Original scientific paper
(Re)Constructing Social Space on Periphery: A Contribution to the Research of Collective Identities in Croatian Periphery
Boris Banovac
Abstract
The paper is based on empirical research conducted on the territory of three Croatian peripheries (Istria, Lika, Gorski kotar). The author adopts a general presumption that structure of spacial identification and its mobility/ conservative character are influenced by acquired level of modernization in a particular social environment. Therefore the issue of spacial identification needs to be tackled in the context of wider social processes, such as process of modernization and detraditionalization. The research has combined quantitative and qualitative methods and two basic methodological procedures have been used. Questionnaires were gathered from 721 randomly chosen stratified respondents. Moreover, representatives of key social actors at a local level have been interviewed. Results of the research show that a dominant level of spacial identification is local and regional. However, there are significant differences among examined territories. Respondents from Gorski kotar place a higher importance to narrower local identification (sub-regional), while respondents from Lika demonstrate a higher degree of connection with the national level than the other respondents. A dominant level of special identification in Istria is regional identification. Differences among the three peripheries are more obvious when answers of respondents related to indicators of (pre)modernity such as trust in individual kinds of institutions, view to issues of political-territorial organization on local level and ethnic distance, are analyzed. Results show a significant difference in the structure of spacial identities and point to a conclusion that there are two different patterns of spacial identification (Istria and Lika) connected to level of modernization. Social space in Gorski kotar shows certain hibrid characteristics.
Keywords
SPACIAL IDENTIFICATION; MODERNITY; DETRADITIONALIZATION; INSTITUTIONS; ETHNIC DISTANCE
Hrčak ID:
13693
URI
Publication date:
31.12.2004.
Visits: 2.432 *