| 1. |
- Biegańska, Jadwiga, et al.
(författare)
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Post-socialist estates and the concept of rurality : From policy to misery
- 2015
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Ingår i: Eastern European Countryside Revisited - 25 years after the transition, 26-27 June 2015 - Toruń, Poland.
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- 1989 was a turning point within the socio-economic development in the former Eastern bloc, initiating a system transformation that affected the society at large. It also contributed to the crystallization of certain cultural landscapes, hitherto largely illegible due to the inhibition of spatial processes encountered during Communism. In Poland, after a quarter-century of free market economy, the focus on social problems began to expand to the spatial realm as well. It became apparent that the progressive social polarization that followed was most prominent in environments striated by a particular landscape type – the former State Agricultural Farm (PGR). Its dysfunctional character, noticeable in a wide array of dimensions (unemployment, poverty, social anomies, poor health, claiming attitudes, substandard housing, ghettoization) has since posed serious challenges for planners and policy-makers. Typically, estates stricken by these kinds of aggregated predicaments are associated with “urban areas” along with specific theoretical frameworks and their implications for consecutive development strategies. In that light, considering PGRs “the epitome of rurality” subject to ideas informing the direction of contemporary “rural development” prompts a different way of looking at the problem. In this paper, we investigate the concept of rurality in the discursive tenor of various development programs and contrast it with richly contextualized empirical examples. Our findings suggest that not only is the concept of rurality becoming increasingly difficult to work with on an applicative level, but – in certain environments – it may also be conducive to the reproduction of human suffering.
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| 2. |
- Biegańska, Jadwiga, et al.
(författare)
-
Post-socialist estates and the concept of rurality: From policy to misery
- 2015
-
Ingår i: Eastern European Countryside Revisited - 25 years after the transition, 26-27 June 2015 - Toruń, Poland.
-
Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- 1989 was a turning point within the socio-economic development in the former Eastern bloc, initiating a system transformation that affected the society at large. It also contributed to the crystallization of certain cultural landscapes, hitherto largely illegible due to the inhibition of spatial processes encountered during Communism. In Poland, after a quarter-century of free market economy, the focus on social problems began to expand to the spatial realm as well. It became apparent that the progressive social polarization that followed was most prominent in environments striated by a particular landscape type – the former State Agricultural Farm (PGR). Its dysfunctional character, noticeable in a wide array of dimensions (unemployment, poverty, social anomies, poor health, claiming attitudes, substandard housing, ghettoization) has since posed serious challenges for planners and policy-makers. Typically, estates stricken by these kinds of aggregated predicaments are associated with “urban areas” along with specific theoretical frameworks and their implications for consecutive development strategies. In that light, considering PGRs “the epitome of rurality” subject to ideas informing the direction of contemporary “rural development” prompts a different way of looking at the problem. In this paper, we investigate the concept of rurality in the discursive tenor of various development programs and contrast it with richly contextualized empirical examples. Our findings suggest that not only is the concept of rurality becoming increasingly difficult to work with on an applicative level, but – in certain environments – it may also be conducive to the reproduction of human suffering.
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| 3. |
- Biegańska, Jadwiga, et al.
(författare)
-
Urban-rural dichotomy in the context of dysfunctionality
- 2015
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Ingår i: 10th International Conference Man–City–Nature: “Local and regional perspectives”, 12–13 October 2015, Toruń, Poland.
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- People’s different relations towards their environment are always the result of how they perceive it and how different spatialities are ascribed symbolic meaning. Given that conceptualizations, frameworks and perceptions always guide our thoughts, judgments and actions (cf. Latour, Law, Urry, Dennett, Foucault), the particular ways in which we relate to certain concepts – and especially concepts chosen to act as inspirational guiding forces for policy development – become expressly relevant if our aim is to achieve more sustainable planning and management. At the same time, seeing policy formulation as a complex actor-network that heterogeneously combines different interests into a unified framework tacitly paves the way for a series of conceptual and practical problems for areas outside of what is considered “the norm”. There, put simply, achieving even the simplest of goals might prove problematic due to lingering preconceived visions of how issues associated with certain spatialities ought to be handled. In this presentation, we explore one such intricate interrelation by revisiting the culturally perpetuated urban-rural dichotomy as a conceptual canvas and – using examples from Poland – juxtaposing it with a type of environment victimized by its imperviousness to urban-rural ideations.
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| 4. |
- Feltynowski, Marcin, et al.
(författare)
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Some problems of local development: the example of former State Agricultural Farms in Poland
- 2015
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Ingår i: Research for Rural Development 2015, Annual 21st International Scientific Conference Proceedings, Latvia University of Agriculture, 13–15 May 2015, Jelgava, Latvia. - Jelgava : Latvia University of Agriculture. - 1691-4031 .- 2255-923X. ; 2, s. 237-243, s. 237-243
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- The paper aims at examining the levels of social cohesion and socio-economic dysfunctionality in former State Agricultural Farms (post-PGR) areas, and to assess the possibilities for initiating bottom-up actions and for participating in the creation of mechanisms for local development. Data used in the study was obtained in multi-methods approach, i.e. mainly during a questionnaire survey, in-depth interviews and observation concerning the financial situation and the social environment (social problems and cohesion), that is, the elements predicted to be the key factors obstructing effective corrective actions within local development. We have demonstrated that post-PGR areas should be treated as especially problematic not only because of their economic dysfunctionality, but mainly because of the complex social problems they experience (lack of local ties, hostility, aggression between neighbors). Such a difficult environment requires substantial interference which should take into account the problems specific to the population. The threat resulting from the heterogeneity of such communities should be a significant factor shaping the perception of local development problems.
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