Sociology and Space, No. 99-100, 1988.
Original scientific paper
The Peasantry in Yugoslavia
Vlado Puljiz
Abstract
Until recent times the peasantry
was (if defined by its numbers) the
dominant class in Yugoslavia.
Influenced, however, by the march
of industrialisation and urbanisation
it underwent basic changes in the
post-war period. First and foremost
the peasantry had been considerably
reduced in numbers and its
remaining population has been
transformed, in the sense that on
the one hand autarchy and bondage
to the land have been reduced,
while on the other links with the
global society have been
strengthened.
This is the general framework
within which the author places his
analysis of Yugoslav peasantry. He
firstly considers the relations
between the peasantry and global
society through stages of post-war
development by establishing diverse
roles with which the peasantry was
assigned and which it practiced.
The next step taken by the author
is to move the analysis to the level
of a village community, village
family and individual holdings, i. e.
to the area where all those changes
were most manifest. The village
community has in other words lost
its features of an autarchic,
socio-economic system within which
evolved the life of the peasant
population. In parallel with this
process there appeared a weakening
of the traditional family as a »block
against nature« (Marx), while the
individual holding acquired the
characteristics of a mixed
urban-rural economy, by means of
which the peasant is most easily
integrated into the currents of
civilisation.
The author discusses the present
socio-economic structure of a village
distinguished by such a mixed
economy and the problems arising
— both for the development of the
village and for Yugoslav society
as a whole.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
121715
URI
Publication date:
12.1.1988.
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