The evolution of rural areas influenced by large-scale farming: four case studies from Hungary

Abstract

In order to study complex transformation of rural areas in the long term, our paper aims to integrate the concepts of rural restructuring and evolutionary economic geography. We argue that these approaches can complement each other to understand the mechanisms shaping rural evolutionary paths. We apply our theoretical framework to the case of rural areas evolving under the influence of largescale farms in Hungary, namely the so-called manorial settlements. Tracing the processes on three different scales (global, national and local) we claim that during the last one hundred years the rural configuration in these areas shows a number of continuities despite the significant political-economic transitions throughout this period. The global dependency and semi-peripheral position of Hungary is apparent, and also the role of global agri-food regimes can be observed. Political transitions on the national scale appear primarily as 'external shocks'. Despite the strong path dependency in terms of powerlessness and passivity of local societies at manorial settlements, the role of certain local actors in path creation should not be ignored.

A települési egyenlőtlenségek új dimenziója: a mezőgazdasági földhasználat-szerkezet

“…A föld sorsa a faluszociológia állandó témája maradt (Váradi 2007). Míg korábban főként az új egyenlőtlenségek és a szegénység forrásaként tematizálták (Csite, Kovách 1997), később a network (Megyesi 2012), az autoriter rezsim felépítése (Gonda 2019) és a populizmus (Czibere, Kovách 2021), valamint a nagybirtokok kialakulása (Mikle 2020;Mikle, Randelli 2020) is a földdel kapcsolatos kutatások témájává vált.…”