subsequently, i will present the irst results from empirical work conducted
in april and May 2012 in Eastern and south-Eastern Poland in the context
of my Phd-thesis2. finally, i will draw some conclusions from statements
made by Polish smallholders with regard to its theoretical background and
the debate on sustainability.
Clarifying the Terms:

Subsistence Farm, Semi-subsistence Farm and Small Farm
he terms subsistence farm (sf), semi-subsistence farm (ssf) and small
farm are closely related, but nonetheless difer in their meanings and
must not be used interchangeably. according to Wharton (1970), the
term subsistence has become ambiguous on account of its imprecise
use, and the various notions of subsistence would be the most frequent
conceptual diiculty in conducting research on it (cf. also Heidhues and
Brntrup 2003: 2). such various notions become evident in the way the
term subsistence is employed as a synonym of quite unlike concepts like
traditional, small scale, peasant, low income, resource poor, low-input
or low technology farming (Heidhues and Brntrup 2003: 1; cf. also
Majewski 2009)3. diiculties in deining subsistence stem from the fact
that it can be regarded not just as a concept of measuring the standard of
2
original working title: der Beitrag von semi-subsistenzwirtschat zur nachhaltigen
Entwicklung lndlicher rume. Eine Untersuchung in ausgewhlten regionen Polens.
(he contribution of semi-subsistence farming to sustainable rural development.
a study in selected Polish regions.) he thesis is being written in the framework of the
PoNa Politiken der Naturgestaltung (shaping nature: policy, politics and polity)
research project. he PoNa-project is funded by the federal Ministry of Education and
science in the socio-Ecological research Programme and ailiated to the institut fr
Nachhaltigkeitssteuerung (institute for sustainability Governance) at the leuphana
University of lneburg, Germany.
3
in fact, examples demonstrating the synonymous use of sf, ssf, small farm and
other terms can easily be found, e.g.: in Europe, there is a broad consensus that ssfs or
small farms are those that operate on an agricultural area of 5 ha or less (ENrd 2010: 8).
in their article development perspectives of subsistence farms in southeastern Poland:
social bufer stock or commercial agriculture? Petrick and Tyran (2003: 108f), in contrast
223
living, but also as a measure of market-integration or a certain relation

of own production and consumption. it can also be looked at from both
a consumption and a production point of view, and ixing thresholds for
subsistence farming to some degree is always arbitrary (cf. Heidhues and
Brntrup 2003: 6; von Braun and lohlein 2003: 51; Wharton 1970: 13).
Problems with deining small however stem from the fact that it can be
attached to diferent characteristics of agricultural holdings, making it
diicult to grade farms as small (Woek 2009: 10). Besides that, there is no
consistent deinition of sfs, ssfs and small farms in agricultural statistics.
following a document prepared for the seminar semi-subsistence farming
in the EU: current situation and future prospects (ENrd 2010) there
is indeed no universally agreed deinition of sfs, ssfs and small farms
(ENrd 2010: 8; cf. also Mathijs and Noev 2004; davidova, fredriksson
and Bailey 2009: 3; Petrick and Tyran 2003: 111; davidova 2011; abele
and frohberg 2003: ii).
in this chapter i want to list and explicate diferent ways of deining
sfs, ssfs and small farms, present the Polish deinition of farms in general
and ssfs in particular and introduce what is meant by small farms in this
paper.
Criteria for Deining SFs, SSFs and Small Farms:

Physical Measures, Economic Size and Market Participation
here are three basic criteria, at least one of which is normally used to deine
sfs, ssfs or small farms: physical measures, economic size and market
participation (ENrd 2010: 8). here are advantages and disadvantages
to all of them.
firstly, the physical measure criterion throughout the EU is used to set
thresholds for i) what is considered a farm, ii) eligibility for Pillar 1 support
and iii) eligibility for some rural development measures4 (ENrd 2010: 8).
it seems to be quite manageable as it refers to data comparatively easy to
to their title, are talking of peasant farms most of the time. Majewski (2009: 122f) is talking
of semi-subsistence farms as a speciic kind of small farms.
4
according to the council regulation (Ec) No 73/2009, art. 28 (1), one hectare of
agricultural land can be set as minimum requirement for receiving direct payments from
Pillar 1 of the common agricultural Policy (caP).
224
Anna Szumelda
collect, like the amount of agricultural land or the number of livestock. it

becomes more diicult when, as an alternative physical measure, labour
input is considered and farms are classiied as part- or full-time farms, as
is the case in the United Kingdom (ENrd 2010: 9). he major weakness
in using data on agricultural land to deine sfs, ssfs or small farms is
that there are diferences in terms of fertility of land and the type of land
use (ENrd 2010: 8). Highly specialized farms or farms operating on
fertile soil can be relatively large economic enterprises despite the limited
size of land area used (ENrd 2010: 13). in addition, the importance of
land constantly diminishes in favour of innovative solutions applied in
production (Woek 2009: 20). hus, the physical criterion [is] being
perceived as a less accurate measure for ssfs or even small farms (ENrd
2010: 13, emphasis in original; cf. also abele and frohberg 2003: ii).
secondly, in the EU a farms economic size is expressed in European
size Units (EsU)5. his measure is applied widely for statistical and policy
purposes (ENrd 2010: 9), although there is no clear deinition of sfs,
ssfs or small farms in terms of economic size in EUrosTaT-statistics6.
However, the economic size of holdings is used by the European farm
accountancy data Network (fadN) to classify farms as commercial.
according to fadN, a farm is classiied as commercial when it exceeds
a minimum economic size. he thresholds vary between the countries and
range from 1 to 16 EsU (fadN 2010: 6). adopting the economic sizecriterion to deine commercial and semi-subsistence farms, a contradiction
becomes obvious, as at least in Poland farms can be classiied as commercial
and semi-subsistent at the same time: according to fadN, a commercial
farm is deined as a farm which is large enough to account for the main
activity of the farmer and supplies a level of income suicient to support
5
European size Units express the standard Gross Margin generated on a farm, which
is deined as the value of output from one hectare or from one animal less the cost of
variable inputs required to produce that output. one EsU currently has the equivalent of
1200 (fadN 2010: 5).
6
according to agricultural statistics. Main results 200809. (EUrosTaT 2010),
published by the EUs statistics oice EUrosTaT, very small farms are those at an economic
size smaller than 1 EsU, while small farms are those at a size of 116 EsU (EUrosTaT
2010: 149). However, the same publication dedicates a chapter to small farms addressing
farms smaller than 1 EsU (EUrosTaT 2010: 40). finally, farms smaller than 1 EsU are
also termed subsistence farms (EUrosTaT 2010: 51).
225
his or her family (fadN 2010: 4). in Poland a farm is considered to be

commercial at an economic size of 2 EsU. But, according to the Polish rural
development Plan 20042006 (rdP) (MrirW 2004), a farm of 24 EsU
is by deinition a semi-subsistence farm and thus eligible for the Pillar
2-measure support of semi-subsistence farms undergoing restructuring
(MrirW 2004: 112). another diiculty about the economic size criterion
is that there is a debate whether holdings of less than 1 EsU should be
considered a farm at all (ENrd 2010: 35, emphasis in original). But, if
they are let out of statistics, hundreds of thousands of holdings will drit
out of the focus of policy targets and measures. for Poland this is also
claimed by Woek (2009: 11) who argues that in order to encompass the
whole spectrum of features related to small-scale farms, it is reasonable to
expand this deinition by adding holdings generating 02 EsU. in Poland,
this type is represented by more than 1.6 million farms. regardless of these
restrictions, the ENrd (2010: 10) considers the economic size criterion
to be the best proxy measure to indicate the extent of sf and ssf activity
(cf. also Woek 2009: 12).
hirdly, the market participation criterion refers to the share of
agricultural products respectively sold on the market or used to meet
own food needs. Wharton (1970: 13) argues that farm households may
sell between 0 % and 100 % of their agricultural output, and for farms to
classify as ssfs he ixes a threshold of less than 50 % of the total amount
of products sold. he market participation criterion is also applied in
the deinition of ssfs in the regulation on the European agricultural
fund for rural development (Eafrd) (council regulation (Ec) No
1698/2005), which deines ssfs as agricultural holdings which produce
primarily for their own consumption and also market a proportion of their
output (council regulation Ec No 1698/2005, art. 34 (1)). However, in
this deinition no thresholds for the share of products sold are set in order
to allow individual Member states to adopt their own eligibility criteria
in the rural development Programmes for support of semi-subsistence
farms undergoing restructuring (ENrd 2010: 10). although the market
participation criterion is oten applied in considerations of subsistence
(cf. abele and frohberg 2003: ii; Heidhues and Brntrup 2003: 6; Petrick
and Tyran 2003: 107, 111), and seems to be the most appropriate one to the
meaning of subsistence in the sense of food self-supply, the main diiculty
about it is that the share of agricultural products sold or consumed to meet
226
Anna Szumelda
own food-demands can only be assessed through detailed surveys and is

impractical with a very large population (ENrd 2010: 10). in addition, the
market participation criterion requires a decision whether subsistence is
looked at from the production or the consumption point of view. davidova
et al. (2009: 3) argue for the production point of view, as any commercial
operation, fully integrated in input and output markets, may still cover
a great deal of food consumption of a household.
Deinition of Farms and SSFs in Poland

of the three deining criteria described above physical measure, economic
size and market participation in Poland two are used to deine respectively
a farm or a ssf. he physical measure, as throughout the EU, sets thresholds
for what is considered a farm: according to the Polish central statistical
oice (cso), in Poland an individual farm is an agricultural holding having
0,1 ha of agricultural land or, if having less than 0,1 ha of agricultural land,
keeping a certain number of livestock (GUs 2011a)7. according to the
Polish oicial Journal, the physical measure also sets limits for the eligibility
for direct payments according to the single area Payment scheme, where
agricultural holdings must have at least 1 ha of land (dz. U. 2008 nr. 170
poz. 1051; cf. also commission regulation (Ec) No 1121/2009, annex
Vii). he economic size criterion again is applied to delineate holdings
eligible for the Pillar 2-measure support of semi-subsistence farms
undergoing restructuring8. in contrast to the deinition of ssfs in the
Eafrd-regulation, here the market participation criterion has not been
taken into account: in Poland farms of an economic size of 24 EsU are
considered to be ssfs (MrirW 2004: 112). Nonetheless, data concerning
the extent of food self-supply is recorded by the cso, dividing farms into
7
Private farms are understood as an agricultural holding from 0,1 ha of agricultural

land [], as well as an agricultural holding of a person having no agricultural land or
with agricultural land less than 0,1 ha who has at least: 1 head of cattle or (and) 5 heads
of pigs or 1 sow or (and) 3 heads of sheep or goats or (and) 1 horse or (and) 30 heads of
poultry or (and) 1 ostrich or (and) 5 females rabbits or (and) 5 females other [sic!] of fur
animals or (and) 3 heads of other animals kept for slaughter or (and) 1 beehive (GUs
2011a: 58).
8
in Poland this measure was only available in the planning period 20042006. it was
not taken up again for the planning period 20072013.
227
four categories corresponding to the share of agricultural products used to

satisfy the households own demands (Majewski 2009: 122f).
Summary Overview of Deinitions and Usage

of Terms in this Paper
as shown in the previous sections, it seems hardly possible to give a clear
deinition of sfs, ssfs and small farms and to attach unique features to each
of them. Besides the diiculties of using physical or economic measures and
market participation as deining criteria, it also seems to be inappropriate
to talk about sfs, ssfs or small farms as if they were a homogeneous group
of agricultural holdings: in reality, farm households are heterogeneous.
While some ssfs are already well integrated into markets, others are not,
and while many of these still farm out of necessity, others appear simply
to enjoy the lifestyle (ENrd 2010: 15; cf. also swain 1999). Misleading
vocabulary is used in the context of the measure semi-subsistence farms
undergoing restructuring, where the market participation criterion is
applied in the Eafrd, whereas the economic size criterion is applied
in the Polish rdP 20042006. in summary, the term subsistence neither
necessarily indicates food self-supply nor smallness in terms of physical or
economic measures, and vice versa smallness neither necessarily indicates
food self-supply, nor are farms that are small in physical terms small in
economic terms, nor farms small in economic terms small in physical
terms. referring again to the three deining criteria and their limited
signiicance, farm characteristics, site-speciic characteristics [] and
a farmers personal inclination oten overshadow the efect of other farm
characteristics (ENrd 2010: 21).
in the following i will use the term small farm as a collective for all three
terms sfs, ssfs and small farms in the knowledge that there is no precise
deinition of small, and that small does not meet the diferent characteristics
of these three terms. he decision to do so was made since a considerable
part of the Polish (but also international) agro-economic debate refers
to Polands small-scale agrarian structure and aims at enlarging a single
farms size as well as a single ields size (cf. lerman 2002; MrirW 2009;
Woek 2009). as physical smallness is not necessarily accompanied by the
aspect of food self-supply, the usage of the term SF or SSF seems to be less
appropriate here. Physically small farms also underlie the selection of the
228
Anna Szumelda
study areas for my Phd-thesis, which focuses on a certain type of farming

which oten coincides with physical smallness rather than with food selfsupply, although food self-supply may nevertheless be the case with the
selected farms. finally, when i speak of small individual farms in the title
of this contribution, it is in order to distinguish them from collectivized
or state farms that existed formerly in the NMs.
Distribution and Origin of Small Farms in Poland

here is a large number of small farms in Poland at present: in 2010, there
were almost 900,000 individual farms of a size of 15 ha, representing 55%
of the total number of individual farms9 (GUs 2011a: 97). However, despite
the generally high share of small farms, Polands agricultural structure
shows pronounced diferences within the country: Big farms predominate
in the north and the west while small farms do so in the south and the east
of the country. in 2011 the average farm size ranged from 3.86 ha in the
southern voivodeship10 of Maopolskie to 30.70 ha in the north-western
voivodeship of Zachodniopomorskie11. Yet the number of small farms
and their share in the total number of agricultural holdings may difer
depending on the deining criterion applied (tab. 1).
While their signiicance is high in terms of absolute number and
the share of the agrarian structure, small farms become less important
when taking into account the share of agricultural area farmed by them
(tab. 2).
he great number and share of small farms and the diferences within
Polands agrarian structure are mainly a result of Polands history. in 1795
Poland stopped existing by international law. it was partitioned between
Prussia, russia and austria (Mller 2009: 30; cf. also davies 2005). in
these three conquered parts of former Poland, agriculture developed
9
he number of farms of a size up to 5 ha is nearly 1.58 million, representing almost
70 % of the total number of farms. his igure also takes into account farms smaller than
1 ha (GUs 2011a: 97).
10
in Poland voivodeships are administrative units at NUTs ii-level, widely used for
political and statistical purposes.
11
source: http://www.arimr.gov.pl/dla-beneicjenta/srednia-powierzchnia-gospodarstwa.html
229
Table 1. shares of small holdings in the EU-27, EU-12 and in Poland

holdings holdings holdings
<5 ha %1 <1 ESU % <8 ESU %
EU-27
(all MS)
EU-12
(NMS)
Poland
1
2
3
95.5
data not
available
66.02
holdings
using >50 %
of production
for own
consumption
among holdings
<5 ha %
data not
available
74.03
89.7
38.0
49.3
68.6
46.6
81.0
79.5
68.5
68.0
52.8
holdings
using >50 %
of production
for own
consumption %
including farms of a size 01 ha

Excluding Malta due to lack of data
source: own calculation based on fss 2007-data12.

Table 2. share of Uaa farmed by small farms
EU-27
(all MS)
EU-12
(NMS)
Poland
4
5
6
share of
share of UAA share of UAA share of UAA farmed by
UAA farmed farmed by
farmed by
holdings using >50 %
by holdings
holdings
holdings
of production for own
<5 ha %4
<1 ESU %
<8 ESU %
consumption %
8.4
6.8
22.5
data not available
18.6
15.2
42.95
11.16
17.6
10.5
48.4
5.9
including farms of a size 01 ha

source: own calculation based on fss 2007-data.

12
farm structure survey (fss) statistics provide harmonised data on agricultural

holdings in the EU. full-scope surveys are carried out every ten years in the form of
230
Anna Szumelda
under diferent political and legal conditions. add to this diferent laws of
inheritance, and it is no surprise that a highly diverse agrarian structure
evolved. Especially in the austrian and russian territories in the south
and east, a great number of small farms arose from the implementation of
the right of primogeniture (cf. inter alios Buchhofer 1998; Jaworski, lbke
and Mller 2000).
ater Poland regained its national sovereignty in 1918 and a socialist
regime was established ater 1945, the attempt at collectivizing agriculture
failed in most parts of the country. When the market principles were
introduced in late 1989, the agrarian structure had hardly changed in
comparison with that of 1945. Unlike other socialist states such as the
soviet Union or the German democratic republic, Polish agriculture,
despite decades of eforts at collectivisation and nationalisation, remained
dominated by individual farms and a small-scale structure. at the same
time, the pronounced diferences within the country persisted under
socialism. in contrast to other formerly socialist states, the prevalence of
small farms in Poland ater 1989 was not an outcome of the privatisation
processes of collective or state farms and refunding activities, but the efect
of abandoned collectivisation and nationalization (cf. inter alios int. al.
Buchhofer 1998; Petrick and Tyran 2003; Pieniadz et al. 2010; swain 1999;
Ziemer 1987).
Today, small farms and the small-scale agrarian structure still prevail
especially in the eastern and southern parts of the country, although Polish
agriculture has been developing under the principles of the free market
economy since 1989 and under the rules of EUs caP since 2004. he
main reasons for preserving these structures are poor of-farm employment
opportunities, which are keeping people in agriculture, and a lack of
available farmland to increase farm size, which at the beginning of the
1990s was primarily available where former state farms were privatised.
other reasons which make farmers keep their land are a strong attachment
to land and inancial incentives due to direct payments from the caP.
an agricultural census. Between the censuses sample surveys are carried out every 2 or
3 years. he last sample survey was carried out in 2007 (http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/
portal/page/portal/farm_structure_survey/introduction). first results from the agricultural
census 2010 are already available, however not yet for each EU-member state, thus here
data from the 2007-survey is used.
231
he Pros and Cons of Small Farms

here are several arguments advanced for and against small farms which
can be assigned to the economic, social and environmental aspects of
agriculture. hese divergent opinions show that the assessment of small
farms is highly dependent on the scholars school of thought. his chapter
gives a survey of the various arguments, arranged in three sections that
deal with the economy, social concerns and the environment, preceded
by some general aspects. readers are warned that although the term small
farm will be used in the following the arguments presented here can refer
to quite diferent notions of small and subsistence.
Arguments Made Against Small Farms

General Aspects
here are those for whom the prevalence of small farms in central and
Eastern Europe among others in Poland is a general problem and
a phenomenon to overcome. abele and frohberg (2003: V) argue that
subsistence farmers are overall disadvantaged, and that subsistence
agriculture really is a problem (emphasis in original). hey clearly take
a negative view of small farms and associate them with poverty and the
need for assistance by scientists and politicians (abele and frohberg 2003:
Vi). according to davidova et al. (2009: 2), opponents of small farms treat
them as an unwanted phenomenon and an impediment to rural growth.
Petrick and Tyran (2003: 107f) regard small farms as an intermediate stage
of a structural transformation process in agriculture, whose principal
direction is toward specialisation and market participation at the producer
level (Tomich et al. 1995, p. 36) (emphasis in original), and which is
accompanied by a decline of the relative importance of this sector and
a gradual dissolution of subsistence, in other words, they expect small
farms to give way in the long run to larger, commercial farms. he Polish
rural development strategy Plan 20072013 (rdsP) (MrirW 2009)
also criticizes the countrys unfavourable small-scale agrarian structure
(MrirW 2009: 6f, 88).
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Anna Szumelda
Economic Aspects
he bulk of the arguments made against small farms uses economic
aspects of farming, portraying small farms as an economically unwanted
phenomenon: Whatever the terms to describe subsistence agriculture,
the attributes ascribed to it are predominantly negative, at least in the
agricultural economics literature (rogers 1970; seavoy 2000) (Heidhues
and Brntrup 2003: 1f).
according to Heidhues and Brntrup (2003: 1), farming oriented
towards subsistence is usually seen as synonymous with backwardness and
ineiciency, holding down economic growth and economic performance
(cf. also abele and frohberg, 2003; Pieniadz et al. 2010; von Braun and
lohlein 2003). resources, especially of land and labour, are signiicantly
misallocated on small farms and could be allocated to more eicient
use (von Braun and lohlein 2003: 47; cf. also Kostov and lingard 2004;
Petrick and Tyran 2003). ineiciency is also reinforced, it is claimed, by
foregoing the beneits of comparative advantage, specialisation and division
of labour (Heidhues and Brntrup 2003: 1). Pieniadz et al. (2010: 137f)
ascribe the low productivity of agriculture in some EEcs to small farms,
taking the example of wheat- and milk-yields in these countries and in
Germany, showing that yields are much lower in the EEcs examined, and
demonstrating that where many comparatively small and ineicient milk
producers quit the market due to caP-requirements, milk yields and
quality are enhanced. he authors argue that the small-scale structure
and high labour intensity in some EEcs would complicate the adoption
of yield-increasing techniques and that there would be a high backlog in
substituting the labour force by capital. although more of proponents of
small farms, the authors of ENrd (2010: 18) also state that even though
[semi-subsistence agriculture] can act as a bufer against rural poverty, [it]
can nonetheless be ineicient and/ or even impede structural change.
Besides improving eiciency and competitiveness of the agrarian sector
in general, the economic performance of small farms should be enhanced,
it is suggested, in order to improve farmers income situation. farmers
little integrated into markets would generate only a small pecuniary
income from agriculture and would be prone to production risks that
cannot be bufered by functioning markets (abele and frohberg 2003:
233
iV; cf. also Petrick and Tyran 2003; Pieniadz et al. 2010). Besides that,
low levels of production and market integration could not be relied upon
to provide a continuous food supply to urban populations and would
trigger high price instability on food markets (Heidhues and Brntrup
2003: 1f; cf. also von Braun and lohlein 2003: 48). he persistence of
small farms would also be an impediment to the further development of
larger, commercially oriented farms and to economic growth in general
by withholding land and labour (cf. Petrick and Tyran 2003: 122; rosner
and stanny 2007). again, small farms would not only hinder the extension
of larger farms, diversiication opportunities for small farms would be
hindered by smallholders themselves as well as by certain characteristics
of their environments: he creation of [] enterprises oten requires
managerial and marketing skills and inancial capital, which semisubsistence producers lack. it may also depend on infrastructure which is
absent from the most remote rural regions (ENrd 2010: 19). here would
thus oten be a mismatch between those most in need of diversiication
(small, remote farms) and those with the human and inancial capital
required to pursue successful diversiication (chaplin et al. 2007) (ENrd
2010: 21).
as far as the economic aspects of agriculture are concerned, the
small-scale agrarian structure is complained about for Poland in general
by political as well as scientiic authors. he Polish rdsP 20072013 is
clearly in favour of accelerating structural change in Polish agriculture
which would make only slow progress due to a strong attachment to
the land (MrirW 2009: 6; my translation). it stresses the low eiciency
and competitiveness of Polish agriculture and ascribes its low labour
productivity to the small-scale agrarian structure, farmers poor inancial
assets, overemployment in agriculture, a low educational level of the rural
population and insuicient provision of modern equipment on farms
(MrirW 2009: 7; cf. also lerman 2002). hus, the agrarian structure
should be changed for the beneit of larger, economically oriented and
more productive farms as well as of-farm employment (lerman 2002: 42f).
Woek (2009: 4f) also deems it necessary to improve Polands agrarian
structure: during the debates over what is the most desirable structural
change in Polish agriculture, the answer is generally accepted, and states
that concentration is one of the main processes leading to an improvement
in the structure of peasant farming. However, concentration and structural
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Anna Szumelda
improvement could be achieved not only by land consolidation, as claims

a frequent view, but also by the intensiication of production and the
introduction of formal and informal cooperation among producers as well
as between producers and suppliers of inputs (Woek 2009). developing
Polands agrarian structure towards a high share of large, highly marketoriented farms and signiicantly decreasing employment in agriculture is
also favoured by rosner and stanny (2007: 32f; my translation).
Social Aspects
he main argument raised against small farms from the social point of
view is that although they may provide food and income at least at a basic
level, they hardly ever provide a household income that can be called
suicient. hus, if additional income is not available, smallholders and
their household members are potentially threatened by poverty: despite its
efect in terms of decreasing the incidence of poverty, subsistence farming
cannot eradicate it altogether (ENrd 2010: 18; cf. also Heidhues and
Brntrup 2003: 1). according to the rural Poland report 2008 (Wilkin and
Nurzyska 2008), in Poland income per capita on farms of an economic
size of 24 resp. 48 EsU was only 40 % or 60 % respectively of the national
average net income (Wilkin and Nurzyska 2008: 33), and in 2007 56 %
of farmers said that income generated from farming could not assure
suicient household livelihood. although rural poverty has decreased
considerably, poverty in Poland would still have a rural face (Wilkin and
Nurzyska 2010: 71, 73; my translation). Given the opportunity to take
up of-farm employment, more than 50 % of smallholders said they would
give up farming, which may indicate that in case non-agricultural sources
of income are not available farming still is rather a necessity than a choice
(Wilkin and Nurzyska 2010: 72; my translation). Besides being a poverty
risk, small farmers, deined here as farmers producing mainly to satisfy
their own needs, fail also in other respects: according to indings from the
social diagnosis 2011 (czapiski and Panek 2011), they come bottom of
the league among 39 professional groups investigated in terms of social,
material, physical and psychological wellbeing (czapiski and Panek 2011:
458f). hey are least satisied with what they have achieved and with their
work, most frequently sufer from disease, have thoughts of suicide and
are most pessimistic. hey also least trust other people and have the lowest
235
afection for democracy (czapiski and Panek 2011: 265f). small-scale

farming has also been associated with social discrimination by abele and
frohberg (2003: i), stating that no one would like to have a poor house
right next to him in his neighbourhood.
Environmental Aspects
according to the fss in 2007, the share of small farms in the total of
agricultural holdings in the EU-27 and especially in the NMs is high, but
only a comparatively low share of agricultural land is farmed by these
farms. hus, as far as the provision of environmental beneits is concerned,
only little space can beneit from this kind of farming. Besides that, even if
Small is beautiful is a well-known slogan in several ields of the economy
and also in agriculture (schumacher 2001: 108f), small farms do not
necessarily farm in an environmentally friendly way, because they can
just as easily be intensely operating enterprises. furthermore, small farms
are not always ofered the chance to be rewarded or to receive support for
the provision of environmental beneits: for one thing they may be too
small to be eligible for Pillar 1 or Pillar 2-measures (ENrd 2010: 22), and
for the other thing although there are claims to spend public money for
public goods (Ec dG aGri 2009: 2) in order to support small farms in
providing environmental beneits, there are also claims to spend public
money rather on producers who supply agricultural products to markets
to a high extent, which is not necessarily the case with small farms due to
their low market integration.
Arguments Made for Small Farms

General Aspects
although small-scale farming is oten associated with precarious living
standards, davidova et al. (2009: 2) underline that the decision to maintain
small-scale farming would not inevitably grow out of economic necessities
but might be a strategy selected by choice [] by households with nonfarm income or by retired households in order to satisfy their lifestyle and
consumption preferences. and although small farms are not infrequently
viewed as an economically unwanted phenomenon whose disappearance
236
Anna Szumelda
is eagerly anticipated, Heidhues and Brntrup (2003: 16) state that they
fulil important functions which should not be neglected.
Economic Aspects
although many voices are being raised against the ineiciency of small
farms, Heidhues and Brntrup (2003: 16) argue that despite its low
eiciency [subsistence agriculture] may be the most rational answer to an
adverse environment and that a special non-economic mentality oten
associated with subsistence production should not be presumed (emphasis
in original), arguing with ruttan (1988) that one should try to understand
economic phenomena before making judgements about them. Economic
conditions which may make small-scale farming a rational choice are
e.g. high transaction costs relating to the purchase of inputs, the sale of
outputs, the employment of a labour force, risks of market failures and
uncertainty in the context of past and future policy interventions. other
factors that may also make small-scale farming an economic decision are
high costs for purchased food, poor of-farm employment opportunities
and low wages (ruttan 1988). although von Braun and lohlein (2003:
47) are talking of factor-misallocations in small farms in comparison to
a well-functioning market economy, they admit that indeed such a wellfunctioning market economy is not yet a reality in many parts of the food
and agriculture sector (emphasis in original). Petrick and Tyran (2003:
113) refer to economic advantages of farming based on own factors, as
owned land, family workforce, or farmers equity do not require permanent
payment and thus farmers do not need to generate suicient proits to
pay these factors. small farms equipment in buildings and machinery
also enables farmers to continue agricultural production, although further
farm investment would be unproitable, as investments once made count
as sunk costs and must not be regarded in decisions on the continuation of
production (Petrick and Tyran 2003: 113). as far as market participation
is concerned, davidova et al. (2009: 13) contradict the statement that
a small-scale agrarian structure would impede commercialisation of farms.
Moreover, they do not ind any evidence for land fragmentation acting as
a barrier to commercialisation, which may suggest that policies for land
consolidation, itself a very expensive and slow process, may not provide
such a strong boost towards market integration, at least for the small farm
237
sector itself, as had been hoped. similarly, van Zyl et al. (2000: 368) refute
the myth of large farm superiority and do not ind any proof that there are
eiciency gains from policies to promote larger, more mechanized farms
over smaller units. Woek (2009: 10) takes up the argument that criticism of
Polands unfavourable agrarian structure must not be attached to physically
small farms, as it would be questionable if low productivity and eiciency
can be attributed mostly to small, in terms [sic!] of acreage, farms. in the
context of rural economy, it is argued, the farming method used by small
farms creates assets needed for farm diversiication and the diversiication
of the rural economy, among which are scenic landscapes, unique animal
and plant species, high quality, organic or traditional food, all preconditions
for successfully establishing agro-tourism, creating higher value-added
products and developing other non-farm activities (cf. cooper, Hart and
Baldock 2009: 111f; van Huylenbroeck et al. 2007: 29f). finally, larsen
(2009) expresses the view that rather than perceiving semi-subsistence
farming as an economic problem, [] it should be embraced as a resource
for rural development (ENrd 2010: 19).
Social Aspects
he bulk of arguments made in favour of small farms refer to social aspects,
especially to their capacity as a bufer against poverty and a survival strategy.
Heidhues and Brntrup (2003: 16) argue that subsistence agriculture
constitutes a low-level but secure survival strategy, as it would oten be
the only way for rural people to survive under extremely diicult and
risky conditions. Provision of food and income at least at a basic level
would be most valuable in environments of weak or absent social safety
nets, high urban unemployment, weak non-farm rural economies and
tumultuous economic change, as witnessed in central and Eastern Europe
in the 1990s (ENrd 2010: 17; cf. also Jzwiak 2006; Majewski 2009;
Pieniadz et al. 2010: 141; Wilkin and Nurzyska 2012: 104; Woek 2009:
3). Majewski (2009: 128) warns of eliminating the agrarian component
of small farms highly diverse yet fragile income structure, which would
probably cause a considerable worsening of the overall income situation.
he importance of food self-supply for the survival of notably poor rural
households is emphasized by davidova et al. (2010: 12): he value of
income-in-kind is crucial for the rural poor []. Policies strongly in
238
Anna Szumelda
favour of commercialisation might undermine the safety net provided

by subsistence production (). for these reasons small farms could play
an important role in stabilising fragile economies, which should be taken
into account by policies instead of neglecting or even ighting subsistence
agriculture (Heidhues and Brntrup 2003: 2). Policy should also address
the underlying reasons for the drit into subsistence and open viable ways
for farmers when aiming at small-scale farmers to increasingly join markets
(Heidhues and Brntrup 2003). for Poland the importance of rural areas
as a living space for poor people is stressed, who in view of the crisis
and growing unemployment prefer to stay in rural areas, choosing a sort
of poverty which is the same as in urban centres, but less degrading
(Wilkin and Nurzyska 2012: 104; my translation). several authors show
an understanding for policy support for small farms in the Polish context:
according to Petrick and Tyran (2003: 122) keeping in mind the prospect
of the currently hidden unemployed protesting on the streets against their
situation even makes the government support policy of subsidising credit
and pensions understandable. he fact that small farms engage much more
workforce in relation to the acreage of utilized land than larger farms may
be a hint at small farms actually ofsetting unemployment (Woek 2009:
17). he argument of a weak rural economy keeping people in agriculture
and hindering the repeatedly requested agri-structural change is again
contrasted by the argument that in case of-farm employment opportunities
are available, they still do not make farmers give up farming, as of-farm
incomes seem either not to be suicient, reliable or to be regarded as only
one source of income among others. in fact, non-farm employment did
not bring about signiicant structural change (Woek 2009: 14; cf. also von
Braun and lohlein 2003). Besides providing social beneits at an individual
or household level, small farms also play an important role in maintaining
rural vitality, as they would populate rural areas, oten the most fragile and
disadvantaged regions (ENrd 2010: 7; cf. cooper et al. 2009: 15f).
Environmental Aspects
a series of papers underline that the farming activities of small farms go
far beyond the traditional contribution to production of food and ibre
(ENrd 2010: 22). By their way of farming small farms are considered
to provide public goods like quality, functionality and availability of
239
water, soil and air, biodiversity, unique animal and plant species, rural
landscapes, a mitigating impact on climate and resilience to looding and
ire. other public goods ascribed to small farms are indirectly related to the
environmental impact of agriculture among which are food security and
farm animal welfare and health (cooper et al. 2009: 15f; cf. also farmer
et al. 2008; Keenleyside et al. 2006; Beaufoy et al. 2008: 36f; Zmenk
2008). for this reason the Ecs directorate-General agriculture and rural
development (Ec dG aGri) argues that small farms have to be kept
because public goods cannot be delivered without the necessary farming
capacity being in place public money for public goods can only be
delivered where there is an agricultural presence to which this condition can
be attached (Ec dG aGri 2009: 2, emphasis in original; cf. also Pautasso
2010). Environmental beneits accruing from small-scale farming are also
taken up in the two main political documents for rural development in
Poland, the rdsP 20072013 and the rural development Programme
20072013 (MrirW 2010). Both documents underline the beneicent
role of small farms and traditional farming practices as well as threats to
habitats and species posed by abandoning agriculture: he existence of
some environmentally valuable habitats is not possible when traditional
farming will not be continued (MrirW 2009: 25, my translation; cf. also
MrirW 2010: 80). Upholding traditions in agriculture and rural ways
of life are also supported, as traditional agriculture as well as traditional
architecture and settlement structures would create the identity of rural
areas, their speciic aspects und their inimitable character, which have to
be saved (MrirW 2010: 118f; my translation).
Empirical Evidence: What do Polish smallholders hink?

in april and May 2012 empirical research was conducted in order to collect
data for my Phd-thesis. he aim was to learn something about the everyday
world of small-scale farmers, their views of their general life situation, the
past and present situation of their farms and their future options as well
as their views on nature. he data was collected by conducting iteen
semi-structured qualitative interviews mainly with small-scale farmers,
but also with representatives of the local administration and agricultural
consultants. he study areas were situated in the voivodeship lubelskie,
240
Anna Szumelda
district of lubartw, and the voivodeship Podkarpackie, district of Krosno

in the East and south-East of Poland. Both regions show a very small-scale
agrarian structure, high dependency on agriculture, comparatively high
unemployment rates and incomes clearly below the national average13. in
this chapter i will present the irst results from an initial analysis of the
interviews.
statements made by the interviewed farmers conirm that many of
the arguments made for small farms prove right in the regions examined.
However, at the same time they show that some of the arguments raised
against them are also true. arguments advanced for small farms especially
prove right where it was a question of claims for increasing market
integration, eiciency, productivity, specialisation and quality of products
or releasing land to enable the growth of commercially oriented farms.
Many farmers are sceptical about whether market integration which
is supposed to counterbalance production risks is in fact as beneicial as
it is said to be. it follows from several statements that farmers do not trust
in markets and price trends, which they believe to be unforeseeable and
thus make it diicult to specialise. furthermore, as farmers nowadays have
to take care of distribution channels for their products themselves, what is
decisive for successful market participation are farmers negotiating and
trading skills with retailers and not the mere fact of market participation
as such. in general, the argument of proitable, functioning markets is not
true for many small-scale farmers. Besides that, caP-regulations imposed
on agricultural products now keep farmers from markets where they have
participated before: Many farmers cannot meet EU requirements, especially
in the ield of milk production and dairy products, where the requirements
imposed are especially demanding. in this respect many farmers show a lack
of understanding for newly required product quality standards and do not
see what is wrong with their products now. despite some displeasure at
joining markets, a non-economic mentality cannot be assumed for smallscale farmers, as they show sober consideration of what may and may not be
13
for the voivodeships lubelskie and Podkarpackie the respective igures are 7.46 ha
and 4.54 ha for average farm size (http://www.arimr.gov.pl/dla-beneicjenta/sredniapowierzchnia-gospodarstwa.html), 38.8% and 33.2% for the share of employment in
agriculture, 13.1% and 15.4% for the registered unemployment rate and 80.3% and 75.9%
for the disposable income per capita (GUs 2011b: 45, 73, 93).
241
proitable. in case meeting caP requirements and marketing pre-requisites

seems to require unreasonably high inancial outlays compared to rather
low incomes expected from selling, farmers prefer to forego (re-)entering
markets, which seems to be an economically rational choice. However,
some farmers called other farmers lazy with regard to their reluctance at
joining markets.
as far as farm specialisation is concerned, a low level of specialisation
is in fact the case on many farms. on the other hand, the decision not to
specialise can oten be considered an economically rational choice which has
been taken willingly: Besides arguing that changing markets make it diicult
to specialise, many farmers maintain a diverse agricultural production
in order both to reduce their pecuniary needs for purchased input like
fertilizer, and to provide good quality food for their families, arguing that
they do not trust the food security of products sold in supermarkets, which
they think is contaminated and of low quality. farm specialisation also
seems to be inconsistent with the farmers self-conception, with some
farmers regarding farms specialising either in crop or livestock production
not as real farms.
he truth of the claim that small farms withhold land and hinder the
growth of commercially-oriented farms has to be admitted on the one hand
as hardly anybody wants to get rid of his or her land mainly for inancial
reasons. in the district of Krosno, however, it is not smallholders who
hinder other farmers from expanding, but non-agrarian owners of huge
amounts of agricultural land which was available at low cost but still too
expensive for most farmers in the early 1990s and is now bringing in a lot
of money due to direct payments, payments for less favoured areas and
agri-environmental measures, thus making land-ownership very attractive.
While farming on this land is reduced to the essentials, it withholds land
from farmers willing to expand.
arguments advanced for small farms as regards social aspects are
clearly conirmed. some farmers stated that in general they do not feel
disadvantaged and that, compared to urban areas, rural areas would
be more resilient to economic shocks like unemployment, poverty and
homelessness, and would ofer a high quality of life with respect to their
surroundings. in both regions, many farmers pointed out that of-farm
employment opportunities would be very limited, especially for people
with little formal education who have spent all their life in agriculture.
242
Anna Szumelda
Besides that, the few of-farm jobs on ofer would usually be low-paid
but would nevertheless require long working hours and absence from
home. compared with the self-determined and diverse work on the farms,
they were considered rather unattractive. Nonetheless almost all farmers
expressed their need to improve their income situation and their wish
to be better paid for farming. in fact, where additional of-farm income
is not available, households sufer from a precarious income situation.
hus, signiicant inancial diiculties are the main argument which was
mentioned that speaks against small farms. furthermore, as small-scale
farming is of low proitability, especially young people see no future in
agriculture, and so are not keen to make it their career.
Beneicial environmental efects ascribed to traditional, extensive
farming are also conirmed as almost all farmers emphasised the
environmental and cultural damage caused by intense farming and
contrasted them with the high values created by their own type of extensive,
low-input farming. However, creating environmental beneits in fact
cannot be exclusively attributed to farms small in acreage: Most of the
interviewed farmers did indeed operate on small areas, but there were
also some farms of over 10 ha or even 25 ha, using extensive farming
methods. Negative environmental and social efects of caP-eforts to
intensify and concentrate agriculture become apparent in an increase of
fallow meadows and pastures in the region of lubartw and grassland
under environmental protection in the region of Krosno, the reason in
both regions being that it was the caP-regulations that made many milkproducers quit production. Even if ecologists opinions on fallow land may
difer, fallow land is obviously harmful to the self-conception of farmers:
Many owners of practically unfarmed land, though under environmental
protection, nevertheless regarded this situation as a symbol of the decline
of farming culture or did not consider themselves as real farmers.
Conclusion Small-scale Farming and Sustainability

he concept of sustainability denotes a normative orientation-framework,
which is characterised by the ambition to link economic, social and
environmental concerns, thereby pointing out the linkages between
economic, social and environmental crises. he report our common
243
future, published in 1987 by the World commission on Environment and

development (WcEd) and called ater its chair Gro Harlem Brundtland, the
Norwegian prime minister at that time, Brundtland report (WcEd 1987),
is deemed to be the pioneer in the debate on sustainability, and illustrates
these linkages as follows: Until recently, the planet was a large world in
which human activities and their efects were neatly compartmentalized
within nations, within sectors (energy, agriculture, trade), and within broad
areas of concern (environment, economics, social). hese compartments
have begun to dissolve. his applies in particular to the various global
crises that have seized public concern, particularly over the past decade.
hese are not separate crises: an environmental crisis, a development
crisis, an energy crisis. hey are all one (WcEd 1987: 20). it deines
sustainability as a development that meets the needs of the present without
compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs
(WcEd 1987: 24).
he claim for sustainable development is taken up on various political
levels: Within the EU it was taken up in the lisbon and the Gothenburgstrategy (European council (lisbon), 23 and 24 March 2000; European
council (Gothenburg) 15 and 16 June 2001), which are both referred to
in the Eafrd, thus implementing sustainability in rural development (cf.
council regulation (Ec) No 1698/2005 (1)). he Polish rdsP also aims
programmatically at sustainable rural development, again with reference
to both European strategies (MrirW 2009: 41). However, what exactly is
meant to be sustainable oten remains unclear, and criticism of the concept
of sustainability mainly refers to its vague content, to an imbalance of power
in specifying it and to political and social limits of its implementation (cf.
Mlders, Burandt and szumelda 2012: 96).
as far as small-scale farming and rural development is concerned, in
the context of the theoretical background of my Phd-thesis in fact it seems
that small-scale farming can contribute to sustainable rural development.
he Phd-thesis is based on the concepts of social Ecology (cf. inter alios
Becker and Jahn 2006) and social relations to Nature (cf. inter alios Grg
1999), both stressing the close relationship between human acting and
nature, and the debate on degrowth (cf. inter alios Jackson 2011; seidl
and Zahrnt 2010), which, among other things, stresses the limits of natural
and human resources and is a criticism of an economy solely oriented
towards eiciency and disregarding social and ecological aspects. With
244
Anna Szumelda
this theoretical background, as far as the Polish rdsP and its claim for
sustainable development is concerned, it leaves the reader feeling that there
is a bias towards economic aspects, while environmental and social aspects
remain underrepresented. although beneicial environmental and cultural
efects of traditional farming are recognised and the strategic vision to keep
the liveliness of rural areas (MrirW 2009: 44; my translation) is expressed,
yet the strategy primarily aims at structural change and an increase in the
eiciency, productivity and thus competitiveness of agriculture. at the same
time, evidence from empirical research shows that small-scale farming
does have the potential to contribute to a sustainable rural development by
integrating economic, social and environmental aspects: it pursues a sort
of economic action which at the same time provides essential social and
cultural beneits, makes cautious use of natural resources and takes care
of the wellbeing of living creatures. it also contributes signiicantly to the
realization of the vision of vivid rural areas as it counters depopulation.
However, the low proitability and poor economic performance of small
farms, which at least potentially threatens its owners and their families
by poverty, in many cases must be admitted. Yet the negative assessment
of small farms economic performance, which is thought to be in urgent
need of improvement in the rdsP and several other publications, primarily
comes about because in the context of market-driven and globalized
economies of scale and caP-regulations it was decided not to pay farmers
for what they produce beyond food and ibre but only for a certain quality
standard (and amount) of products which small-scale farmers usually lack.
it is also oten based on comparisons of yields respectively produced in
Poland and the NMs to those produced in the old EU-member states,
which only take into account the amount of produce, but do not consider
natural conditions, which may vary widely among the regions, and also
do not ask whether it is worth striving for higher yields at all, as the price
paid for this efort in the currency of environmental and social damage and
farm animal mistreatment might be high. if the integration of economic,
social and environmental concerns, as called for in the Brundtland report
in order to achieve sustainable (rural) development, were taken seriously,
some currently unwanted aspects of small-scale farming would be classiied
as sustainable, while the sole concentration on economic performance
would appear to be less favourable.
245
While it remains a tough process to specify and implement sustainability

and no consensus has yet been reached, in the case of small-scale farming
events like the seminar semi-subsistence farming in the EU: current
situation and future prospects held in sibiu/romania in april 2010 and
the international conference on current situation and future options of
small farms in the European Union14 held in cracow/Poland in July 2011
show that the issue of small farms has reached not only the scientiic, but
also the political agenda. However, it is diicult to say how far the outcomes
of such events can inluence political decisions scientiic indings and
arguments can support both a favourable and an unfavourable view, and
there is also a big question mark against a meeting of the two sides, the
proponents and opponents of the usefulness of small farms in both the
EU and Poland.
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Eastern Europe: How to break a vicious cycle?, Halle/ saale: institut fr
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Beaufoy, G., Jones, G., rijck, K. de and Kazakova, Y., 2008. High Nature Value
farmlands: recognising the importance of south East European landscapes.
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Becker, E. and Jahn, T. (eds), 2006. Soziale kologie: Grundzge einer Wissenschat
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introduction (accessed 26 september 2012)
doi: 10.2478/eec-2013-0011
19 2013
Elwira Piszczek
Life and Work in Rural Germany
Vonderach, G., 2012, Arbeitsmarkt-Akteure im historischen Wandel. Beitrge

zur Entwicklung der Arbeitsmarktforschung, aachen, shaker Verlag.
Vonderach, G. (ed.) 2012, Begegnung mit historischen Arbeitswelten.
Ausgewhlte lndliche Museen mit Schwerpunkten vergangener regionaler
Wirtschatweisen, aachen, shaker Verlag.
Vonderach, G. 2013, Land-Leben. Beitrge zur Entwicklung lndlicher
Lebenswelten, aachen, shaker Verlag.
he three books discussed here are the subsequent volumes (sixth, seventh
and eighth) of the Buchreihe Land-Berichte series1 a continuation of the
Land-Berichte periodical2.
1
he Buchreise- Landberichte series is one of the few sociological publishers on the
European market which systematically presents important social processes taking place
in rural areas. so far (other than the three reviewed in this volume) it has published the
following books:
Vonderach G., 2005. Museumsengagement auf dem|Lande. Eine empirische Studie zum
ehrenamtlichen und privaten Engagement in lndlichen Musee, aachen, shaker Verlag.
Vonderach G. (ed.), 2006. Neue Erwerbskombinationen auf dem Bauernhof, aachen,
shaker Verlag.
Vonderach G. (ed.) 2008. Land-Pioniere. Kreativitt und Engagement-Lebensbilder
aus lndlichen Praxisfeldern. aachen, shaker Verlag.
Vonderach G., 2009. Erkundungen lndlicher Lebenswelten. Berichte ber lebensweltnahe
aus Forschungsvorhaben vier Jahrzehnten. aachen, shaker Verlag.
sterbling a., 2010. Entwicklungsverlufe, Lebenswelten und Migrationsprozesse. Studien
zu lndlichen Fragen Sdosteuropas. aachen, shaker Verlag.
252
Elwira Piszczek
he irst, which most attention is devoted to is Arbeitsmarkt-Akteure im

historischen Wandel. Beitrage zur Entwicklung der Arbeitsmarktforschung,
a continuation of Gerd Vonderachs (editor of the entire series) interest
in the rural labour market. in his earlier publications in this series he
concentrated on rural entrepreneurship, understood not only as traditional
agriculture but rather as new forms of farming involving modern, nonstandard methods, e.g. in rehabilitation (New forms of paid work in farming,
2006). He also paid attention to the role of individuals, leaders, modernday pioneers paving the way for the unconventional business of farmers,
particularly from the so-called peripheral areas (Rural pioneers, Creativity
and Engagement practical examples from rural life, 2008). He refers to
many of these issues in Arbeitsmarkt-Akteure which consists of ive
chapters. he irst two refer to early research on the rural labour market.
hey introduce the research pioneers ignaz Jastrow and the so-called
classical studies on unemployment Marientahl-studie, as well as young
unemployed people from the post-war generation. he next text in the
third chapter is devoted to a more contemporary subject: new actors on the
labour market ater 1970 and the problem of self-employment. he fourth
chapter presents subjective feelings, ways of coping with unemployment
from the perspective of those afected by this problem. he author discusses
questions connected with the long-term unemployment of young rural
inhabitants and individual ways of coping with it as well as the problems
of people returning to the labour market ater rehabilitation. he last
section includes a text about migration to work, the so-called Pendler,
i.e. commuters.
since the discussed texts were earlier published by the author, each is
preceded by an introduction where the author informs the reader about
their origin and place of former publication as well as complementing
them with critical references to new publications and research on the given
a review of the last of these books appeared in Eastern European Countryside (2011/17),
cf. Piszczek Tradition and Modernity in South-Eastern Europe the Balkan Countries search
for their own way of Social Development in a Modern, United Europe, pp. 151158.
2
Land-Berichte. Sozialwissenschatliches Journal is a German academic periodical,
edited by a team including Gerd Vonderach (editor-in-chief), Karl friedrich Bohler and
anton sterbling, devoted primarily to the history and modernity of rural areas, not only
in Germany. More detailed information about the periodical in EEC 2007/13, pp. 187188.
253
subject. here are also references to the authors other texts on a similar
topic.
as has already been mentioned, in the irst, historical section, Vonderach
recalls the so-called classics of research and classical studies on the problem
of unemployment. He talks about ignaz Jastrow, the creator of concepts
such as the labour market (the manpower market) and accountability.
He initiated the systematic collection and analysis of data concerning the
labour market, which he irst published in the soziale Praxis periodical
and subsequently in a periodical founded by him, der arbeitsmarkt
(which he edited until 1903). he author presents a proile of Jastrow
using biographical data. He underlines his role in designing studies about
the labour market as well as pointing out his innovative role in creating
employment policy. he period of Jastrows academic work was connected
with dynamic changes since as Vonderach notices the 19th century in
Germany saw a signiicant rise in birth rate and in its second half a rapid
development of industry as well as changes in the countryside. New,
interesting phenomena emerged, such as the wandering from enterprise
to enterprise in search of work, oten as poor wanderers described by
the special term Umschau.
apart from introducing the classic pioneer of market research,
Vonderach also presents classic studies on these matters. his is the
Marienthal-studie research concerning unemployment (apart from a work
which appeared in Great Britain at the same time, he unemployed man3)
which continues to be widely quoted and concerns psycho-social issues
connected with unemployment. he research which took place in the
small village of Marientahl outside Vienna became an illustration of
unemployment problems which grew ater the first World War and
during the great crisis, reaching its peak in 1933. it shows the extent
to which quality data can contribute to oicial statistics. researchers
devoted much time to acquiring the trust of the village inhabitants and
consequently collected unique information. a researcher quoted by the
author notices that they began not so much with a ixed theory or method
but with a list of open questions. from todays perspective we can say
that that research reminds us of the approach of the so-called grounded
3
G. Vonderach, Arbeitsmarkt-Akteure im historischen Wandel. Beitrage zur Entwicklung

der Arbeitsmarktforschung, p. 36. he unemployed man. A social study, london 1933.
254
Elwira Piszczek
theory in sociology, although the then researchers modestly described

themselves as attempting to connect oicial statistics with materials giving
the impression of a social report, i.e. using select data in the spirit of the
situation4. it is worth mentioning an interesting detail in the age of data
recorded on computers, pen drives etc. that the report materials from that
research weighed 30 kg! Vonderach presents select conclusions, resulting
from, e.g. one of the main observations about the inhabitants who were
described as a tired community (die mde Gemeinschat) or remarks by
the inhabitants about their perception of time, colourfully backed up by
quotations (being relative, e.g. passing diferently for women and men,
perceived diferently before and during unemployment).
he next text refers to the now classic research on unemployment of the
post-war generation of young Germans in West Germany, e.g. Arbeitslosigkeit
und Berufsnot der Jugend (he unemployment and professional work of
young people) which was conducted by Helmut schelsky. When presenting
these and other studies about the unemployment of young rural inhabitants
and referring to the most important conclusions, Vonderach oten underlines
their shortcomings, resulting from the impossibility of comparing the
results of such a variety of analyses with one another.
he subsequent part of the book is a selection of the authors lectures
presented somewhat earlier and referring to the situation on the job market
ater 1970. he author points to the absurdity connected with employment,
where e.g. a nurse caring for a patient is described as working but when
a patient is cared for by his/her family that is not considered as work. He
draws attention to new forms of paid work connected with the changing job
market, mentioning two groups, the so-called ABMler and Umschler.
discussing problems on the job market he also refers to two types
of workers, the halbe Aussteigern and neue Selbstndige. according to
the author these types aroused numerous commentaries both among
professionals and in the media. he Halbe Aussteigern are people who, for
various reasons, work part-time. his may simply be a conscious choice for
those wishing to have more free time or is sometimes a question of vital
necessity. such a form of employment is not only characteristic for young
people but also for middle-aged women who neither accept full-time work
4
G. Vonderach, Arbeitsmarkt-Akteure im historischen Wandel. Beitrge zur Entwicklung

der Arbeitsmarktforschung, p. 39.
255
nor full-time housework or men who feel comfortable not only identifying
themselves with professional work and for whom material goals are not of
primary importance. his is a miscellaneous group about whom the author
writes: for some, such a way of earning money is a hedonistic lifestyle, for
others a way of turning to less traditional professional roles and for yet
others it is simply an interruption in normal full-time professional work
whereas many may be classiied into a category created by the author: the
neue Selbstndige5.
he ideal type of neue Selbstndige is someone who discovers an
interesting occupation for him/herself, combining professional and daily
life. his is a way of life and such activity partly exists within the informal
market (the grey zone). he economic aspects of such an undertaking are
important but even more so their social and cultural aspect. of course the
best scenario would be if dreams, ideas and interests were to it in with
professional activity and provide suicient income. Vonderach notices
that people undertaking such work do not feel too comfortable within the
formal restraints of principles, rules and demands of the labour market and
in his opinion it is worth helping such entrepreneurs (hence an appeal to
politicians and reformers).
he next section is about individual strategies of coping with the
diicult moments in professional life. he author refers to quality research
as a type of answer to the surplus of rigid statistics and the overlooking of
rural areas in analyses of unemployment and the labour market.
as Vonderach notices, the mid-eighties in Germany saw an aboveaverage rise in unemployment both in the industrial sector and in rural
areas. hese processes proved so interesting to researchers that they gave
rise to the creation of quality studies on the long-term unemployment of
young people in three rural areas. a similar project was undertaken 10 years
later. Quality research (interviews) provides access to new, fascinating facts
which elude standard quantity research. While discussing such studies
he indicates their shortcomings, e.g. the very low number of interviewed
people (in the alheit/Glass project) or the concentrated attention on the
young inhabitants of large towns while ignoring rural areas.
he following text in this chapter is devoted to professional
rehabilitation, understood as every possible means of help in getting and
5
ibid., pp. 6672.
256
Elwira Piszczek
maintaining training and employment6. he problem is described with

reference to research carried out in 1994/95 in the Niedersachsen region
(biographical interviews with over 30 men and women from a protected
work establishment). he author presents and discusses types created due
to the goals which were expected to be achieved through rehabilitation.
He also draws attention to the fact that from the point of view of carrying
out the research and from that of those interviewed, it is far more diicult
to grasp and analyse the professional rehabilitation of the mentally
handicapped or psychosomatically ill than the physically handicapped.
he inal text is about those travelling to work. Vonderach notices
that the very phenomenon of such commuting backwards and forwards
is absolutely natural for the majority of inhabitants of German and
European villages in general. his is not only a question of travelling
between the home and the work place but also where family and friends
live, the location of educational institutions and services (shops, doctors
surgeries etc.) the so-called Quasi-Pendel 7. People described as Pendler
are frequently the subject of research connected with the job market.
he author presents this phenomenon from the historical point of view
(the rapid development of industry, the extension of the railways). in
the kingdom of Wittemberg where the irst statistical data come from,
between 1900 and 1939 the percentage of commuters rose from 6.6% to
13.8%8. Vonderach also discusses the problem from the perspective of
the post-war job market. He refers to the darmstadt-studien research
(Grneisen 1952, Ktter 1952 and Teiwes 1952), whose analyses indicated
the connections between town (industry) and country, to some extent
created by rural dwellers commuting to work in towns. While discussing
current aspects of commuting to work he emphasises that it no longer has
much in common with what it was like in the past. he very fact of simply
owning a car and the large number of high quality roads greatly improve
the possibility of covering distances in daily commuting. By naming one of
the chapter sections from commuting to work to commuting to services
(Vom Arbeitterpendler zum Dienstleistungspendler) the author gave a very
apt description of the direction of those changes.
6
7
8
ibid., p. 98.
ibid., p. 118.
ibid., p. 122.
257
he second book (Begegnung mit historischen Arbeitswelten. Ausgewhlte

lndliche Museen mit Schwerpunkten vergangener regionaler Wirtschatweisen
Meetings with former realms of work. Examples of select rural museums
from the perspective of former, regional farming methods) deals with
a somewhat diferent subject. a rather small collection of texts edited
by Vonderach was devoted to the policy of creating and managing rural
museums as well as their role in preserving the memory about the culture of
the former countryside as well as the inluence on the current functioning
of communities now living there. he examples concern museums in
Germany (Das Museumsdorf Hsseringen, Das Emsland Moormuseum,
Industrie Museum Lohne, Das Binnenschifahrtsmuseum Oderberg) and
austria (museums in Montafon). he book opens with an introduction by
the editor. he museums, a detailed description of which can be found in
the publication present the daily life of rural communities once living in
the particular areas. archaeological indings, old documents and memoirs
were used during the creation of the museums. hey are beautifully located
in old architectural ediices, themselves exhibits (the publication contains
photographs of the buildings, their interiors and some exhibits). he
founders of these museums and their supporters, oten amateurs, devoting
their free time have tremendous enthusiasm and passion to successfully
run such professional endeavours. in fact, this not only serves to preserve
the memory about the past but also supports the current functioning of
local communities, activating them as far as tourism is concerned9.
he third book, Land-Leben. Beitrge zur Entwicklung lndlicher
Lebenswelten (life in the countryside. a contribution to the development
of living in a rural environment) is a volume in which the author presents
the condition of rural sociology as a science and its potential. Vonderach
again refers to themes discussed in the earlier publications of the Buchreihe
Land-Berichte series, e.g. the origin and functioning of rural museums,
problems connected with peripherisation, regional development in
9
he reader interested in the functioning of rural museums is encouraged to

read another publication in the Buchreihe Land-Berichte series by Vonderach (2005):
Museumsengagement auf dem Lande. Eine empirische Studie zum ehrenamtlichen und
privaten Engagement in lndlichen Museen. it shows even more distinctly the role of local
leaders, volunteers in creating museum activity in rural areas and the positive efects of
such enterprises.
258
Elwira Piszczek
Germany. Vonderach also shows the new role of actors farmers becoming
guardians of nature. here is a Polish accent here the study of the case
of Edmund Jereczak, a doctor from Poland who, ater studying medicine
in Gdansk (where he met his wife who came from Eastern Prussia) and
having experienced Polish socialism escaped to Germany in 1958.
he author introduces Herbert Ktter, a representative of rural
sociology. as Vonderach presented a proile of this outstanding German
rural sociologist in Eastern European Countryside10, we shall omit an
analysis of that part of the book which concentrates on questions raised
by Gerd Vonderach, referring to where rural sociology is heading. He
stresses that despite the numerous changes acting in a unifying manner
on both town and country, the decline of rural sociology as a subject
taught in agricultural studies in Germany there continues to be a need
for analysis in the ield of rural sociology in particular. it should involve
current questions concerning food quality, the ethical aspects of animal
husbandry, the rapport between man and animal, the ecology of farms
or, more generally, the issue of nature conservation from the agricultural
point of view, landscape conservation, the feminisation of farming, farmers
education, multi-professionalism and diversiication of incomes among the
rural population, etc. only a few of the problems which rural sociology
could and should in the authors opinion deal with, have been mentioned.
it would be diicult to give a negative answer to the authors question,
being the title of one of the chapter sections, about whether there are still
interesting research topics for rural sociologists (Gibt es fr Landsoziologen
keine interessanten hemen mehr?)
he analysed books, particularly Arbeitsmarkt are yet further proof
that some current highly popular theories and research methods (i refer
speciically to grounded theory) derive from those applied much earlier,
but under diferent names. Vonderach seems to apply a speciic role to
typologies which are very useful to put in order quality material acting as
a counterbalance and complement to rigid quantity data.
it also seems that Vonderach is relatively critical as regards statistical
data in general, preferring the so-called sot style of sociology in the
description of the discussed phenomena. hat does not mean that he is
10
G. Vonderach, Herbert Ktter an outstanding German rural and agricultural

sociologist [in] Eastern European Countryside 2010, no. 16, pp. 231238.
259
uncritical towards qualitative methods. in the texts he underlines not so

much their laws, but rather their not quite correct application (which is
how the important comparability of results sufers).
He also shows the importance of remembering the pioneers, both
those who practically transformed the countryside as well as those who
analysed it academically, to whom we owe so much, and about whom we
dont always remember, or simply know nothing about. his is a unique
incentive to take a look at bookshelves in libraries (or museums) in the
search for original, old publications (as well as their new editions), which
have not run out of date. and this is proof of the exceptional power of
thorough empirical research, which does not have to be, as those who
criticise rural sociology oten imply, a reason for its decline (the surplus of
empiricism, without reliable comparable analyses as a form of substitute for
the shortcomings in theory). ater reading these three books, it is hard to
remain convinced that rural sociology will run out of interesting research
topics. he uniication of town and country in the western world has not
diminished the research ield of this sub-discipline of sociology on the
contrary, it has broadened considerably. at local, national and world level
these problems exist and await exploration.
doi: 10.2478/eec-2013-0012
19 2013
Magdalena Sternicka-Kowalska
Regional Aspects of Social and Economic Restructuring

in Eastern Europe
Kulcsr, l., Kulcsr, l. Jr. (eds.), (2010). Regional Aspects of Social and
Economic Restructuring in Eastern Europe: he Hungarian Case. Budapest:
Hungarian central statistical oice, pp. 284.
regional statistics, (2011). Journal of the Hungarian Central Statistical
Oice. Vol. 14 (51), special issue 1/2011. Budapest: Hungarian central
statistical oice, pp. 148.
space plays a very important role in shaping the nature and dynamics of
economic development processes. he economic situation and dynamics
of the individual spatial units, however, have a signiicant impact on the
level of the populations standard of living. for this reason, the territorial
dimension of social phenomena and processes is one of the more popular
subjects of theoretical analysis and empirical studies. his popularity is also
associated with the issue of European integration, where the problems of
regional development, particularly its spatial variation, are deined as key
issues. Equalizing development disparities which exist between the various
regions is considered to be the main goal of the activities undertaken in
the framework of EU regional policy.
Both books discussed here: Regional Aspects of Social and Economic
Restructuring in Eastern Europe: he Hungarian Case and regional
statistics, special issue 1/2011, focus on the spatial aspects of social,
economic and demographic changes in Hungary. hese overviews are
262
provided in the context of European integration and, perhaps above all,

they take into account the conditions resulting from the transformation
of the post-socialist economy which took place in the countries of central
and Eastern Europe.
he aim of the authors of the irst publication Regional Aspects of
Social and Economic Restructuring in Eastern Europe: he Hungarian Case
is to present the existing knowledge about the phenomena and socioeconomic processes taking place in Hungary in their spatial dimension
and their major changes based on statistical data gathered over the past
two decades.
he book, on the assumption of its editors lszl Kulcsr and lszl
J. Kulcsr, is to have an interdisciplinary character to allow the reader
a comprehensive overview of the issues raised. it is, therefore a collection
of articles by specialists from diferent scientiic disciplines. some of them
have been created speciically for this publication, while most represent
selected studies on regional development published in the last few years in
Hungary. he published articles have not as yet been translated into English,
so there was no opportunity for a wider international scientiic community
to access them (p.5), which also inspired the authors to change the status
quo and was one of the justiications for the creation of this publication.
he publication consists of sixteen chapters, organized into four major
parts. hey form a coherent, logical and transparent composition. Most
of the studies contain tables, charts, maps or diagrams, representing
a signiicant added value.
he main parts of the book have introductions (All or Nothing: What
Has Changed in Eastern Europe? he Unfolding Regional Dynamics in
Hungary), where the authors point out that the transformation process
in the countries of central and Eastern Europe is not yet complete and
together with the eastern enlargement of the EU it provides considerable
interest in this part of the continent at the beginning of the 21st century.
hey also emphasize that the socio-economic situation of these countries
is not homogeneous, as is oten seen by Western researchers, and cannot
be understood without reference to historical, social and cultural rights.
despite the many similarities between the countries and regions of Eastern
Europe, there are also signiicant diferences occurring in this area. ignoring
this fact has consequences in terms of developing the same methods to
improve the situation in these countries which do not take into account
Regional Aspects of Social and Economic Restructuring in Eastern Europe
263
the speciics of each of them. Based on the changes of regional diferences

depicted in the collected articles, the authors conclude that the existing
disparities are likely to continue without changing the way of thinking or
adapting regional policy to these unique circumstances.
he irst part of the book, Regional Inequalities from an Eastern
European Perspective, consists of three chapters. hey concentrate on the
diferentiations between regions and cities in Eastern Europe in terms of
economic, social and demographic indicators. as the authors note, regional
variations in the economic structure, level of income, employment, social
and physical infrastructure, etc. emerged and grew due to the rising market
economies in these countries and especially ater the recent enlargements in
2004 and 2007 (p. 9, p. 27). he presented statistical data (from the period
before and ater 1990) also conirms the thesis of the non-uniformity of
spatial changes taking place both in the post-socialist countries and in
their particular regions. another issue (raised mainly in the third chapter)
is that of cities and urban networks their increasingly important role in
the global economy and regional development, as well as the nature of
developing inequalities among cities in Europe.
an indisputable beneit of the studies in this part is the information
about spatial inequalities from an international perspective, which allows
a comparative analysis of the spatial units in the EU in several important
dimensions and their changes over time. a certain limitation in this ield
of exploration was the availability of statistical data. While that was not
generally a problem at state level, considerable data at regional level (not to
mention the lower levels, e.g. local) has only been collected since accession,
so not all of it was available to the authors.
he themes of the four chapters in the second part (Spatial Disparities
in Hungary) are focused around the regional disparities in Hungary. he
authors of chapter 4 describe the economic development of the countrys
various territorial units measured by GdP and using a complex regional
development indicator which was created by them on the basis of 36
factors of social, economic, infrastructural and cultural capacity. as a result,
they carry out a comparative analysis of the level of development in the
regions, counties and micro-regions. hey also examine the nature of the
relationship between the development of domestic micro-regions and
the capital attraction ability, which is a signiicant potential for increasing
the competitiveness of these areas.
264
chapters 5, 6 and 7 refer to rusticity and the situation of agriculture,

describing the uneven dynamics of rural development in Hungary. he as
yet unsolved problems (mainly the employment crisis in agriculture and
unemployment in the Hungarian rural areas) which are currently the main
barriers in the context of the development and cohesion of the country, are
shown in great detail and in contrast to the revaluation of nature and some
new functions of rural areas, such as clean air, environment, a favourable
place to live in and rest, etc. hese negative phenomena are afecting mainly
peripheral border areas, isolated from the larger cities, where disadvantages
accumulate there is an underdeveloped entrepreneurial infrastructure,
the demographic and education structure is unfavourable, the agricultural
sector dominant. he authors call these areas forgotten places (p. 78)
while expressing their conviction that the people living there cannot help
themselves. changing the situation requires the development of diferent
forms of support, taking into account the type of resources and many other
conditions occurring in the local units.
For the success of national regional development it is essential to be able to
assess complex spatial processes as precisely as possible (p. 148). However, it
is diicult to express the level of development or regional disparities using
only one, universal indicator. herefore, the next part (Methods for Analyzing
Spatial Inequalities) is entirely dedicated to important methodological
issues associated with inding appropriate ways of measuring certain
phenomena and processes in their spatial aspect. here are descriptions of
more or less complex mathematical and statistical methods which allow for
the measurement of such phenomena as: inequalities between settlement
units and their dynamics (the method of gravity centres characterized
in chapter 8), the competitiveness of cities (chapter 9), competitiveness
and its typology in particular types of spatial units, mainly at local level
(chapter 10), spatial patterns of phenomena (clustered, random, scattered)
and changes, measured by the nearest-neighbour model presented in
chapter 11.
he last section (Social and Demographic Changes in the Carpathian
Basin) describes the social and demographic changes in Hungary and their
spatial manifestations, which are closely correlated. living conditions in
various regions of the country have an impact on peoples decisions and
patterns of behaviour, but on the other hand these behaviours have a parallel
efect on the situation in a given space. he authors of the ive chapters
265
in this part of the publication ascribe an important role, among others,

to human resources in economic development and creating economic
disparities between regions (chapter 13 and 14). in addition, the reader
can ind the demographic characteristic of Hungarians living abroad, on
land formerly belonging to Hungary (chapter 12), the current situation in
the settlements afected by depopulation during socialism (chapter 15) and
the speciic pattern of the regional distribution of suicides (chapter 16).
due to the very similar problems discussed, the second publication can
be considered as a perfect complement to the irst one. it is a special issue
of the scientiic periodical of the Hungarian central statistical oice
regional statistics. he authors of the articles presented in the journal
are scientists and researchers in various ields, especially geographical,
social and economic, as well as oicials and planners involved in regional
development in Hungary.
his is a collection of eleven articles (with the exception of a brief
introduction) undertaking the regional themes whose aim, as in the case
of the book characterized above, is to present the regional condition of
Hungary, mainly spatial diferences and changes among them, as well as
sharing the results of research in this area with the wide scientiic community
in Europe. he assumption of the editor-in-chief, Pter szal is that the
exchange of research experiences can contribute to working together on
cohesion policy integrating representatives of various specialties, to which
he invites you by recommending this issue of regional statistics. due
to the extensive use of statistical data and nature of the discussed issues,
the articles also contain a number of maps, charts, diagrams and tables
illustrating the problems raised.
he irst article (lajos Marosi A visit to the academic Gyrgy Enyedi
in the citadel of science) is an interesting interview with Professor Gyrgy
Enyedi, the renowned economist and geographer, in which he talks about
his career, beginning during the socialist system, his interest in geography,
the validity of statistical data and certain private matters. in the interview
he stresses the importance to him of both economics and geography in
the study and in explaining regional diferences. He also devotes particular
attention to identifying as well as developing so-called regional studies
or regional science, which according to him is a form of interdisciplinary
knowledge and not a scientiic discipline in the traditional sense, such
as mathematics. regional processes cannot only be explained by social,
266
cultural, geographical or economic causes, but they have to be considered

as a whole.
in the next article (Jzsef Nemes Nagy, Gergely Tagai Regional
inequalities and the determination of spatial structure) relations are
discussed between the Hungarian spatial structure and the nature of
spatial inequalities in connection with some interesting methodological
elements. he aim of the characteristics of these relationships is to help
establish new guidelines for regional policy, which according to the authors
is lawed in some important aspects. in addition, they highlight the need
to strengthen the role of international comparative studies in the analysis
of regional processes.
access to jobs, education and various kinds of services, closely correlated
with the place of residence are among the major factors afecting the quality
of life and subsequently the competitiveness of given spatial settlements.
he issue of accessibility is the subject of interest in three articles included in
the work. Each of them refers to the analysis of the problem of availability,
manifesting itself in another aspect of life. in one of them, the availability of
given settlements to the rail network is presented (Tams dusek he efect
of the reduction of the Hungarian railway network in 2009 on accessibility).
The next provides information on spatial diversity in access to health
services (Gbor Pirisi, andrs Trcsnyi Spatial aspects of the ambulance
service in Hungary). he last one describes the transport situation in the
Great Plain region, taking into account, irst, the structure, quality of the
road system and availability, but also pointing out some conditions of rail,
air and waterway transport in the region (Gza Novk, Tams Varsnyi
he transport situation in the Great Plain).
links between demographic processes, manifesting themselves
especially in urban areas and the spatial structure of the EU regions is
another topic discussed in the journal (va Gerhzi, Jzsef Hegeds,
Hanna szemz, Kyra Tomay, ivn Tosics, lszl Gere he impact of
European demographic trends on regional and urban development). apart
from a review of the signiicant changes in demographic processes which
are a challenge for contemporary regional policy, possible strategies to adapt
to or mitigate the efects of these phenomena are also indicated.
a similar issue, although in a much narrower range, is addressed by
lszl Kulcsr, lszl J. Kulcsr, csilla obdovics (Who lives in forgotten
places? Age structure and socio-economic development in Hungary). Based on
267
studies carried out in Hungary, the authors show that the obvious and oten
emphasized relationship between the age structure and socio-economic
development of the regions is not in fact so simple a young age structure
is not always equal to economic development, and is more complex.
here is also an article on the issue of neighborhood in the journal
(Zsia fbin he role of neighbourhood in the regional distribution of
Europe). he author stresses its importance in regional analyses and tries
to answer the question to what extent neighbouring regions in Europe
are similar to each other in terms of economic development (p. 122).
he other studies also focus on the various socio-economic processes
that imprint their mark on space. one of them describes the regional
diferences of the labour market by concentrating on employment among
those with romanian citizenship (Nndor Nmeth, andrs csite, kos,
Jakobi Employees with Romanian citizenship in Hungary). in another,
researchers look for the impact of the development of settlements that
ofer health oriented tourism in Hungary on the local community and
economy (Gbor Michalk, Tamara rtz, Gza Tth, ron Kincses, Bla
Benk Research on the quality of life in the spa towns of Hungary). he
last article describes the spatial structure of the industry in Hungary,
analyzing it in the context of the recent economic crisis, which, according
to the authors, did not signiicantly afect the changes within it (Gyrgyi
Barta, Hajnalka lcsei, he efect of the recent economic crisis on the spatial
structure of Hungarian industry).
Both publications take into consideration the spatial aspects of the
economic, social and demographic processes. although some of the ideas
contained in the studies may seem rather obvious and not very innovative
(e.g. the inverse relation between educational and unemployment rate,
p. 224), presenting them together in these publications allows us to become
aware of the variety and versatility of the areas of life in which the various
processes manifest themselves in space. Many of the analyses collected
here illustrate the spatial diversity of the level of development in Hungary
in various dimensions and indicate the multiplicity of conditions and
factors associated with them. he number and nature of the themes cause
awareness of the complexity of the issues, thus justifying the need for
a comprehensive and multidisciplinary approach to the analyzed issues
by the authors.
268
a notable advantage of these books is a discerning, detailed analysis

of a wide range of issues based on spatial statistics informing both
about the potential of each region and the challenges facing them. Many
issues are described in connection with an appropriate, oten innovative
methodology.
Most of the articles refer to the situation of diferent areas and regions
in Hungary, but some of them relate to the international context, which
is an undoubted advantage of these studies, as it gives the possibility of
a comparative analysis of spatial units in a wider than national scale.
another major beneit should be considered as a kind of turn to
locality. Previous surveys of economic development were dominated by
studies conducted at national or regional level. Meanwhile, the authors
emphasize the need to also pay attention to the settlement units of the
lower levels, which play an increasingly important role in a comprehensive
and integrated development process. Hence, the aspect of locality and
statistics for micro-regions appears in a number of articles in the reviewed
publications.
he political transformation and eastern enlargement are processes that
have a signiicant impact on the shape of the transition in the countries
of central and Eastern Europe. hus, they encourage us to assess the
ongoing transformation, tend to seek answers about the determinants of
the dynamics of regional development and the factors that determine the
spatial variation of diferent levels of territorial units. hese signiicant
issues are presented in the above-mentioned publications, which, in my
opinion, will prove attractive to those interested in regional studies in the
broad sense.
doi: 10.2478/eec-2013-0013
19 2013
Monika Kwieciska-Zdrenka
he Polish Countryside in Statistics
Wilkin J., Nurzyska, i. (eds.) 2012. he Polish Countryside 2012. A report

on the state of the countryside, Warsaw: scholar Publishers, pp. 244.
2012 saw the publication of the seventh report1 on the state of the Polish
countryside. Much like its six predecessors (the irst of which was published
in 2000) it contains complex data concerning the Polish countryside
and changes taking place, which accelerated particularly ater Polands
accession to the European Union in 2004. according to editors Jerzy Wilkin
and iwona Nurzyska it would be diicult to ind as complex a source of
knowledge of the Polish countryside in Polish literature as that which our
reports contain [] we have illed a considerable gap both in the system of
analyses and in the dissemination of knowledge about such an important
part of our country2.
according to accepted premises which have been consistently fulilled
for 12 years all the hitherto published reports are interdisciplinary: the
countryside (this term is used interchangeably with the concept of rural
areas MK-Z) is here perceived as a very intricate system involving social,
economic, cultural and natural aspects. In order to portray and understand
the changes taking place in the Polish countryside it is essential to include
1
reports are inanced by the foundation for the development of Polish agriculture,
fdPa. he fdPa is the oldest Polish rural foundation which came into being ater 1945.
in 1988 it became an independent NGo. a full list of the reports to date appears in the
bibliography.
2
he Polish countryside 2012, p. 7.
270
all these aspects as a whole3 and complex, i.e. all the signiicant areas of
rural development are the subject of the analysis. he report must also
be synthetic graphs, tables and short, understandable comments to the
data cyclical (it comes out every other year) and published in both
Polish and English; which broadens the readership of these publications4;
reaching various circles: academics and students, journalists, politicians,
local government representatives and agricultural consultants.
in addition to documentation regarding demographic change,
agriculture and other areas of the rural economy, the socio-professional
structure of rural inhabitants, environmental issues, typical for this type of
work, each volume contains special themes, referring to other signiicant
development problems or connected with an important event (e.g. EU
accession was highlighted in the 2006 and 2010 reports). he last one
discussed the situation of young people5 and their opportunities as well as
the spatial diversiication of the Polish countryside. Earlier reports included
special topics such as: in 2010 the evaluation of the consequences of
EU integration ater 5 years and that of transformation 20 years from its
beginning as well as cultural changes in the countryside; in 2008 the issue
of rural potential, i.e. rural inhabitants possibilities of getting organised and
their presence in the public sphere; in 2006 the irst evaluation of results
of EU integration as well as self government, economic diversiication,
land cultivation, a vision of the countryside and agriculture from a wider
perspective of change in Poland; in 2004 an evaluation of the efects of
introducing pre-accession programmes (mainly saPard) and the problem
of regional and traditional products; the 2002 report revealed the internal
diferences in the countryside and the contrasts between it and the city
in the economic, social, demographic and natural proiles. in addition to
a complex and synthetic view of the countryside, the irst report in 2000
discussed rural poverty and hardship.
he Polish countryside 2000, p. 8.

he reports (with the exception of the 2002 one) are available in electronic form on
www.fdpa.org.pl. in both languages. he Polish version also exists in print.
5
he problems of young rural people are also the subject of an article by Krystyna
szafraniec (the author of this fragment in the discussed report) published in the current
issue of EEc.
4
271
Turning to a more detailed analysis of the most recent report (he

report about the state of the countryside, Poland 2012), it consists of
8 chapters and a summary of the tendencies, phenomena and problems
of rural areas under the authorship of Jerzy Wilkin. here is information
about demographic changes (the author is izasaw frenkel), agriculture and
its structural changes (Walenty Poczta), social capital (Barbara fedyszak
radziejowska), the inluence of rural economic development on the
state of the natural environment (artur Botromiuk), socio-economic
diferentiation of rural areas (Monika stanny) political views and ainities
(Krzysztof Pankowski). special topics included in the report concern the
opportunities of rural youth (Krystyna szafraniec), Polish and EU policy as
regards rural areas (iwona Nurzyska). he authors are mainly researchers
who have worked for the series for many years while also being connected
with the institute of rural development and agriculture of the Polish
academy of sciences. a researcher from Poznan University of Natural
science (structural changes in agriculture) and the research centre of
social opinion (political ailiations of rural inhabitants) was also invited
to the team.
he authors refer to data from various sources: public statistics (data
from the central statistical oice, the agricultural register, Eurostat,
data from government agencies he agency for restructuring and
Modernisation of agriculture arMa, the Electoral commission), data
from interdisciplinary research of representative Poles (social diagnosis,
cBos research) as well as own research (generally smaller scale).
he Polish countryside in 2012 has become less and less agricultural
only a third of rural inhabitants are permanently connected with agriculture
although the size of farms is growing. Not only are there fewer farms but
most of them are less and less economically active. farms which are above
average in size (10 ha. in 2012) have a chance of survival. a signiicant
portion of farmers incomes are supplementary beneits (about half of
farming incomes). hese had an inluence on the signiicant increase
of farmers incomes although they are still far lower than in other
professional groups (80% of the national average). he authors draw
attention to the low productivity of Polish agriculture (approximately
30%), which means that despite the relatively low portion of agriculture in
GdP (approx. 3%), this sector shows a relatively high rate of employment
(approx. 13% of all those employed in the economy).
272
due to the departure of the countryside from agriculture, analyses of

the rural labour market are growing in importance. Employment igures
are dropping while unemployment ones are on the rise. hese tendencies
afect the youth in particular (the 1824-year-olds), women and the
elderly. he employment level in all age groups is particularly low in nonagricultural rural households lower than on farms where there is an excess
of employed people. he percentage of those working in agriculture is still
the highest in all the EU countries, with the exception of romania. izasaw
frenkel (chapter 1) sees this as being connected with the fragmentation
of farms (the percentage of farms which are smaller than 2 ha. is 24.1%,
and in the 25 ha. category 31.1%) (p. 82).
hat conclusion is somewhat contradictory with Walenty Pocztas
views (chapter 2). He observes progress in the changes in the spatial and
productive structure of agriculture. here has been a considerable drop in
number of small and medium sized farms as well as land utilised by them.
() a cautious conclusion may be reached that there are fewer farms in
those groups where there are diiculties in reaching parity in income levels
and development possibilities and there are more where a suitable income
allows for an adequate level of consumption and production (pp. 9899).
Walenty Poczta assumes that the observed changes in agriculture
(a moderate growth in production and income growth in the sector is
the efect of taking over Polish agriculture through the mechanisms of the
common agricultural Policy (further caP). his thesis is also conirmed
in research carried out by iwona Nurzyska (chapter 6). she notices that
thanks to caP support, over 17 million Polish zloty (i.e. approx. 4 billion
euro) reached the rural areas, almost half of which directly reinforced the
farmers incomes. like frenkel Nurzyska underlines that the defective
structure of Polish agriculture derives from unexploited and unnecessary
labour resources in agriculture (p. 201). from that perspective she outlines
two challenges for Polish rural area policy: setting up activities which
would serve to create extra-agricultural jobs and counteract the spatial
polarisation between rich and poor areas, while pointing out that the
currently applied instruments which were supposed to be conducive to
the convergence of regions cannot stop that polarisation.
he diferentiation between areas noticed by Nurzyska was also
researched by Monika stanny (chapter 5) in broad socio-economic
development analyses. in her research she mentioned such socio-economic
273
development factors as: the characteristic of demographic structure, the

characteristic of the local community (including an evaluation of the
education structure as part of human capital, an evaluation of social capital,
civic activity, the inhabitants capacity to cooperate in the common interest;
the participation of social workers) the characteristic of the labour market,
the characteristic of the agricultural and extra-agricultural sector. as a result
of statistical data the author distinguished 5 groups of communes, difering
in their level of development. she notices a concurrence between the
current level of development of those communes and their position within
the framework of the former partitions: in the former russian partition
the level of development is either very low or low, it is moderate in the
former austrian partition; in the former Prussian partition it is high or very
high. he destiny of the countrys individual areas had an inluence on the
development potential. according to the author it is diicult to counteract
these tendencies which are permanent. (p. 173), having an inluence on the
structure of agriculture. communes with a very low or low standard of
development are monofunctional, based on family farming or large-scale
hired labour farming; communes of a moderate standard of development
are also monofunctional but based on fragmented farming and various
sources of income, not distinctly specialised. Whereas communes the
development of which is well-advanced are those the multifunctionality
of which results from economic urbanisation or modern agriculture.
according to the researchers expectations that means that achieving the
same goal of development of rural areas takes place according to various
scenarios in the Polish countryside (p. 174). Perhaps that is an explanation
for the hitherto inadequacy of tools of convergency (Nurzyska).
one of the aspects of analyses led by Monika stanny was social and
human capital. Barbara fedyszak radziejowska (chapter 3) and Krystyna
szafraniec (chapter 7) take a closer look at select elements making up that
capital.
Barbara fedyszak-radziejowska attributes the role of shock absorbers
of the crisis in the national economy to the countryside and agriculture
(p. 102) which can be linked to the fact that changes appearing in the
countryside are evolutionary and free of violent shocks and crises. he
functional features, i.e. the multifunctionality of agriculture of the rural
communities are undergoing stabilisation (p. 102). rural inhabitants rarely
experience material wealth but social well-being (having social support) is
274
experienced more frequently by them than by their urban counterparts. he

author puts forward a theory supporting it with data from representative
research that the social capital of the Polish countryside is its strength,
particularly the strong acceptance of standards of cooperation connected
with religion and appearing in the activity for the beneit of the parish
(p. 123).
While diferences in standards between town and country are
diminishing there is a growing desire to live in the countryside. his is
not a suiciently desirable prospect for some young people. Krystyna
szafraniec points to this (chapter 7). according to her the choice of living
in the countryside is still secondary, creating a guarantee of safe survival
for those who are not quite ready to compete for a social position in the
city (p. 218)6.
according to the data the level of optimism is growing from year to
year. areas of inequality and marginalisation afecting rural areas continue
to appear but, on the other hand, the authors also point out favourable
changes. according to their diagnosis, a turning point for the condition
of the Polish countryside was meant to be 2004 and EU integration. he
countryside before that (presented in reports from 2000, 2002 and 2004)
was an area the characteristic features of which were profound regional
diferences and a clearly unfavourable situation when compared with
the city. Unfavourable features of the countryside were noticeable in the
economic sphere (the fragmentation of farms, low incomes, a low number of
non-market farms, a very poor development of extra-agricultural functions,
a high dependence on beneits old age and disability pensions) but they
also had an institutional deicit (a poorly developed social services system
pre-school and health care; a non-developing rural labour market). he
countryside had an unfavourable demographic and social structure (the
educational structure was particularly unfavourable, there was a high
level of poverty and a very low level of inancial integration between
farmers).
he most recent report (2012) portrays Polish rural areas as seen by
Jerzy Wilkin as being rather positive and optimistic, particularly if we
a solution and justiication of this thesis can be found in the article by this author
in the current issue of EEc.
275
situate it in a comparative historical and international perspective (p. 13).

indeed there are still gaps in development but the editor of the series draws
attention to the drop in overall backwardness. hat seems to dominate in
the general evaluation of changes in rural areas undertaken by the team
of authors.
in the report synthesis Jerzy Wilkin asserts among others that despite
the unfavourable trends concerning agriculture (persistent fragmentation,
low productivity, low participation in GdP, low income levels) it has an
important role in the system of food security and strengthening the
countrys energy security (p. 9) and small farms fulil many useful
economic, social and environmental functions. as in the past, they continue
to play the role of shock absorber of economic disquiet and external
shocks. it seems that, apart from its informative role, the report which
continues to be one of the few synthetic, complex and interdisciplinary
sources of information about the condition of Polish rural areas also plays
a persuasive role, entering the political debate on the shape of agriculture
and tools of acting on the development of rural areas.
References
Wilkin J., Nurzyska, i. (eds.) 2012. he Polish Countryside 2012. A report on the
state of the countryside, Warsaw: scholar Publishers.
rural Poland 2012. rural development report. English version, www.fdpa.org.pl.
rural Poland 2006. rural development report, English version, www.fdpa.org.pl.
276

doi: 10.2478/eec-2013-0014
19 2013
Central and Eastern European Countryside

from an international perspective
(IRSA Congress in Lisbon, 2012)
he Xiii World congress of rural sociology, entitled he New rural

World: from crises to opportunities took place in lisbon (29.074.08.2012).
it included a plenary session, two symposiums (food security and the
Environmental crisis and agrifood alternative Movements) and almost
a thousand papers in over 70 working groups.
he crisis in the title was identiied with the problem of food security
and growing social inequalities regarding access to food. solutions to
these problems were sought in agrifood alternative movements or global
counter-social movements such as slow food, food sovereignty and fair
Trade. hese problems were discussed during the plenary session and at
symposiums on 30th July 2012.
he food security debate was opened by a presentation by Jos Graziano
da silva, the head of fao (food and agriculture organization of the
United Nations), who accentuated that food problems are more signiicant,
fundamental to say the least, than the problems of agriculture. da silva
stated that approximately 15% of all people were constantly undernourished
in the years 20102012 and this problem is growing at a faster rate than had
been predicted 1520 years earlier. Economic growth is supposed to combat
hunger but he pointed out that that cannot be the only means of solving the
problem of undernourishment. da silva underlined the indispensability
of a change in food distribution policy as well as considering the problem
of nutrition when planning economic and agricultural development
278
(increasing the opportunities for access to a varied diet, hygiene, health

care, distributed supplements, social care) and empowerment of socially
and inancially marginalized groups (women, the poor, small farmers).
his is a request for sustained, long-term economic development focussed
at evening out social diferences.
susanne friedberg presented a somewhat diferent perspective in her
paper, (he political metrics of food footprints) while generally sharing
the fao perspective. she demonstrated examples of activities which, on
the one hand, demand greater rigour regarding food security and, on the
other, lead to the emergence of new inequalities. friedberg outlined the
development of the system of food quality evaluation by means of deining
the certiication (place of origin and freshness) of products. recent years
have seen the introduction of various measures facilitating this: labels
showing the number of kilometres food has travelled its place of origin
and how it was transported; the climate in which it came into being and
how that inluenced its growth; an introduction so far only in france
of a scale providing the evaluation of the quality of the product and also
how its production inluences the sustainable Product index, rather like
the index we use when evaluating fridges, washing machines etc. which
inluence the environment or make use of valuable resources (electricity,
water). hese are solutions required by western consumers while provoking
unfavourable social phenomena, broader than mere commodity fetishism.
he main partners or initiators of such change are private corporations and
chain stores, this no longer being the domain of government policy. he
repercussions are felt mainly by small food producers who neither meet the
excessive standards nor can they aford expensive tests which could provide
them with the relevant quality certiicates. creating a sales network referring
to these measures has social consequences (the author did not indicate
the diferences in access to nutrition which is of a diferent level of safety/
quality). despite a certain beneit of activities, the intention of which is to
raise food security (the introduction of regulations concerning fertilisation,
genetic modiication etc.) they do not fulil their basic role i.e. according
to friedberg, we still know little about the origin of the products, we do
not have access to information regarding the full production cycle (this is
oten simply knowledge about the distance between the processing plant
and the sales network), nor is this conducive to sustained development.
despite its limited usefulness, food safety or food security categories are
Central and EEC from an International Perspective
279
applied by many organizations, the role of sociologists perhaps being to

give them a new dimension and substance.
similar incentives to pursue engaged sociology, unveiling unfavourable
social processes also appeared in other presentations, which the congress
participants could listen to at a symposium devoted to food security and
the environmental crisis.
during that symposium the following speakers had the loor: Terry
Marsden (solving the problem of sustainability. Exploring the new disorder),
Elizabeth ronsom and carmen Bain (included and excluded: an analysis of
international agricultural development. assistance focus on Marginalized
Population 19782008), Patricia allen (social Movement and food security:
axes of engagement), Tim lang (food security and sustainability diferent
or the same policy discovery) and Phillip McMichael (food security and
Environmentalists paradox: feast, famine or food sovereignty). almost
all those presentations pointed to the problem of food security being
a considerable political, social and even research challenge.
researchers, all representing western universities, pointed out the
contrast between the image of a well-fed western world (where obesity is
a problem) and the prevalence of famine outside that world. according to
that diagnosis, the problem lies with food distribution not its production
(Tim lang). awareness of those economic and social contrasts as well as
their source does not, however, lead to an easy consensus and trying to
work one out disturbs compromises concerning other areas of economic
development (according to Tim lang that is like a bull in a china
shop). introducing permanent solutions would require a change in the
development paradigm from one which is neo-productive, expressing
itself as sustainable intensiication aimed at ecological modernization, to
a sustainable food paradigm, based on relective management, a change
in orientation connected with ownership rights, taking into account social
diferences and including the time perspective to spatial policy (Terry
Marsden).
an important factor which may enforce a change in the development
paradigm and as a result of thinking about the food distribution policy
may be social movements which have focussed their attention on food or
agriculture. Patricia allen drew attention to the fact that these movements
have diferent backgrounds those concentrating on agriculture have
diferent goals (primarily interested in farmers, the producers of food)
280
to those who are sensitive as regards food, concentrating on fair food

distribution, consumers rights, food security, type of consumption.
from that perspective, solutions to queries determining the direction
of involvement are important: who are those movements ighting for,
on whose behalf are they speaking, are they assuming a local or a global
perspective, are they concentrating on the security of food or of the
environment, or perhaps on the access to food and fair distribution, do
they take into consideration the position of the most vulnerable (women,
farmers wives, small farmers)? similar issues were raised in the second
symposium, by speakers Javir snchez, Beatriz Gasc and Jernimo
Pruijn representing various alternative social movements regarding food
and agriculture on a global level (Beatriz Gasc international Planning
committee for food sovereignty, Jernimo Pruijn fair Trade small
Producers symbol) or an international level, focussing on a chosen area
(Via campesina concentrating on the problems of agriculture and its
sovereignty in Europe).
Both the plenary sessions and the symposiums included a very distinct
and frequently articulated appeal to the researchers rural sociologists,
to carry out thorough research, useful for both local communities, which
the surveys are concerned with but also providing epistemological and
ideological foundations for the further development of food and agriculture
throughout the world.
he debates of 76 working groups were a focal point of the congress. he
papers of 5 of them were organised or co-organised by central European
researchers (i.e. coming from the countries of central or Eastern Europe
or who concentrate their research on that region), the majority of whom
also write for EEc:
David L. Brown, Majda erni Isteni (WG 14: Population and Rural
society),
Karl Bruckmeier, Imre Kovch, Hilary Tovey (WG 32: Rural
sustainability, food Production and Global Environmental change),
Chris High, Gusztv Nemes, Frank Vanclay, Aine Macken Walsch
(WG 60: applied rural sociology),
Christine Katz, Anja hiem, Daniela Gottschlich, Tanja Mlders
(WG 61: sustainable land Use: Gender Perspective),
Ildiko Asztals Morell (WG 65: Multiple Marginalized Groups in
rural areas).
281
almost 50 researchers represented central and Eastern Europe. hey

were concentrated in a few subject groups1; individual presentations were
also made in other subject groups2.
a cursory overview of the presentations by researchers from the
countries of Eastern and central Europe clearly shows a low interest in
the main issue of the congress (food security), although in the dominant
themes sustained development, the potential of rural areas, demographic
phenomena as well as social and economic inequalities we ind numerous
traces of socially engaged research.
he irst of those themes (sustained development) was viewed from an
economic and social perspective, the role of social economy, ownership
rights (sustained forestry management from the ownership point of view),
pro-ecological behaviour (recycling).
sustained development was understood by the researchers as suggested
by K. Gorlach, Z. drag and P. Nowak (WG 32) as a type of balance between
economic requirements, the natural environment and the social world.
1
first of all: WG 3: facilitating change and innovation (3), WG 14: Population and
rural society (5), WG 32: rural sustainability, food Production and Global Environmental
change (4), WG 56: New communication Technology, social Networks and rural
development (3), WG 60: applied rural sociology (2), WG 65: Multiple Marginalized
Groups in rural areas (5), WG 67: farm diversiication and rural sustainability (2),
WG 70: financial crisis and rural resilience in the Global North (3), WG 76: open
streams (3)
2
in: WG 1: Territories, rural development and social actors, WG 2: Globalization
of agri-food and labour, WG 8: local food Products and conlicts around Quality
construction, WG 11: from New country-to-city linkages to archipelago Models, WG 16:
ruralities Between Virtual discourses, social imaginaries and Urban consumptions (2),
WG 18: Breaking through disciplinary Boundaries to address complex rural dynamics,
WG 19: Quality of Work, Job satisfaction and Well-being among Women in rural areas,
WG 27: societal Transformation through organic agriculture and food systems (oafs),
WG 28: development disputes and diversity in Mining-afected rural communities,
WG 31: Youth in rural Territories, WG 34: civil society Participation in sustainable
Territorial development approaches, WG 38: response strategies of social Economy
and the contribution of social organizations of the rural World, WG 43: consuming
the rural: food, Nature and space, WG 53: Human dimensions of livestock farming
systems, WG 62: forest ownership and challenges for forest Policies and Management of
forestry, WG 64: New forms of consumer-Producer cooperation within food Networks:
comparing Experiences in the North and south, WG 71: he social organization of agrobiodiversity, WG 73: Work Horse to Hobby Horse.
282
However, those authors pointed out that the perception of that kind of
thinking about development can be diferent for various actors of rural
life and hence important goals of research of the rural environment can
be (as in the case of that team) a re-creation of that category and a reply to
questions regarding the role of economic rationality, ecological awareness
and social relations in farmers decision- making processes.
he importance of such research was also underlined by J.Zivanovic
Milijkovic, in the context of large development diferences in the rural
areas of serbia, connected with intense urban and industrial processes,
which brought about the departure of the rural population to towns, which
with the ageing of the population, fragmentation of farms, geographically
diicult terrain, brings about a considerable weakening of the socioeconomic and cultural fabric of the countryside.
he problem of sustained development was also discussed in relation
to narrower issues, e.g. the perception of climate change (B. Megyesi).
Megyesis analysis was based on ostroms theory about nested institutions,
according to which diferent participants of social reality are interconnected
and their decisions and actions nested within them. such a perception of
rural space allows for the understanding of how both formal and informal
institutions shape their reactions regarding the challenge of climate change.
his is in some measure a development of the problem raised by Gorlach
and his team.
he sustained development of rural areas was also analysed in the
context of the conlict between environmental needs and socio-economic
needs using the example of a gold mine and forestry management. he
romanian researcher, T. capota showed how the implementation of the idea
of sustained development frequently has little in common with responsible
development but rather with how inluential are those who try to convince
others about their way of understanding functional development for their
own community. similar reasons can be found in the discussion concerning
forestry management in Estonia (P. Pllume, H. Korjus).
he presentation of d. oBrien and V. Patsiorkovsky was a continuation
of this discussion in that they concentrated their analyses on the life
strategies of rural inhabitants. he authors portrayed the relationship
between changes at the macro-economic and macro-social level and that
of the concept of sustained development. oBrien and Patsiorkovsky are
convinced that it was the stability of inancial institutions in the irst decade
283
of the 21st century which inluenced rural inhabitants to have such a vision
of development: a transition from a survival strategy to a development
strategy.
he second problem presented by those researchers focussed on the
possibilities of endogenous development and an analysis of the development
potential of rural areas. here was a discussion about the problem of
programmes of development realized by local action groups (d. Miloslav),
the inhabitants social and civic involvement (a. sitek), the inluence of
selected groups of inhabitants on the development direction of rural areas
(women entrepreneurs o. Gergely, youth M. Kwieciska-Zdrenka), the
efects of farm diversiication, the innovation of implemented solutions (e.g.
social enterprises in the romanian countryside c. Petrescu, i. Petrescu)
as well as the sources of supporting that potential (the role of researchers,
research in action, practical applications of academic solutions). in that
context there was also a discussion about the role of modern technologies
in supporting local development and levelling the diferences in access to
education and knowledge (a. Pluskota, a. Pokorska, s. doneddu).
he third group of problems concerned demographic phenomena
observed in rural communities: the ageing countryside, gender disproportion,
rural depopulation and the increased mobility of inhabitants.
Negative demographic tendencies and consequently economic ones in
the countryside were demonstrated using the example of villages in croatia
(d. Zutinic), slovenia (M. erni isteni, s. Kneevi Hoevar), lithuania
(a. Zobena, a. Benga, i. lace), Hungary (l. Kulcsr, c. obdovics) and
Germany (s. stedfeldt, s. Khntopf). he main negative tendencies lie
with the ageing and depopulation of the countryside (croatia) and gender
disproportions (Germany). demographic problems vary according to
the location of the rural areas they are least experienced in suburban
villages. his is diferent in areas which are at a distance from towns but
which also have a slower level of growth that is where migration is higher
and oten afects select groups (e.g. 1829 year-old women s. stedfeldt,
s. Khntopf). a signiicant factor intensifying the negative demographic
tendencies is also the size of the village that was pointed out by the
Hungarian researchers (l. Kulcsr, c. obadovics), who noticed a link
between the size of a rural settlement and the possibilities of social and
inancial development.
284
demographic processes lead not only to the further economic regression

of an area but also to the further weakening of vitality of institutions such
as schools or health care centres and other social services, the maintenance
of which becomes more and more expensive in relation to the number of
people using them (these processes were analysed by a. Zobena, a. Benga,
i. lace). he researchers from slovenia concentrated on the problems of
inheritance procedures of family farms in the light of a growing aversion
of the young generation for such a career path3.
a inal issue discussed by researchers from this part of Europe were social
inequalities in the countryside, referring to certain groups of inhabitants:
connected with ethnic background (limited access to education of roma
youth in Hungarian schools) and gender, but also to the countryside as
a whole (limited access to European resources, the widening development
gap between town and countryside). hose presentations were mainly
about Hungarian villages (i.a. Morell, M. draganova, K. Kovcs, J. szalai),
romanian (a. T. szab, l. Peti) and Bosnian (M. Vittuari, s. Berjan,
H. Bilali, a. despotovic). of particular interest to the researchers were
those groups which experience multiple forms of marginalization, e.g.
(the roma) ethnic background, age and gender (which determines access
to the labour market but also their role in the family). indeed some of
the researchers (szab did point to certain systemic solutions which are
intended to prevent instances of marginalization and discrimination
(a practice of inclusion into the education system) but those solutions
proved to be inefective, in fact bringing opposite consequences (szalai),
i.e. further segregation of a ghetto-like nature. apart from revealing
the processes of growing inequalities and a diagnosis of the level of
marginalization, the authors also tried to solve questions about whether
marginalized people/groups respond actively to discrimination processes
or are rather the passive recipients of aid (i. Morell).
he subject matter of the congress is only seemingly alien to researchers
from central and Eastern Europe however, we perceive the problem
of unequal access to socially desirable goods, including the basic ones
(a varied diet, hygiene, health care, social care) and the empowerment
3
see the text on this subject in the current issue of EEc (M. erni isteni, duka
Kneevi Hoevar, intergenerational assistance on family farms in slovenia: Expectations
and Practices).
285
of socially and inancially marginalized groups. although the problem of

food security was not heard in the presentations of researchers from this
part of the world, it is also an inspiring course for discussion in our region
because it is connected with the claim for a balanced, long-term economic
development aimed at balancing social diferences.
doi: 10.2478/eec-2013-0015
19 2013
ukasz M. Dominiak
Anton tefnek the Precursor of Slovakian

Rural Sociology
anton tefnek was born on 15th april 1877 into a village cobblers family
in the village of Wielkie lewary in Moravia. When he was 10, his family
who sufered health and inancial problems moved to drsing in austria.
hat was where the young boy inished his primary schooling in German
and where the local priest having noticed his talent urged antons parents
to send him to secondary school in Vienna with his inancial assistance.
hat was a turning point in tefneks life as he had until then been
training to become a cobbler and his familys inancial means did not
allow for the planning of an alternative career. However, good luck alone
was not suicient for a teenage boy from the Moravian countryside to
ind the beginning of his career in the school discipline of the Viennese
metropolis. it was no doubt his adaptability in conditions of a culturally
and linguistically diverse environment which had been cultivated since
his early childhood spent in the Moravian multi-ethnic and multi-faith
countryside. Both there and in drsing tefnek had a good social life,
making friends with the altar boys. He learnt how to distinguish the
complicated religious and cultural mosaic of the austro-Hungarian Empire.
He declared his ailiation with the slovak catholics and assumed slovak
national identity through his German language education and internalizing
German culture.
in all, he spent 16 years in Vienna. While still at school he had to start
working, mainly as a private coach to support himself and his parents. He
passed his matriculation examination with good results and during his
288
ukasz Dominiak
7 years at university tefnek only completed 6 semesters at the faculty of

philosophy. He was interested in the fashionable philosophers Hegel,
fichte, Kant, darwin, Mach and Plato with no particular preference (he
did not ind a master among his professors). in 1898 he became involved
in the Moravian National democratic Movement in the Nrod (nation)
society under the leadership of Pavel Blaha. He became interested in the
question of nation and state in philosophy (he read Plato, Montesquieu,
rousseau, Hegel and Masaryk). he irst issue of Hlas appeared that
year a periodical expressing the programme of the democratic fraction
of the union of slovak students which tefnek belonged to and ater
terminating his activity for inancial reasons in 1904, he continued his
work as the editor of slovesk obzor a similar periodical published in
Budapest until 1908.
Until 1918 he devoted his writing to journalism and editing periodicals
such as ludove noviny and Nrodn listy. He also wrote for other
editorial oices. His writing at that time was engaged and didactic. tefnek
supported the idea of the slovak nation as a democratic community of all
social strata and an autonomous part of the slovak people. at that time
he was not interested in sociology, neither from the theoretical nor from
the empirical point of view. Between 1918 and 1923 tefnek devoted his
attention to the service of the czechoslovak nation, organising education
and the educational system at ministerial level. in 1924 he acquired
a doctorate in philosophy at the Komenski University in Bratislava.
a year later he returned to working as a member of parliament, senator
and minister. He showed an interest in slovak academic sociology from
an institutional aspect (he took part in the founding of the academic
periodical ociologick revue and insisted that sociology be taught at the
faculty of philosophy) but his writing continued to be mainly journalistic
or doctrinal.
When his political position weakened in the late thirties he turned to
academic and didactic work at the Komenski University in 1937. at the
age of 60 he was appointed private professor and founded the department
of applied sociology. He started studying national sociology and rural
sociology but his studies were interrupted with the winding up of the
independent university and the takeover of the slovakian protectorate by
Nazi Germany. despite his work load, inancial diiculties and inadequate
working conditions anton tefnek managed to gather a group of students
Anton tefnek the Precursor of Slovakian Rural Sociology
289
and continued his research focus in the area of sociography and ield
research. hat resulted in the publication in 1945 of his chef doeuvre he
foundations of sociology in slovakia.
He continued working at the university until sociology was done away
with in 1950 for political reasons.
at that time a generation of young slovak sociologists came to
prominence. (P. Gula, a. Hirner), who difered from tefnek in many
ways but nevertheless a certain continuity was maintained. at that time
the number of slovak sociologists among the staf grew, the periodical
(sociologick sbornik 19451948) was reactivated and tefnek hoped for
the post-war revival of that discipline in his country. However, the growing
aversion of the administration led to the closure of academic activity of
bourgeois sociology in spite of protests and the domination of this
ield by historical materialism until the mid-sixties (strmiska, Vavakova
1990). in March 1949 anton tefnek was sent away to retire. He died on
29th april 1964 in iar.
References
strmiska, Z. and Vavakova B., 1990. Sociology in Czechoslovakia. in: Jiri T. Kolaja,
Man s. das (eds.), Glimpses of sociology in Eastern Europe, New delhi, pp.
65110.
Wincawski, W., 1991. Lud, nard, socjologia. Studium o genezie socjologii sowackiej
(he people, the nation, sociology. A study about the Genesis of Slovakian
Sociology), Toru: UMK, pp. 117154.
AUTHORS
annemarie Burandt
leuphana Universitt lneburg,
annemarie.burandt@uni.leuphana.de
Majda ernic isteni
Biotechnical faculty, ljubljana University, slovenia
majda.cernic.istenic@bf.uni-lj.si
Nata ciric
Ministry of Economy and regional development of the republic of serbia,
nata.ciric@gmail.com
octavian cocos
University of Bucharest, faculty of Geography,
octaviancocos@yahoo.com
ukasz M. dominiak
institute of sociology, Nicolaus copernicus University,
lukasz.dominiak@umk.pl
duka Kneevi Hoevar
Biotechnical faculty, ljubljana University, slovenia
Karel Janda
research school of Economics and centre for European studies at australian
National University, faculty of finance and accounting, University
of Economics, Prague and institute of Economic studies, faculty of social
sciences, charles University in Prague and ailiate fellow at cErGE-Ei,
Karel-Janda@seznam.cz
Kinga Kerekes
Universitatea Babes-Bolyai, cluj-Napoca,
kinga.kerekes5@gmail.com
andrzej Kaleta
kaleta@umk.pl
292
authors
monika.kwiecinska@umk.pl
friederike lang
leuphana Universitat luneburg,
friderike.lang@uni.leuphana.de
Gabriela Manea
maneagabriela2002@yahoo.com
Marian Marin
marin_marian@yahoo.com
Elena Matei
No1. N. Balcescu avenue, sector1, Bucharest,
e_matei58@yahoo.com
Bernadett Pakucs
Universitatea Babes-Bolyai, cluj-Napoca,
pakucsbernadett@yahoo.com
Elwira Piszczek
elwirapi@umk.pl
Gordon rausser
department of agricultural and resource Economics,
University of california, Berkeley,
rausser@berkeley.edu
lela ristic
University of Kragujevac faculty of Economics,
lelaristic1@yahoo.com
regina schrader
regina.schrader@uni.leuphana.de
authors
Magdalena sternicka-Kowalska
department of sociology, University of Warmia and Mazury, olsztyn
sternicka.magda@gmail.com
Wadim strielkowski
institute of Economic studies, faculty of social sciences,
charles University in Prague, strielkowski@fsv.cuni.cz
Krystyna szafraniec
krystyna.szafraniec@umk.pl
anna szumelda
institut fr Nachhaltigkeitssteuerung,
leuphana Universitt lneburg,
anna.szumelda@uni.leuphana.de
anja hiem
anja.thiem@uni.leuphana.de
adrian Tiscovschi
No1. N. Balcescu avenue, sector1, Bucharest,
tiscovschi@yahoo.com
iuliana Vijulie
iuluiana911@yahoo.com
Milica Vujicic
state University of Novi Pazar department of Economics,
vujicicmilica@yahoo.com
Grzegorz Zabocki
grzegorz@umk.pl
293
INDEX. OUR AUTHORS AND THEIR ARTICLES

Nos. 10/2004 19/2013 of EasTErN EUroPEaN coUNTrYsidE
Adamski Tomasz institute of sociology, Jagiellonian University, cracow, Poland,

e-atomek@wp.pl
Knowledge dynamics and Non-agricultural Economy in European rural
development, No. 14 (2008)
Adamski Wadysaw institute of Philosophy and sociology, Polish academy
of sciences, Warsaw, Poland, wadamski@iispan.waw.pl
Evaluative remarks on Eastern European countryside, No. 11 (2005)
Baj Gabriella szchenyi istvn University, Gyr, Hungary, bajg@rkk.hu
changing rural areas, No. 16 (2010)
Babi Vedrana faculty of sciences, University of Novi sad,
lazarevic8822@yahoo.com
he Mystery of Vlach Magic in the rural areas of 21st century serbia,
No. 18 (2012)
Barlsius Eva institute of sociology and social Psychology, leibniz University,
Hannover, Germany, e.barloesius@ish.uni-hannover.de
failure as a Precondition for success the Transformation of East German
agriculture revisited, No. 15 (2009)
Baum Sabine leibniz institute of agricultural development in central and
Eastern Europe (iaMo), Halle (saale), Germany, baum@iamo.de
he Tourist Potential of rural areas in Poland, No. 17 (2011)
Bieniecka Sabina institute of sociology, Nicolaus copernicus University, Toru,
Poland, sb@doktorant.umk.pl
Energy and culture, No. 14 (2008)
296
index. our authors and their articles. Nos. 10/2004 19/2013 of EEc
Birgiel Grayna institute of sociology, Nicolaus copernicus University, Toru,

Poland, grazute@poczta.onet.pl
Kazimieras Paltarokas he Precursor of lithuanian rural sociology,
No. 10 (2004)
Blei Ivana faculty of sciences,University of Novi sad,
ivana.blesic@gmail.com
No. 18 (2012)
Borowicz Ryszard institute of sociology, Nicolaus copernicus University, Toru,
Poland, ryszardborowicz@neostrada.pl
rural students: social inequalities in access to Higher Education in Presentday Poland, No. 13 (2007)
Boscoboinik Andrea institute of social anthropology, University of fribourg,
switzerland, andrea.boscoboinik@unifr.ch
Not all roads lead to rome, 18 Years later, No. 17 (2011)
Brown David L. department of development sociology, cornell University,
Usa, dlb17@cornell.edu
Public Perceptions of Population changes in Hungary, No. 15 (2009)
Bugovics Zoltn szchenyi istvn University, Gyr, Hungary,
bugozoli@gmail.com
he sociological legacy of ferenc Erdei: he double structure of Hungarian
society, No. 17 (2011)
rudolf andorka, an Emblematic Hungarian sociologist of the second Half
of the 20th century, No. 18 (2012)
Bukraba Rylska Izabella institute for rural and agricultural development,
Polish academy of sciences, Warsaw, Poland, ibukraba@irwirpan.waw.pl
Polish Migrating from Globetrotting to see-sawing, No. 15 (2009)
Burandt Annemarie institt fr Nachhaltigkeitssteuerung, Universitt
lneburg, Germany, annemarie.burandt@uni.leuphana.de
297
Working in regional agro-food Networks strengthening rural development

hrough cooperation, No. 19 (2013)
erni-Isteni Majda Biotechnical faculty, ljubljana University, slovenia,

majda.cernic.istenic@bf.uni-lj.si
diferences in fertility Behaviour among the farm, rural and Urban
Populations in slovenia, No. 15 (2009)
international assistance on family farms in slovenia: Expectations and
Practices, No. 19 (2013)
Ciric Nata Ministry of Economy and regional development of the republic
of serbia, nata.ciric@gmail.com
local initiatives for rural Vitality and social inclusion: some Experiences
from serbia, No. 19 (2013)
Cocos Octavian faculty of Geography, University of Bucharest, romania,
octaviancocos@yahoo.com
Tradition and Modernity in the romanian rural space. case study: the arges
sub-carpathian foothills, No. 19 (2013)
Constantin Marin francisc rainer institute of anthropology, Bucharest,
romania, marinconstantinro@yahoo.com
on the Ethnographic categorization of Biodiversity in the danube delta
Biosphere reserve, No. 18 (2012)
Csurg Bernadett institute for Political science, Hungarian academy of sciences,
Budapest, Hungary, csbetti@mtapti.hu
Urban Pressure a recent Phenomenon. he Valley of arts, No. 10 (2004)
Depraz Samuel
Paternalistic countryside: the Hard Way Towards local development in the
rural Municipalities of central Hungary, No. 12 (2006)
Dobreva Stanka institute of sociology, Bulgarian academy of sciences, Bulgaria,
stanka_dobreva@yahoo.com
he Bulgarian Village Today and the Paradoxes of the hird age, No. 13
(2007)
298
Dosch Axel institut fr soziokonomie, Zentrum fr agrarlandschatsund

landnutzungsforschung, Mnchenberg, Germany, adosch@zalf.de
cooperative Networks in rural development Experiences from the Pilot
Programme regional action, No. 11 (2005)
Dominiak ukasz M. institute of sociology, Nicolaus copernicus University,
Toru, Poland, lukasz@umk.pl
anton tefnek the Precursor of slovakian rural sociology, No. 19 (2013)
Dragin Aleksandra department of Geography, Tourism and Hotel Management,
faculty of sciences, University of Novi sad, serbia, saska5geo@yahoo.com
No. 18 (2012)
Drg Zbigniew institute of sociology, Jagiellonian University, cracow, Poland,
usdrag@cyf-kr.edu.pl
Women on combine Harvesters? Women as farm operators in
contemporary Poland, No. 18 (2012)
Dzwonkowska Krystyna institute of sociology, University of d, Poland,
kdzwonkowska@op.pl
Espaol Eloi department of rural sociology, University of Missouri columbia,
Usa, Ee8r4@mizzou.edu
Entrepreneurial attitudes in a Post-communist Transitional rural Economy:
he case of Moldova, No. 17 (2011)
he inluence of farm size on Gendered involvement in crop cultivation and
decision-making responsibility of Moldovan farmers, No. 18 (2012)
Fadeeva Olga P. institute of Economics and industrial Engineering, russian
academy of sciences, Novosibirsk, russia, fadeeva@ieie.nsc.ru
he development of agriculture in the siberian communities of russia,
No. 17 (2011)
299
Gabor Gldi szent istvn University of Gdll, Hungary

sport activities by settlement and region in Hungary, No. 10 (2004)
Giordano Christian institute of Ethnology, University of fribourg, switzerland,
christian.Giordano@uni.fr
Multi-cultural relations in rural Bulgaria, No. 12 (2006)
Multiple Modernities in Bulgaria: social strategies of capitalist Entrepreneurs
in the agrarian sector, No. 16 (2010)
Gorlach Krzysztof institute of sociology, Jagiellonian University, cracow,
Poland, kgorlach@interia.pl
Between Hopes and fears: rural Eastern Europe on its Way to Europe, No. 12
(2006)
XXii European congress of rural sociology Wageningen 2007, No. 14
(2008)
Goszczyski Wojciech institute of sociology, Nicolaus copernicus University,
Toru, Poland, wojciech.goszczynski@gmail.com
sustained development and land Management, No. 13 (2007)
New Textbooks of rural sociology in Poland, No. 15 (2009)
strengthening alternative agro-food Networks in the Eastern European
countryside, No. 17 (2011)
Gottschlich Daniela institt fr Nachhaltigkeitssteuerung, Universitt lneburg,
Germany, daniela.gottschlich@uni.leuphana.de
socio-ecological research: he cases of rural development and agrobiotechnology, No. 18 (2012)
Grigsby Mary department of rural sociology, University of Missouri columbia,
Usa, grigsbym@missouri.edu
300

Halamska Maria institute for rural and agricultural development, Polish

academy of sciences, Warsaw, Poland, m.halamska@uw.edu.pl
Henri Mendras (19272003), No. 10 (2004)
changing Property structures in central European agriculture in the Process
of decollectivisation: he social aspect of appropriation, No. 14 (2008)
Ivkov Digurski Anjelija department of Geography, Tourism and Hotel
Management, faculty of sciences, University of Novi sad, serbia,
ivkova@uns.ac.rs
he Mystery of Vlach Magic in the rural areas of 21st century serbia, No. 18
(2012)
Jakimowski Jorde institute for sociological, Political and Juridical research,
skopje, Macedonia, jakjor@isppi.ukim.edu.mk
he socio-demographic context of rural Poverty, No. 16 (2010)
Janda Karel institute of Economic studies, faculty of social sciences, charles
University, Prague, czech republic, Karel-Janda@seznam.cz
determinants of Probability of Polish rural Micro-enterprises at the Time
of EU accession, No. 19 (2013)
Jsz Krisztina centre for regional studies, Hungarian academy of sciences,
Hungary, jaszk@rkk.hu
Poverty and social Exclusion in the rural areas of Hungary, No. 16 (2010)
Juska Arunas department of sociology, East carolina University, Usa,
juskaa@ecu.edu
conceptualising the rise of the rural community Movement in lithuania:
a framework for analysis, No. 16 (2010)
Lise Herslund institute of Geography, University of copenhagen, denmark,
liHE@kvl.dk
he Hidden countryside social relations in a latvian rural area, No. 10
(2004)
301
Kaleta Andrzej institute of sociology, Nicolaus copernicus University, Toru,

Poland, kaleta@umk.pl
Museums as an instrument for Protecting the Heritage of Europes rural areas
and Building the Quality of life of its inhabitants, No. 13 (2007)
rural society of European Peripheries, No. 14 (2008)
introduction the 20th anniversary of Eastern European countryside,
No. 19 (2013)
Kaleta Joanna independent author
Museums as an instrument for Protecting the Heritage of Europes rural areas
and Building the Quality of life of its inhabitants, No. 13 (2007)
Kalugina Zemira I. institute of Economics and industrial Engineering, russian
academy of sciences, Novosibirsk, russia, zima@ieie.nsc.ru
he rural labour Market in Present day russia, No. 11 (2005)
institutional Traps in the agrarian Transformation in russia, No. 13 (2007)
he development of agriculture in the siberian communities of russia,
No. 17 (2011)
Kanef Deema department resilience and Transformation in Eurasia,
Max Planck institute for social anthropology, Halle, Germany,
kanef@eth.mpg.de
Holiday location or agricultural Village? British Property owners in rural
Bulgaria, No. 12 (2006)
Kaufmann Peter science of Technology Policy research, University of sussex,
UK, P.Kaufmann@sussex.ac.uk
Measuring Quality of life in rural Europe a review of conceptual
foundations, No. 13 (2007)
Kelemen Eszter institute for Political science, Hungarian academy of sciences,
Budapest, Hungary, institute of Environmental and landscape Management,
szent istvn University of Gdll, Hungary, kelemeneszter@mtapti.hu
he role of collective Marketing initiatives in Hungarian agriculture,
No. 13 (2007)
302
Kerekes Kinga University Babes-Bolyai, cluj-Napoca, romania,

kinga.kerekes5@gmail.com
occupational choices of romanian rural Youth, No. 19 (2013)
Klank Leszek institute for rural and agricultural development, Polish academy
of sciences, Warsaw, Poland, leszek.klank@interia.pl
income diferentiation of Polish farmers, No. 10 (2004)
Klepacka Dorota institute for rural and agricultural development, Polish
academy of sciences, Warsaw, Poland, dorotaklepacka@wp.pl
Trade liberalisation and Multifunctionality of agriculture, No. 10 (2004)
Kneevi Hoevar Duka institute at the research centre, slovenian academy
of sciences & arts, ljubljana, slovenia, duska@zrc-sazu.si
international assistance on family farms in slovenia: Expectations and
Practices, No. 19 (2013)
Knie Wojciech institute of sociology, Nicolaus copernicus University, Toru,
Poland, kniec@umk.pl
strengthening alternative agro-food Networks in the Eastern European
Koleva Daniela faculty of Philosophy, st Kliment ohridski University of soia,
Bulgaria, g_koleva@usa.net
social capital and social Trust in the Post-socialist countryside, No. 15
(2009)
Kopoteva Inna finnish centre for russian and East European studies, University
of Helsinki, finland, inna.kopoteva@helsinki.i
Migration as a factor of instability of rural society, No. 10 (2004)
from Government to Governance: is here such a shit in the russian
countryside?, No. 11 (2005)
Koi Kristina faculty of sciences, University of Novi sad,
tinicaus@yahoo.com
he Mystery of Vlach Magic in the rural areas of 21st century serbia, No. 18
(2012)
303
Kostova Dobrinka institute for the study of society and Knowledge, Bulgarian
academy of sciences, soia, Bulgaria, kostov11@abv.bg
Multi-cultural relations in rural Bulgaria, No. 12 (2006)
diversity and inequality in rural Europe he Bulgarian case, No. 18
(2012)
Kovcs Dezs szent istvn University of Gdll, Hungary,
kovacs.dezso@gtk.szie.hu
rural issues from the Gender perspective in the New democracies during
and ater Transition, No. 13 (2007)
Kovcs Katalin centre for regional studies, Hungarian academy of sciences,
Pcs, Hungary, kovacsk@rkk.hu
social and administrative crises interlocking: he Misery of rural Peripheries
in Hungary, No. 16 (2010)
Kovcs Terz centre for regional studies, Hungarian academy of sciences,
Pcs, Hungary, kovachst@rkk.hu
diferent disparities between the Hungarian Urban and rural areas during
the New capitalism, No. 14 (2008)
Kozhuharova Veska institute of sociology, Bulgarian academy of sciences,
Bulgaria, stanka_dobreva@yahoo.com
he Bulgarian Village Today and the Paradoxes of the hird age, No. 13
(2007)
Krzyaniak Justyna M. foundation of assistance Programmes for agriculture
(faPa), Warsaw, Poland, j.krzyzaniak@fapa.org.pl
EU funds for the Polish countryside and agriculture, No. 17 (2011)
Kuerov Eva department of Humanities, University of life sciences, Prague,
czech republic, kucerova@pef.czu.cz
rural anticipation of the Welfare state in the czech republic, No. 10 (2004)
Kulcsr J. Lszl department of sociology, anthropology and social Work,
Kansas state University, Usa, laszlokulcsar@yahoo.com
Public Perceptions of Population changes in Hungary, No. 15 (2009)
304
Kulcsr Lszl szent istvn University of Gdll, Hungary,

h12498kul@helka.iif.hu
sport activities by settlement and region in Hungary, No. 10 (2004)
Kriinait Lina independent author
rural Population incomes in lithuania, No. 10 (2004)
Kwieciska-Zdrenka Monika institute of sociology, Nicolaus copernicus
University, Toru, Poland, monika.kwiecinska@umk.pl
50th anniversary of sociologia ruralis the discursive space for European
rural sociology, No. 17 (2011)
he Polish countryside in statistics, No. 19 (2013)
central and Eastern European countryside from an international Perspective
(irsa congress in lisbon, 2012), No. 19 (2013)
Laschewski Lutz Technical University of cottbus, Germany,
laschewski@mac.com
Boundless opportunities? Visions and setbacks to digital learning in rural
areas, No. 14 (2008)
he formation and destruction of social capital lessons from East German
rural restructuring, No. 15 (2009)
Latrufe Laure iNra-Esr rennes, france, laure.latrufe@rennes.inra.fr
functioning of the rural credit Market in Poland: case studies of farmers
and Banks, No. 11 (2005)
Lindbloom Jana institute of sociology, slovak academy of sciences, Bratislava,
slovak republic, jana.lindbloom@savba.sk
a far-reaching shit in argumentation: Parliamentary debates on (Post)
socialist agricultural cooperatives in the 1990s, No. 18 (2012)
Macig Jolanta independent author, maciagbi@wp.pl
Transformation Trends in central and Eastern Europe, No. 11 (2005)
central Eastern Europe feedback seminar Multiagri WP4 Multifunctionality
of activities, Helsinki, 34 december 2004, No. 11 (2005)
305
rural Problem in the Baltic countryside, No. 12 (2006)

Tourism and regional development, No. 13 (2007)
sustainable rural system, No. 15 (2009)
Macken-Walsh ine Teagasc rural Economy research centre, ireland, ine.

mackenwalsh@teagasc.ie
Towards a transverse inter-sectoral debate? a case study of the rural
Partnership programme (rPP) in Post-socialist lithuania, No. 16 (2010)
Majerov Vra department of Humanities, University of life sciences, Prague,
czech republic, majerova@pef.czu.cz
lacking or Missed opportunities: the case of czech rural Women, No. 10
(2004)
local initiatives functioning as a condition of rural development of the
czech countryside, No. 15 (2009)
Makkos-Kldi Judit Kautz Gyula faculty of Economics, szchenyi istvn
University, Gyr, Hungary, kaldij@sze.hu
he synergies of Tourism and agriculture for rural restructuring, No. 18
(2012)
Manea Gabriela department of regional Geography and Environment,
Bucharest University, romania, maneagabriela2002@yahoo.com
Marciniak Tomasz institute of sociology, Nicolaus copernicus University,
Toru, Poland, tomk@umk.pl
Poverty in the armenian countryside, No. 16 (2010)
Marin Marian department of regional Geography and Environment, Bucharest
University, romania, marin_marian@yahoo.com
Matei Elena Human and Economic Geography department, Bucharest
University, romania, e_matei58@yahoo.com
306
Megyesi Boldizsr institute for Political science, Hungarian academy of

sciences, Budapest, Hungary,bmegyesi@mtapti.hu
he role of collective Marketing initiatives in Hungarian agriculture,
No. 13 (2007)
Michalska Sylwia institute for rural and agricultural development, Polish
academy of sciences, Warsaw, Poland, siba@wp.pl
family farming in PolandWhat Next?, No. 10 (2004)
he common agricultural Policys challenges ater EU Enlargement,
No. 11 (2005)
democracy and local Government in Poland an analysis of change in the
Past Twenty Years, No. 13 (2007)
changes in the Way rural inhabitants Understand the concept of Property
Various Perspectives of the analysis of the Transformation Taking Place in
the countryside, No. 16 (2010)
Michaek Jerzy department of agricultural Economics, christian-albrechts
University, Kiel, Germany, jmichalek@agric-econ.uni-kiel.de
Mikiewicz Piotr University of lower silesia, Wrocaw, Poland,
pioterek@onet.pl
rural social capital versus European and Global challenges (about good
and bad social capital), No. 15 (2009)
Mlders Tanja Umweltwissenschatlerin leuphana, Universitt lneburg,
Germany, tanja.moelders@uni.leuphana.de
Momsen Janet D. department of Human and community development,
University of california, Usa, jdmomsen@ucdavis.edu
Gender and rural Tourism in Western Hungary, No. 13 (2007)
307
Mwiska Anna institute of sociology, Nicolaus copernicus University, Toru,

Poland
he Efects of Transformation in central and Eastern Europe, No. 14 (2008)
Nemenyi Agnes institute of sociology, Babe-Bolayi University, cluj-Napoca,
romania, anemenyi@hiphi.ubbcluj.ro
cultural and Ethnic determinants of land Use and inheritance in romania,
No. 16 (2010)
Neu Claudia institute of sociology and demography, University of rostock,
Germany, claudia.neu@vti.bund.de
failure as a Precondition for success the Transformation of East German
agriculture revisited, No. 15 (2009)
Nowak Piotr institute of sociology, Jagiellonian University, cracow, Poland,
piotr.nowak@uj.edu.pl
OBrien David department of rural sociology, University of Missouri, columbia,
Usa, obriendj@missouri.edu
land reform and land relations in rural russia, No. 11 (2005)
Household capital, sources of income and stratiication in rural russian
Villages, No. 14 (2008)
Pakucs Bernadett University Babes-Bolyai, cluj-Napoca, romania,
pakucsbernadett@yahoo.com
occupational choices of romanian rural Youth, No. 19 (2013)
Papageorgiou Fouli PrisMa centre for development studies, athens, Greece,
foulipapageorgiou@prismanet.gr
European academy for sustainable rural development, No. 10 (2004)
308
he impact of lifelong learning Policies on the inclusion of Vulnerable

Groups, No. 14 (2008)
Pthy dm centre for regional studies, Hungarian academy of sciences,

Pcs, Hungary, pathya@rkk.hu
learn to coexist. learn to hrive. he impact of lifelong learning Policies
on the inclusion of Vulnerable Groups, No. 14 (2008)
Patsiorkovsky Valery institute for the socio-Economics studies, Moscow,
russian academy of sciences, patsv@mail.ru
Household capital, sources of income and stratiication in rural russian
Villages, No. 14 (2008)
renewable Natural resources in North-west russia, No. 16 (2010)
Pilichowski Andrzej institute of sociology, University of d, Poland,
pilan@uni.lodz.pl
Piekosz Julita institute of sociology, Nicolaus copernicus University, Toru,
Poland, julcia1980@gmail.com
he Precursors of Bulgarian rural sociology, No. 11 (2005)
Piszczek Elwira institute of sociology, Nicolaus copernicus University, Toru,
Poland, elwirapi@umk.pl
New areas of research in German rural sociology, No. 11 (2005)
he situation of illegal Polish seasonal Workers in German agriculture,
No. 12 (2006)
Tradition and Modernity in south-Eastern Europe the Balkan countries
search for heir own Way of social development in a Modern, United
Europe, No. 17 (2011)
life and Work in rural Germany, No. 19 (2013)
309
Pluskota Anna institute of sociology, Nicolaus copernicus University, Toru,

Poland, plus@umk.pl
central and East European countryside and agriculture from the Japanese
Perspective, No. 11 (2005)
lifelong learning for inclusion - Between heory and Practice, No. 16 (2010)
he Multidimensionality and ambivalence of inequality and diversity in
European rural areas, No. 18 (2012)
Pokorska Anna institute of sociology, Nicolaus copernicus University, Toru,
Poland, anan.p@interia.pl
New Textbooks of rural sociology in Poland, No. 15 (2009)
icT for inclusive learning: the Way forward, No. 18 (2012)
Poniedziaek Jacek department of sociology, University of Warmia and Mazury,
olsztyn, Poland, 2jjpp@wp.pl
drought in Bulgaria, No. 12 (2006)
Energy and culture, No. 14 (2008)
Poviliunas Arunas department of sociology, Vilnius University, lithuania,
povilar@deli.lt
conceptualising the rise of the rural community Movement in lithuania:
a framework for analysis, No. 16 (2010)
Pro-Nowak Natalia institute of sociology, Nicolaus copernicus University,
Toru, Poland,pron@umk.pl
report on European Events devoted to rural sociology in 2005, No. 12
(2006)
Gender at the Border. Entrepreneurship in rural Post-socialist Hungary,
No. 13 (2007)
he XVii World congress of rural sociology Goyang 2008, No. 15 (2009)
re-inventing the rural: Between the social and the Natural. XXiii Esrs
congress Vaasa 2009, No. 16 (2010)
Radu Raluca Nicoleta faculty of Journalism and Mass communication studies,
University of Bucharest, romania, rraluca@hotmail.com
he Business Media for the rural Word - an analysis on the romanian
audiovisual, No. 18 (2012)
310
Rausser Gordon department of agricultural and resource Economics,

University of california, Berkeley, Usa, rausser@berkeley.edu
Ristic Lela faculty of Economics, University of Kragujevac, serbia,
lelaristic1@yahoo.com
Ritter Kritin institute for rural development and Extension, szent istvn
University of Gdll, Hungary, ritterphd@hotmail.com
he role of agriculture in rural development in Hungary, No. 10 (2004)
Rossier Ruth research station agroscope reckenholz-Tnikon (arT),
switzerland, ruth.rossier@art.admin.ch
cultural and Ethnic determinants of land Use and inheritance in romania,
No. 16 (2010)
Ruegg Franois institute of social anthropology, University of fribourg,
switzerland, francois.ruegg@unifr.ch
Not all roads lead to rome, 18 Years later, No. 17 (2011)
Rus Alin University Babes-Bolyai, cluj-Napoca, romania,
rusalin445@yahoo.com
rural development versus Traditionalism and synergy versus Poverty in
rural romania, No. 10 (2004)
Rysavy Dan department of sociology and Education of the adults,
Philosophical faculty Palacky University, olomouc, he czech republic,
rysavyd@fnw.upol.cz
changes in the local Political Elite in small Towns and rural areas. does
revolution devour its children?, No. 12 (2006)
Schoenmaker Lotte department of anthropology and development studies,
radboud University Nijmegen, he Netherlands
311
institutional Transformation in the agricultural sector of the former soviet

Bloc. decollectivisation of Mongolias countryside in comparison with russia,
No. 17 (2011)
Siebert Rosemarie institut fr soziokonomie, Zentrum fr agrarlandschatsund

landnutzungsforschung, Mnchenberg, Germany, rsiebert@zalf.de
cooperative Networks in rural development Experiences from the Pilot
Programme regional action, No. 11 (2005)
iki-Mianovi Lynette institute of social sciences ivo Pilar, Zagreb, croatia,
lyn@pilar.hr
Womens contribution to rural development in croatia: roles, Participation
and obstacles, No. 15 (2009)
he Meanings and Experiences of domestic labour among rural Women
in croatia, No. 17 (2011)
Sikora Ewa department of sociology, University of Warmia and Mazury,
olsztyn, Poland, ewasikora@poczta.onet.pl
Youth from rural communities: social inequalities in access to Education,
No. 13 (2007)
Stagl Sigrid science of Technology Policy research, University of sussex, UK,
s.stagl@sussex.ac.uk
Starosta Pawe institute of sociology, University of d, Poland,
socwim@uni.lodz.pl
Transformation of Estonian agriculture and countryside, No. 11 (2005)
Sterbling Anton fachhochschule fr Polizei sachsen, rothenburg, Germany,
sterbling@t-online.de
a Portrait of the romanian countryside, No. 10 (2004)
312
Sternicka-Kowalska Magdalena department of sociology, University of Warmia

and Mazury, olsztyn, Poland, sternicka.magda@gmail.com
regional aspects of social and Economic restructuring in Eastern Europe,
No. 19 (2013)
Stevanovi ura faculty of agriculture, Belgrade University, serbia,
djurstev@eunet.rs
fiteen Years of the international scientiic conference Vlasina Encounters
(19952009), No. 16 (2010)
Streifeler Friedhelm fG agrarsoziologie, Humboldt Universitt zu Berlin,
Germany, friedhelm.streifeler@rz.hu-berlin.de
continuation of the farm versus Growing or disappearing Part-time
farming in Germany, No. 10 (2004)
he situation of illegal Polish seasonal Workers in German agriculture,
No. 12 (2006)
Strielkowski Wadim institute of Economic studies, faculty of social sciences,
charles University, Prague, czech republic, strielkowski@gmail.com
Swain Nigel centre for central and Eastern European studies,University
of liverpool, United Kingdom, swainnj@liverpool.ac.uk
Hungarian spaces and Places, No. 12 (2006)
he role of Youth Entrepreneurship in local development, No. 15 (2009)
Szafraniec Krystyna institute of sociology, Nicolaus copernicus University,
Toru, Poland, krystyna.szafraniec@cc.uni.torun.pl
rural social capital versus European and Global challenges (about good
and bad social capital), No. 15 (2009)
looking for a speciicity of rural Youth. he Polish case, No. 19 (2013)
Szrnyin-Kukorelli Irn centre for regional studies, Hungarian academy
of sciences, Pcs, Hungary, sziren@rkk.hu
Gender and rural Tourism in Western Hungary, No. 13 (2007)
313
Szumelda Anna institt fr Nachhaltigkeitssteuerung, Universitt lneburg,

Germany, anna.szumelda@uni.leuphana.de
is small Beautiful? he debate on the future of small individual farms in
Poland, No. 19 (2013)
homka Alexander department of agronomy and Environmental
Protection, institute for Management of rural areas, University of rostock,
alexander.thomka@auf.uni-rostock.de
he informal Economy and Viability of small family farms in romania,
No. 11 (2005)
Tsits Rbert labour Market and Equal opportunities of Geographical institute,
university of Pcs, Hungary, testis@gamma.ttk.pte.hu
Non-proit sector and Employment Expansion in the rural areas of Hungary,
No. 18 (2012)
Tiscovschi Adrian faculty of Geography, University of Bucharest, romania,
tiscovschi@yahoo.com
Torsello Davide department scienze dei linguaggi, University of Bergamo,
italy, davide.torsello@unibg.it
civil society and Environmental activism in one EU-funded Transport
development Project in slovakia, No. 16 (2010)
Tth Pter Bnki dont faculty of Budapest Polytechnic, Hungary,
Toth.Peter@bgk.bmf.hu
Knowledge society from the Point of View of rural sustainability, No. 16
(2010)
Tryfan Barbara institute for rural and agricultural development, Polish
academy of sciences, Warsaw, Poland, irwirpan.waw.pl
inter-generational relations and the Polish farmers Pension system, No. 11
(2005)
314
Vijulie Iuliana faculty of Geography, University of Bucharest, romania,

iuluiana911@yahoo.com
Visser Oane department of anthropology and development studies, radboud
University Nijmegen, he Netherlands, o.Visser@maw.ru.nl
institutional Transformation in the agricultural sector of the former soviet
Bloc. decollectivisation of Mongolias countryside in comparison with russia,
No. 17 (2011)
Vogel Stefan institute for sustainable Economic development, University
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***
our authors and their articles Nos 0 (1993) 9 (2003) of Eastern European

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NICOLAUS COPERNICUS UNIVERSITY

ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDITOR

Andrzej Kaleta Introduction the 20th Anniversary

Articles and Studies

Research Reports and Materials

Kinga Kerekes, Bernadett Pakucs Occupational Choices

Majda erni Isteni, Duka Kneevi Hoevar

Gabriela Manea, Elena Matei, Iuliana Vijulie, Marian Marin,

Eastern European Countryside 19 2013

Annemarie Burandt, Friederike Lang, Regina Schrader,

Karel Janda, Gordon Rausser, Wadim Strielkowski Determinants

Anna Szumelda Is Small Beautiful? he Debate on the Future

Reviews and information

Magdalena Sternicka-Kowalska Regional Aspects of Social

Monika Kwieciska-Zdrenka he Polish Countryside

Monika Kwieciska-Zdrenka Central and Eastern European

Classics of Central European Rural Sociology

Index. Our Authors and their Articles. Nos. 10/2004 19/2013

Introduction the 20th Anniversary of

Eastern European countryside (EEc) is celebrating its 20th anniversary

Introduction the 20th Anniversary of EEC

by cooperating with the organisers of conferences or editors of periodicals

heir names appear on the title page of the periodical.

Monika Kwieciska-Zdrenka6 has been appointed editor-in-chief of

dr Monika Kwieciska-Zdrenka is a sociologist employed at the institute of

he Status Quo of Rural Sociology as Presented

Keywords: rural sociology, regional journals, central and Eastern Europe,

he Status Quo of Rural Sociology as Presented in Four Periodicals

processes taking place outside the urban agglomerations? do they describe

he Status Quo of Rural Sociology as Presented in Four Periodicals

he Topics of Articles in RS, SR, JRS and EEC

functioning of rural inhabitants in an area covering half of Europe did not

he conclusions of a conference held in Podbanske (slovakia) on 69 december

he Status Quo of Rural Sociology as Presented in Four Periodicals

Figure 1. subject family farms

source: own research, 2012.

a relatively frequent topic of the articles was a group of issues, including

source: own research, 2012.

source: own research, 2012.

he diverse and growing interest in current agri-industrial systems

he Status Quo of Rural Sociology as Presented in Four Periodicals

Figure 4. subject Economic efects

source: own research, 2012.

source: own research, 2012.

source: own research, 2012.

he Status Quo of Rural Sociology as Presented in Four Periodicals

Figure 7. subject inequalities

source: own research, 2012.

despite their diferences, the 4 analysed periodicals should be considered

he Researched Territories and the Territorial Identity

he Status Quo of Rural Sociology as Presented in Four Periodicals

source: own research, 2012.

Figure 9. articles in sociologia ruralis according to authors and co-authors

source: own research, 2012.

source: own research, 2012.

he Status Quo of Rural Sociology as Presented in Four Periodicals

he regional identity of the authors publishing in EEC is justiied by

he Status Quo of Rural Sociology as Presented in Four Periodicals

character of these periodicals. hey portrayed 2 or 3 relatively small areas

Summary Who Needs what Kind

on Western Europe and Usa helps solve social problems in regions of

he Status Quo of Rural Sociology as Presented in Four Periodicals

Looking for a Speciicity of Rural Youth.