Original scientific paper
Infrastructural Equipment of Rural Settlements in Croatia
Milan Župančić
; Institute for Social Research in Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
The subject of this article is a relation between the rural and urban
settlements and the rural settlements position within the Croatian
society network of settlements. The article also gives the results of
the empirical research into how well the Croatia's villages are equipped with institutions of social and technical infrastructure, carried
out in 107 villages within the project Sociological aspects of the network of settlements in the transition context. In terms of function
and importance, in hierarchically and pyramidally organized
network of settlements - on the top of which there are the biggest
cities and the state centre as central and the most important spatial
centres - rural settlements are placed very low. This is why this
article is the view upon what is going on at the bottom of that pyramid. Rural settlements are poorly equipped with social and technical infrastructure. Because of the deficiency of elementary
agencies and institutions in villages, the villagers have to go and
use their services in bigger local centres and towns. The research
has shown how complex, interdependent and interwoven the relations
between the types of settlements are. Croatia has a system of nearly
700 central settlements. Besides the towns, this network encompasses
about 75% rural centres. It is obvious that in rural areas a local centres' network is being formed, these local centres being mostly
rural municipal centres and more important rural centres. As among
the 107 rural settlements making the research sample there were 35
such centres, their role in the processes of the contemporary village
modernization could have been enlightened. The research has also
shown that the improvement in terms of more quality equipment of
villages with the institutions of social infrastructure and installations
and objects of technical infrastructure had only occurred in the field
of basic infrastructure, like power stations, sewers, roads, and in
expansion of some services important for the everyday life in the village. The insufficiency of medical and educational institutions is
notable, and even rural centres are poorly equipped in this concern.
Infrastructural equipment, accessibility and quality of service at disposal of the inhabitants of rural areas is being impacted by the burden of dispersive settling in rural areas as well as by a great many
of small villages and dwarf hamlets. This situation points at the need
for more balanced development within the space and for the strengthening of local development centres within the polycentric network of settlements. In this case, in the nowadays village that is
significantly broadening the size of its space the importance of territory would decrease, and the network of impacts and services
between small towns and rural centres in broader rural space would
become more important. It would undoubtedly also improve the quality of living in eon-temporary village, and slow down intense rural
exodus that had brought to the great imbalance in the entire space.
Keywords
village modernization; rural settlements; social and technical infrastructure in rural settlements; local centres; Croatia
Hrčak ID:
33374
URI
Publication date:
10.3.2009.
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