Culture and Rural Development: Voices from Poland

Gorlach, Krzysztof; Klekotko, Marta; Nowak, Piotr

doi:10.2478/eec-2014-0001

“…The integration of culture as an 'alternative' community developmental source is a concept that has also proved useful in other studies (MacDonald and Jolliffe 2003;Marková and Boruta 2012;Šmid Hribar and Ledinek Lozej 2013;Gorlach et al 2014). In the development strategy of this area, culture-led development is recognized as a tool of new development and of moving away from heavy economic dependence on industrial production.…”

Section: The Tool: Local Development Through Cultural Tourismmentioning

confidence: 99%

Participatory research in community development: A case study of creating cultural tourism products

Bole¹,

Hribar²,

Pipan³

2017

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Although participatory research can be an improvement over conventional research, there is a lack of self-critique and self-reflection by scholars. The aim of this paper was to develop a method of participatory research in human geography based on a case study of the local community. We evaluated the positive and negative aspects of carrying out participatory research in community development from the local community and academic points of view. The participatory method was used in a rural local community in Slovenia, where cultural values were identified as an alternative developmental source. The method was presented in detail in three steps: 1) knowledge acquisition, 2) knowledge synthesis, 3) knowledge implementation and evaluation. The results yielded important social impacts, some economic and cultural impacts, and no significant ecological impacts. The paper discusses the impacts of conducting such research on the local community. It recognizes that, if the community is actively engaged in research, outcomes are likely to be matched to its needs and expectations. We discussed scholars' bias towards economic aspects of community development and the fact that ignoring local knowledge may result in the failure of developmental initiatives. There is a need for more accurate and unbiased critical assessment of long-term impacts of carrying out participatory research. We believe we avoided two common traps of participatory research: regarding the positivist critique, this method offers sufficient scientific vigour and could be reproduced in similar communities; regarding the post-structural critique, personally committing stakeholders towards implementation and legitimising all social groups to overcome intrinsic power relations within the community. We concluded that participatory methods are important for obtaining local knowledge that complements traditional academic research.

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“…The integration of culture as an 'alternative' community developmental source is a concept that has also proved useful in other studies (MacDonald and Jolliffe 2003; Marková and Boruta 2012; Šmid Hribar and Ledinek Lozej 2013; Gorlach et al 2014). In the development strategy of this area, culture-led development is recognized as a tool of new development and of moving away from heavy economic dependence on industrial production.…”

Section: The Tool: Local Development Through Cultural Tourismmentioning

confidence: 98%

The importance of protected areas as natural landslide laboratories

Graff¹,

Stock²

2015

Auc Geographica

2

0

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Although participatory research can be an improvement over conventional research, there is a lack of self-critique and self-reflection by scholars. The aim of this paper was to develop a method of participatory research in human geography based on a case study of the local community. We evaluated the positive and negative aspects of carrying out participatory research in community development from the local community and academic points of view. The participatory method was used in a rural local community in Slovenia, where cultural values were identified as an alternative developmental source. The method was presented in detail in three steps: 1) knowledge acquisition, 2) knowledge synthesis, 3) knowledge implementation and evaluation. The results yielded important social impacts, some economic and cultural impacts, and no significant ecological impacts. The paper discusses the impacts of conducting such research on the local community. It recognizes that, if the community is actively engaged in research, outcomes are likely to be matched to its needs and expectations. We discussed scholars' bias towards economic aspects of community development and the fact that ignoring local knowledge may result in the failure of developmental initiatives. There is a need for more accurate and unbiased critical assessment of long-term impacts of carrying out participatory research. We believe we avoided two common traps of participatory research: regarding the positivist critique, this method offers sufficient scientific vigour and could be reproduced in similar communities; regarding the post-structural critique, personally committing stakeholders towards implementation and legitimising all social groups to overcome intrinsic power relations within the community. We concluded that participatory methods are important for obtaining local knowledge that complements traditional academic research.

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“…‘One Estonian opponent described the EU as ‘a Soviet Union in disguise’ that will force the country to deliberalize its progressive economic policies, including a zero-percent corporate income tax’ (241). As Gorlach (2006: 27) observed, ‘Under post-communist reality, globalisation seemed to be a major source of fear. But at the same time, the possibility of joining the European Union [.…”

Section: European Integration As Social Change – Central European Per...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Nothing Changed, Nothing Gained? Emotional Responses towards European Integration in the Memoirs of Polish Farmers

Radowska-Lisak,

Kowalska

2024

Cultural Sociology

0

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Accession to the European Union (EU) aroused diverse emotions in public debate among citizens, but the everyday experience of being an EU member is much more difficult to narrate than by relating to two contrasting views for and against European integration. The situation becomes more complicated if we analyse the emotional responses of Polish farmers, for whom joining the EU has been one more change in the last two centuries: the fall of feudalism, the agricultural reform after the Second World War, and the post-1989 political transformation. We aim to analyse personal narratives while observing how feelings about the EU have become embedded in everyday life experience narratives and how they are expressed and managed in a socio-cultural context. The presence of contradictory views was expected, as was the appearance of a combination of emotions and indifference, and, finally, the use of emotions as resistance. Based on the analysis of 55 memoirs from 1918 to 2018, we have determined the possible types of the integration experience; firstly, Poland’s accession to the EU meant change and was associated mainly with positive emotions, secondly, with negative emotions, thirdly, it meant change, and was associated with ambiguous emotions; and lastly, it did not mean a change. We noted not only the contrasting positions e.g. hope and fear but also the mixture of emotions and various paths of resistance that included demonstrating the inadequacy of the master narrative to personal experience or neutralising it but also filling the intermediary space between two opposite views and finding a way out from this opposition to the higher level of division and thus narrating non-change. It is the sense of personal dignity and permanence that negates the perception of accession as a change.

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Culture and Rural Development: Voices from Poland

Cited by 11 publications

References 19 publications

Participatory research in community development: A case study of creating cultural tourism products

Participatory research in community development: A case study of creating cultural tourism products

The importance of protected areas as natural landslide laboratories

Nothing Changed, Nothing Gained? Emotional Responses towards European Integration in the Memoirs of Polish Farmers

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