IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/vrs/eaeuco/v22y2016i1p53-68n3.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Rural Idyll Without Rural Sociology? Changing Features, Functions and Research of the Czech Countryside

Author

Listed:
  • Šimon Martin
  • Bernard Josef

    (Local and Regional Studies, Institute of Sociology, Czech Academy of Sciences)

Abstract

The development of the Czech countryside differs in many ways from trajectories typical for Eastern and Central European rural areas in the last 25 years. In our article, we discuss the nature of the ‘Czech exceptionalism’, with reference to three examples, namely population development, the dynamics of rural/agricultural labour markets and rural governance. Firstly, we describe the major driving forces behind rural development in Czechia over the past 25 years and how these forces are reflected in the academic discourse. Secondly, we argue that an important feature of rural regions in Czechia is their population growth combined with a rapid labour market transformation and a low social importance of agriculture. All these changes are interpreted as a shift towards multifunctionality of rural areas rather than as a general trend towards post-productivism; indeed, this is because large parts of rural areas remain economically based on industrial production. The ongoing transformations have been reflected only partially in an academic discourse. In conclusion, we argue that there is a need to re-examine the use of EEC as a concept framing the position of sociology in rural research.

Suggested Citation

  • Šimon Martin & Bernard Josef, 2016. "Rural Idyll Without Rural Sociology? Changing Features, Functions and Research of the Czech Countryside," Eastern European Countryside, Sciendo, vol. 22(1), pages 53-68, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:vrs:eaeuco:v:22:y:2016:i:1:p:53-68:n:3
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.degruyter.com/view/j/eec.2016.22.issue-1/eec-2016-0003/eec-2016-0003.xml?format=INT
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Petrick, Martin & Weingarten, Peter (ed.), 2004. "The role of agriculture in Central and Eastern European rural development: engine of change or social buffer?," Studies on the Agricultural and Food Sector in Transition Economies, Leibniz Institute of Agricultural Development in Transition Economies (IAMO), volume 25, number 93023.
    2. Ron Martin & Peter Sunley, 2006. "Path dependence and regional economic evolution," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 6(4), pages 395-437, August.
    3. Baum, Sabine & Weingarten, Peter, 2004. "Developments of rural economies in Central and Eastern Europe: an overview," Rural Areas and Development, European Rural Development Network (ERDN), vol. 2, pages 1-23.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Bernard Josef, 2018. "Rural Quality of Life – Poverty, Satisfaction and Opportunity Deprivation in Different Types of Rural Territories," European Countryside, Sciendo, vol. 10(2), pages 191-209, June.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Vinko Muštra & Blanka Šimundić & Zvonimir Kuliš, 2020. "Does innovation matter for regional labour resilience? The case of EU regions," Regional Science Policy & Practice, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 12(5), pages 955-970, October.
    2. Axel Tonini & Roel Jongeneel, 2009. "The distribution of dairy farm size in Poland: a markov approach based on information theory," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 41(1), pages 55-69.
    3. Wang, Liang & Tan, Justin & Li, Wan, 2018. "The impacts of spatial positioning on regional new venture creation and firm mortality over the industry life cycle," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 41-52.
    4. Anna Herzog, 2022. "Imaginaries, directionalities, agency and new path creation [Imaginaries, directionalities, Akteurshandeln und Pfadkreation]," Review of Regional Research: Jahrbuch für Regionalwissenschaft, Springer;Gesellschaft für Regionalforschung (GfR), vol. 42(3), pages 279-307, December.
    5. Matthias Firgo & Peter Mayerhofer, 2015. "Wissens-Spillovers und regionale Entwicklung - welche strukturpolitische Ausrichtung optimiert des Wachstum?," Working Paper Reihe der AK Wien - Materialien zu Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft 144, Kammer für Arbeiter und Angestellte für Wien, Abteilung Wirtschaftswissenschaft und Statistik.
    6. Yunyao Li & Yanji Ma, 2022. "Research on Industrial Innovation Efficiency and the Influencing Factors of the Old Industrial Base Based on the Lock-In Effect, a Case Study of Jilin Province, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(19), pages 1-23, October.
    7. Joao Carlos Lopes & Amélia Branco, 2013. "The Clustering of Cork Firms in Santa Maria da Feira: Why History Matters," International Journal of Finance, Insurance and Risk Management, International Journal of Finance, Insurance and Risk Management, vol. 3(1), pages 354-354.
    8. Lesley Welman & Sanette LA Ferreira, 2016. "The co-evolution of Saldanha Bay (town and hinterland) and its Port," Local Economy, London South Bank University, vol. 31(1-2), pages 219-233, February.
    9. Rosina Moreno & Ernest Miguélez, 2012. "A Relational Approach To The Geography Of Innovation: A Typology Of Regions," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(3), pages 492-516, July.
    10. Paolo Di Caro, 2015. "Recessions, recoveries and regional resilience: evidence on Italy," Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 8(2), pages 273-291.
    11. Ron Boschma, 2021. "Designing Smart Specialization Policy: relatedness, unrelatedness, or what?," Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) 2128, Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography, revised Sep 2021.
    12. Brachert, Matthias (Ed.) & Henn, Sebastian (Ed.), 2012. "Cluster in Mitteldeutschland - Strukturen, Potenziale, Förderung. Tagungsband," IWH-Sonderhefte 5/2012, Halle Institute for Economic Research (IWH).
    13. Ron Martin & Peter Sunley, 2011. "Conceptualizing Cluster Evolution: Beyond the Life Cycle Model?," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 45(10), pages 1299-1318, November.
    14. Boschma, Ron & Capone, Gianluca, 2015. "Institutions and diversification: Related versus unrelated diversification in a varieties of capitalism framework," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(10), pages 1902-1914.
    15. Alexander Auer & Franz Tödtling, 2014. "Driving factors and spatial scales for cluster development - The case of environmental technologies in Upper Austria," SRE-Disc sre-disc-2014_08, Institute for Multilevel Governance and Development, Department of Socioeconomics, Vienna University of Economics and Business.
    16. Belmartino, Andrea & Calá, Carla Daniela, 2020. "A regional approach to the study of industrial diversity in Argentina (1996–2012)," Revista CEPAL, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL), April.
    17. Ron Boschma & Ron Martin, 2010. "The Aims and Scope of Evolutionary Economic Geography," Chapters, in: Ron Boschma & Ron Martin (ed.), The Handbook of Evolutionary Economic Geography, chapter 1, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    18. Simon Baumgartinger-Seiringer & David Doloreux & Richard Shearmur & Michaela Trippl, 2021. "When history does not matter? The rise of Quebec’s wine industry," PEGIS geo-disc-2021_05, Institute for Economic Geography and GIScience, Department of Socioeconomics, Vienna University of Economics and Business.
    19. Kurikka, Heli & Grillitsch, Markus, 2020. "Resilience in the periphery: What an agency perspective can bring to the table," Papers in Innovation Studies 2020/7, Lund University, CIRCLE - Centre for Innovation Research.
    20. Gunther Maier & Michaela Trippl, 2011. "New Knowledge for Old Regions? The Case of the Software Park Hagenberg in the Traditional Industrial Region of Upper Austria," ERSA conference papers ersa11p1830, European Regional Science Association.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:vrs:eaeuco:v:22:y:2016:i:1:p:53-68:n:3. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Peter Golla (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.sciendo.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.