Pregledni rad
Transition and Perspectives of Modernization of Croatian Village
Milan Župančić
Sažetak
The pivot of this work, that results from “The Village in Transition” project, is the relation
between socio-economic changes in Croatian village and the possibilities of revitalization of
rural areas. In the past 50 years Croatia went through a sequence of dramatic changes
marked by the processes of industrialization, de-agrarization and urbanization. From mostly
agrarian country with prevailing peasantry and small-scale farming, Croatia became a medium
developed country in which a portion of agrarian population decreased to 7 - 8 per
cent of total population. The village followed these tendencies in development, but even
today the agriculture is one of the most important occupations of its population. The property
structure of peasant farming is unfavourable as two thirds of households own less than
3 ha land, and most of them are part-time agrarian households earning ever greater part of
their income out of household. The process of de-agrarization deteriorated vital characteristics
of rural population, and strong rural exodus de-vitalized the greatest part of rural area,
which is today behind the urban entities. A huge part of rural area, especially uplands and
mountain regions, is subject to strong de-population.
The author showed that Croatian village, which compared to “classical” transitional countries
had different developmental movements, shares the same difficulties because Croatian rural
areas have the same developmental problems and, like rural areas in other countries, do not
fit easily in predominant trends of modem society. The author considers that under the
condition that polycentric and dispersive developmental concept be adopted, the transitional
period - in spite of all the difficulties - can make possible the village modernization and its
easier integration into global society, as in transitional circumstances this concept gives chance
for village re-vitalization.
Ključne riječi
rural areas; rural development; social structure; agrarian household; agrarian structure; modernization; transition; village re-vitalization
Hrčak ID:
119980
URI
Datum izdavanja:
9.6.2000.
Posjeta: 4.030 *