Cifrić, Ivan (2003) Ruralni razvoj i modernizacija: prilozi istraživanju ruralnog identiteta. Biblioteka Znanost i društvo (6). Institut za društvena istraživanja u Zagrebu, Zagreb. ISBN 953-6218-13-5
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Abstract
Modernization and globalization, fragmentation of culture and individualization of the lifestyle, etc., are the topics of contemporary theoretical debates as well as of the state's and civil society organizations' political engagement. This is the framework within which the issue of relation towards the environment and rural development is being posed—in particular in the context of sustainable development, but not only as the problem of various rural cultures' survival, but also as the evaluation of their experience for contemporary life. Croatian rural sociology has also dealt with different aspects of rural society and has collected rich empirical material on changes of rural peasant society and on its modernized forms. Nowadays, social ecology is also dealing with rural peasant society through its paradigmatic approach towards man's relation with nature, i.e., with the relation of the two systems: the social and the natural one. This is the point from which the author observes the changes of rural society—the traditional one and the one that has been modernized in the last century, especially in its second half. 1. The author analyses some issues of rural development as a process in Croatian society in the social-ecological paradigm. This way he wants to make the experience of the rural past actual and to provoke scientific discourse and sociological research of the rural complex and of the characteristics of rural identity. In his work he starts from the question whether the traditional rurality and the modernized one are relevant for contemporary developmental problems and how to make the traditional experience transparent for the making of a rational attitude towards the future. He distinguishes traditional and modernized villages, i.e., the ones that were shaped during socialist modernization. Each of them has some specific identity characteristics. The first modernization is related to the period of introduction of capitalism into the village, and the second one to the period from the year 1945 till the period of transition. Along with the transitional changes, the process of the third modernization began. Yet, modernization as a separate topic is not being researched, but is used rather as the context of the reflection of the topics on rural changes (social and cultural ones). Rural development has until now occurred mostly stochastically and as the consequence of industrialization and urbanization, i.e., of the course of modernization, which has unmystified the first post-modern society and the traditional rural culture, and even that in it can be designated as progress. Therefore, it is more appropriate to talk about rural changes that have simply happened until now than about rural development. Modernization has today overridden the boundaries of national states thus intensifying the issue of development within the national borders, so globalization (ambivalent in many aspects) became the necessary framework for discussions about the prospect of rural development. Rurality is a multifaceted symbol of the idea of the new orientation in the man-nature relation that is nowadays being more technically mediated. The problem is not a technical one, as it might seem at first sight, but behind what has been named an "ecological crisis" the essence of modern culture is being revealed as "the culture of short-term," "the culture of new capitalism" and of its consequences, among which the reproduction of structures and cultures of "simultaneous simultaneity" as the existence of the "complementary world." That is why the problem is socially-ecologically conditioned, it can't be partially solved and it requires the useful experience of rural societies (including the peasant's, traditional society) and their values to be recognized in the context of searching for the new options of mankind survival and of the paradigms of thinking. The whole "rejected" world, the world of tradition and rurality, has become relevant in terms of the world development, particularly for developing and transitional countries like Croatia. Those who say that we are still far from changing the pattern of modern thinking structure seem to be right. Luckily, it can be changed under the influence of new ideas and so can the action patterns, and the whole world. 2. In the first part of the book ("Rural development in globalization"), rural development is being problematized in the framework of globalization and ecologization ambivalence, as the question of changes and prospects of rural culture, and of the relation between the tradition and sustainable development. The author points out that contemporary changes occur under the domination of a few hegemonic processes: the hegemony of development, hegemony of globalization, and hegemony of ecologism. The traditional, pre-modern, peasant culture has disappeared in the course of the modernization impact—of the first and the second modernization, and in particular in the course of the processes of industrialization and urbanization. The traditional society and traditional culture cannot be renewed since there are no structures it was founded upon. The industrial society, being the bearer of development, is colliding with its own boundaries and with the consequences of linear development, which reflects also in rural societies and rural culture that have been through significant changes including their disappearance, as well. Yet, in modern societies "rural" oases have been kept and it can be an impulse to local development. The author considers the rural spaces in the world—the so-called "fourth world"—and in Croatia as well, to have been gaining importance for their cultural richness preserved through tradition. This variety of rural society fits in the ideas of "diversity" and "sustainability." Therefore, rural development is being connected with the concept of sustainable development. Rurality is nowadays on the turning point between the continuation of modernization and the preservation of its traditional originality. The former one, in its developmental paradigm until now, tending to lead to its disappearance, and the latter, i.e., the preservation of originality, is a contribution to the shaping of rural identity. Rural identity is one aspect of modern society's identity. The second part of the book ("Metabolism of rural society") problematizes the thesis of ecological metabolism as social metabolism, applied on rural society. Rural metabolism is a positive experience that can be understood as certain social-ecological paradigmatic basis in nowadays discourse on sustainable development and on its concrete practicing, especially on local level. Theoretical considerations of rural metabolism as a specific type of the man-nature relation ("Rural metabolism") and some examples from practical traditional culture of Croatian peasant society show it. Rural metabolism is taken as a pattern as it is similar to the natural metabolism where there is no unusable, excess or waste. Everything discarded by the peasant society is being consumed by nature, and everything that was naturally produced is being consumed by the society. Just like the post-modern society has been suppressed and substituted by the industrial society, so has the traditional rural metabolism been established. Modern technology, economy, management and society should strive to establish, in (post)modern society and in the world as well, such social-ecological pattern which would prevent the Earth from becoming a planet of litter. Besides the theoretical considerations, the author dedicates one chapter ("Social-ecological practice in peasant society") to ecological and social practices in peasant society, on the example of Croatian society, of course. In this chapter he states arguments from the peasants' life corroborating the thesis that the society can live in a balanced relation with nature. This balance relates to the production of material life, but also to the production of symbols, the culture. Material and symbolic sides are the components of the social-ecological paradigm. The examples of the activities in society—from production activities to symbolic ritual behaviours—linked with the behaviour connected to the production and environment, settlements, habitation and health, as well as to the attitude towards the earth and the water are stated. The third part of the book ("Ecological economy") is dedicated to the problem of ecological and industrial agriculture, as well as to the actual problems of agrarian policy in modern society. The food has become an exceptionally important world resource, so the problem of production is not only reflected in the question of the amount of food needed for the six billion inhabitants of the planet, but also questions of technology and ethics of its production. Concerning the global pollution of environment and the agricultural products, ecological (organic, biological etc.) agriculture—compared to industrial (conventional) one or lately to the aggressive GM-agriculture—is becoming an extremely interesting discourse topic important for agrarian policy. Ecological agriculture is becoming a new vision founded upon the ecologically positive traditional experience and upon the implementation of contemporary science, strict ecological criterion in the food production and manufacturing. The author speaks in favour of ecological agriculture, as it is the concrete vision of sustainable development, but he also poses the question whether it is possible to produce enough food in traditional way to feed the world. That is why he thinks that soon several types of the production and quality of agricultural products will be shaped: conventional agriculture, ecological agriculture but also the genetically modified agriculture. The consumption of the particular type of products will depend on the population's economic possibilities. The last, fourth part of the book ("Modernization and transition") is a retrospective of the beginnings and the potential significance of mixed economy in the actual discourse on family households. Mixed households arose in Croatia in the period of socialist modernization of society and they reflect its social dimension of Croatian rural society, and on the other hand they are becoming a question initializing the discussion on the prospect of family households. Here the starting point is the thesis about the crisis of work in modern society and in the world in general, and therefore also the tendency of jeopardized steady jobs, which has an impact on the mixed households as well. On the other hand, positive experience of the classic model of mixed agriculture can inspire the nowadays-actual (mostly political) discourse of the family household in the village. The author has been particularly critical towards the period of transition and the process of the economy transformation and privatization. He holds the view that the farmers have contributed a great deal to the common property in the past fifty years and that they didn't have a real chance to take part in privatization. Transitional changes of rural complex haven't been enough empirically sociologically researched. The "Zagreb rural school," founded in the Institute for Social Research in Zagreb, has marked sociological researches of the village and the agriculture in general in former Yugoslavia. Yet, a great amount of work has remained unfinished (the synthesis of cognitions on rural changes that occurred under the influence of the second /socialist/ modernization; critical revalorization of cognitions gained until now, etc.) and the new topics have arisen. The author has designated some topics to be researched, resulting from the ten years lasting transitional period, and which will have social actuality and scientific relevance for a rather long time. It is likely that with the actualization of the paradigm of sustainable development, the sociological paradigm of the researches of rural complex that has existed till now will change as well. 3. The book on rural development and modernization wasn't written as a scientific interpretation of a number of statistical evidence or of the results of some empirical research—which is by all means necessary and useful—but as a view on some problems of rural development upon the example of Croatian peasant society. And it was done in a way that these problems were contextualized in globalization and modernization changes and in their consequences, especially ecological ones, i.e., as today's personal seeing of the process that lasted for half a century. The book originated within the project "Modernization and the Croatian society identity" (130400) of the Institute of Sociology of the University of Zagreb, Faculty of Philosophy. The book "Rural development and modernization," together with the book "Environment and sustainable development" (Zagreb, 2002), makes the totality of reflections on rural changes and rural development as the presumptions for the shaping of a new identity of society within the field of vision of the social-ecological paradigm.
| Item Type: | Book |
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| Additional Information: | Language: Croatian. - Title in English: Rural development and modernization: contributions to the research of rural identity. |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | Ekologija, ekološka ekonomija, identitet, modernizacija, ruralna kultura, ruralni razvoj, selo, tradicija, tranzicija (ecology, ecological economy, identity, modernization, rural culture, rural development, tradition, transition) |
| Subjects: | H Social Sciences > HM Sociology |
| Depositing User: | Karolina |
| Date Deposited: | 11 Apr 2017 09:01 |
| Last Modified: | 07 Nov 2025 07:41 |
| URI: | http://idiprints.knjiznica.idi.hr/id/eprint/766 |
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