Pregledni rad
PART-TIME FARMS AND PEASANTS/WORKERS IN THE POST-WAR PERIOD IN WORKS OF YUGOSLAV AUTHORS
Vlado Cvjetićanin
Sažetak
In this study the authors gives an analysis of the works which have been
written by Yugoslav authors since the war and which deal with part-time farms
and peasants,/workers. These works consist chiefly of articles published in periodicals,
of analyses of statistical material, and of reports on various investigations.
Some of the works also contain casual observations relating to these subjects. Parttime
farms and peasants/workers have been the subject of many publications of
Yugoslav economists, sociologists, demographers, geographers, agriculturalists, etc.
The study is divided into six chapters.
At the beginning of the first chapter the author states that most of the works
he has studied appear to accept uncritically the definition of official statistics.
According to that definition a part-time farm is any farm from the household of
which one or several members work on the farm permanently. Pointing to the
limitations of this definition, the author recalls the views of certain authors who
have devoted more attention to this question and have tried to work out their own
definitions of the concept (Stane Krašovec, Cvetko Kostić and Stipe šuvar).
In the second chapter the author describes the causes of the emergence of
part-time farms. He divides them into two basic groups: (1) causes deriving from
agriculture or what are called internal reasons; and (2) causes outside agriculture
or what are called external causes. He emphasizes that this is only a conditional
classification, because in most cases the causes are closely interlinked.
Among the most important causes in the first group the author lists the
following: small size of holdings, rural overpopulation, large size of rural families,
divisions of small-holding, etc. The most important causes in the second group
are industrial development, low personal incomes, the various benefits deriving
from regular employment, good communication links between settlements, the
slow advance of urban development in comparison with de-agrarization, etc.
The author finds that in the works analysed these causes are inadequately
interconnected and that they are not classified according to their respective importance.
At the same time he points to certain possibilities for working out a
classification of the causes of the emergence of part-time farms.
In the third chapter the author analyses the demographic, social, productive
and economic characteristics of part-time farms, dealing in closer detail with the
characteristics of the production and economy of part-time farms such as a growing
orientation of these farms towards livestock growing, less investment in farming,
inferior farming equipment in comparison with purely agricultural households,
a tendency towards selling or renting farm land, a tendency among peasants/
workers to spend money on improving their living conditions, etc.
In the fourth chapter the author quotes some characteristic views on peasants/
workers chiefly from the works of S. Livada, C. Kostić and S. Krašovec.
The fifth chapter discusses the importance of part-time farms and peasants/
workers in Yugoslavia's social and economic development in the light of the
various (favourable or adverse) consequences which derive from the existence of
part-time farms and peasants/workers both in rural areas and in towns.
The author refers to the various demographic and social consequences arising
from the rapid spread of part-time farms (conservation of the expanded family
increased engagement of women, children and old men on various kinds of farm
work, etc.), the adverse effects on production (decreasing productivity in farm
production, economic marginalization of private farms, discontinuation of land
cultivation, production exclusively for private requirements, etc.), adverse effects
on consumption, cultural consequences, etc.
The author then notes the existence of contradictory views regarding the
usefulness of part-time farms for socio-economic development.
As regards their prospects, which the author discusses in the 6th chapter it
is largelly believed that part-time farms and peasants/workers will remain in existence
for some time to come. However, part-time farms will gradually lose the
character of economic necessity while their non-economic purpose will become
more and more manifest.
Ključne riječi
Hrčak ID:
118954
URI
Datum izdavanja:
10.12.1974.
Posjeta: 876 *