Libmonster ID: RS-603
Author(s) of the publication: A. PILIKHOVSKY, V. STOLBOV
Educational Institution \ Organization: University of Lodz, Ivanovo University of Chemical Technology

The study was conducted by an international team of scientists from Bulgaria, Poland and Russia in accordance with the project "Models of social participation and social structure of local communities". Empirical data were obtained from a comparative analysis of the forms of individual and collective behavior, types of social action of people in rural and small urban communities in Poland, Russia, and Bulgaria. 3 Polish, 3 Bulgarian and 2 Russian administrative-territorial settlements were surveyed. The number of respondents was 1,616. The main hypothesis concerned the assessment of changes in the relations of residents of various territorial units, measured by the scope and intensity of informal acts of cooperation (mutual assistance) in the economic sphere. It was suggested that mutual assistance among residents of local communities, including informal economic assistance, should be reduced, and that market relations should be monetarized. Since forms of voluntary cooperation express solidarity and strengthen social contacts within primary structures, their decomposition should be considered as an indicator of gradual individualization.

For the analyzed countries, the 1990s are a period of intense social changes, political and economic upheavals associated with the modernization process.

page 34


It represents a transition from a traditional to a modern society. According to Polish sociologists, the traditional local community of our century represents the following:: the village today is almost the same local community as it was a few hundred years ago. A community, in the sense of a closed community, includes almost all forms of collective life, and it is opposed to similar communities: other villages, as well as groups and organizations that remain outside its borders. The traditional local community met the most important social needs, regulated all types of activities and behaviors. The village regulated all spheres of life through formal channels of communication, customs and rules developed in practice. It was characterized by the predominance of manual labor, low mobility of residents, isolation of the village population from the institutions of society, other professions, national culture, educational institutions and state authorities, a specific type of productive forces and political structure, neighborhood and kinship relations. The village was an extended group of relatives and created a sense of unity through family ties. On the one hand, the neighborhood was "closed" because it realized itself within the village boundaries, and on the other hand - "open", because it consisted not only of the nearest residents, but also of neighbors who owned adjacent fields and provided a wide range of mutual services.

Such views on the peasant community were formed in sociology under the influence of the book by V. V. Kolesnikov.I. Thomas and F. Znaniecki "The Polish Peasant in Europe and America". The concept of the village as a primary group, considered in this book, has been mandatory in sociology for many decades. The local community developed an organization of cooperation, which is called "cooperation", or"neighborly mutual assistance". It manifests itself in seasonal work, investment on a farm, helping a person in a situation of sudden disaster, and paying for a previous obligation (work performed by the poor for rich farmers in exchange for various services). It included the dependence of the poor party on the rich party and created opportunities for abuse and exploitation (this type of dependence is known in the literature as "patronage"). Cooperation within the community was associated with the uprooting of land, the development of virgin lands, the construction of roads, projects of communal structures, i.e. everything that was supposed to serve the entire village. An economic partnership was an association of shareholders who distributed the product of joint labor according to certain rules established in advance. It was based on contributions made in the form of labor, tools, farm animals, and land. There are numerous cases of joint use of arable land, forests, fishing grounds or joint production of building materials.

The gradual destruction of the traditional community observed in the 20th century was reflected in the disintegration of the previous structural and functional interaction and in the weakening of ties among the inhabitants of one village. The process of disintegration finds expression in the fact that the village ceases to be a group of" someone's " relatives, while the neighborhood sphere shrinks and turns from a closed neighborhood to an open one.

New forms of integration of local communities were developed at the level of formal institutions. A number of functions previously performed by rural communities were taken over by target (planned) institutions and organizations, because organizations in the conditions of socialism often did not meet the expectations of residents, which led to the emergence of interest groups in rural communities, which were a tool for protecting their interests. The way to protect Polish peasants from socialism is restrictionism, i.e. consciously limiting the rate of output, limiting production to the extent necessary to meet the needs of their families, and limiting the consumption of industrial products. In the 1970s, the Communist Party's policy shifted in favor of the market. The process of transition of the peasant to farming, which was not provided for in the model of socialist development, accelerated.-

page 35


Forms of remuneration for assistance in the local community (in % of respondents)

A country

Money

Sometimes for a fee, sometimes (mutual) help

Only mutual assistance

Other

Poland

2,0

10,8

68,7

18,5

Russia

6,5

42,5

23,6

27,4

Bulgaria

6,9

21,5

59,8

11,8

Generally

5,0

23,0

53,8

18,2

companies. The state became an intermediary in economic relations (through a monopoly in the acquisition of crops and processing industry), which led to the formation of an administrative apparatus in the agricultural sector, which limited the independence of farmers. The situation changed significantly in 1997, when we conducted a study in Bulgaria, Canada, Poland, and Russia. In each country (with the exception of Russia, where only two communities were surveyed), one community with up to 1,500 inhabitants, one with between 1,500 and 5,000 inhabitants, and one with more than 5,000 inhabitants was selected. Respondents were selected randomly, according to the lists of voters. The data is only representative of communities, but not of the country as a whole. The survey was conducted in February 1997. We studied various types of informal assistance (mutual or asymmetric), which we meant only the sphere of economic activity in the household (assistance provided by others, or received from others in the form of goods and services). We sought to find out how forms of social participation in local communities developed in different European countries (in terms of economic, cultural or historical background). We limited our analysis to informal economic relations in the household, analyzed people's behavior and opinions, as well as the explanatory power of such independent variables as gender, level of education, source of income, self-assessment of personal wealth, social status, and, finally, the characteristics of the place of residence (house, rented or own apartment). In the process of explaining 22 dependent variables and 6 independent variables, it turned out that the most significant difference (using Kramer's measure of V ratio strength) was in the variable describing the country of origin (it explained statistically important differences for 17 dependent variables). It should be emphasized that the preliminary statistical analysis carried out separately for each country did not reveal significant differences in the way mutual assistance is provided in communities.

The study revealed a low level of activity in solving problems related to the environment. The level of participation of residents in social actions that were taken in the name of the common good was low. It was higher among people with higher education. It turned out that 10 years ago, members of local communities helped each other more often. The hypothesis suggesting the disappearance of mutual aid turned out to be correct. It is supported by the opinion of those respondents who believe that people have helped more in the past (44 %). However, it should be emphasized that a significant proportion of respondents do not recognize any changes in this area (29 %), in Poland, one out of every three respondents is not able to recognize the difference. The forms of remuneration for assistance received in the local community are shown in Table. The most active assistance (65 %) was provided to neighbors, friends and acquaintances; in every fifth case, those who received assistance belonged to the family of those who helped them. In 90% of cases (slightly less in Poland), assistance was provided in the form of work. In 8% of cases, the work was paid. In our opinion, the results of the study point to the ongoing process of formal rationalization that is taking place in Polish communities, and to the continuing importance of traditional forms of mutual assistance in the communities of Russia and Bulgaria. Many people (52% on average) do not receive social support from the community. Most of them are in Bulgaria (71.5 %), and most often people with low levels of education, physical labor workers, pensioners, the unemployed and the poor are excluded from the community.

page 36


© library.rs

Permanent link to this publication:

https://library.rs/m/articles/view/INFORMAL-COOPERATION-IN-RURAL-COMMUNITIES-on-the-example-of-Poland-Russia-and-Bulgaria

Similar publications: LSerbia LWorld Y G


Publisher:

Andrija PutnikContacts and other materials (articles, photo, files etc)

Author's official page at Libmonster: https://library.rs/Putnik

Find other author's materials at: Libmonster (all the World)GoogleYandex

Permanent link for scientific papers (for citations):

A. PILIKHOVSKY, V. STOLBOV, INFORMAL COOPERATION IN RURAL COMMUNITIES (on the example of Poland, Russia, and Bulgaria) // Belgrade: Library of Serbia (LIBRARY.RS). Updated: 23.01.2025. URL: https://library.rs/m/articles/view/INFORMAL-COOPERATION-IN-RURAL-COMMUNITIES-on-the-example-of-Poland-Russia-and-Bulgaria (date of access: 08.02.2025).

Publication author(s) - A. PILIKHOVSKY, V. STOLBOV:

A. PILIKHOVSKY, V. STOLBOV → other publications, search: Libmonster SerbiaLibmonster WorldGoogleYandex

Comments:



Reviews of professional authors
Order by: 
Per page: 
 
  • There are no comments yet
Related topics
Publisher
Andrija Putnik
Белград, Serbia
43 views rating
23.01.2025 (16 days ago)
0 subscribers
Rating
0 votes
Related Articles
"A WORD ABOUT IGOR'S REGIMENT" IN THE "EXPERIENCE OF NARRATION ABOUT RUSSIA" BY I. P. ELAGIN
7 days ago · From Andrija Putnik
DRUZHINA AND THE GENESIS OF FEUDALISM IN RUSSIA
Catalog: История 
7 days ago · From Andrija Putnik
Many of you and your associates are operating in the hundreds of thousands, possibly millions y.e. This is about your transactions... Direct or Indirect or Potential. Not so long ago, many of you became players in "Cybereconomics". In a fundamentally new transformation of the digital world, about which many of us are still little known.. Purchase and exchange of fiat money, work on the transformation of fiat money into cryptocurrency. Buying a car, apartments, loans from financial institutions... Et cetera. There are lucky people who work in their own business or act as investors.
Catalog: Экономика 
LITTLE-KNOWN HERO OF BORODIN
Catalog: История 
10 days ago · From Andrija Putnik
THE IDEA OF SLAVIC UNITY IN THE SOCIAL THOUGHT OF PRE-REFORM RUSSIA
10 days ago · From Andrija Putnik
A. M. STANISLAVSKAYA. POLITICHESKAYA DEYATEL'NOST ' F. F. USHAKOV V GREKE [POLITICAL ACTIVITY OF F. F. USHAKOV IN GREECE]. 1798-1800
10 days ago · From Andrija Putnik
DEVELOPMENT OF ETHNIC IDENTITY OF SLAVIC PEOPLES IN THE EARLY MIDDLE AGES
10 days ago · From Andrija Putnik
NEW DOCUMENTS AND OLD FICTIONS ABOUT THE ROLE OF THE BALKANS IN THE EMERGENCE OF THE FIRST WORLD WAR
Catalog: История 
10 days ago · From Andrija Putnik
SOVIET-GERMAN FRONT AND MILITARY OPERATIONS IN THE WEST (DECEMBER 1944-JANUARY 1945)
10 days ago · From Andrija Putnik
"REMEMBERING YOUR FATHERLAND..."
10 days ago · From Andrija Putnik

New publications:

Popular with readers:

News from other countries:

LIBRARY.RS - Serbian Digital Library

Create your author's collection of articles, books, author's works, biographies, photographic documents, files. Save forever your author's legacy in digital form. Click here to register as an author.
Library Partners

INFORMAL COOPERATION IN RURAL COMMUNITIES (on the example of Poland, Russia, and Bulgaria)
 

Editorial Contacts
Chat for Authors: RS LIVE: We are in social networks:

About · News · For Advertisers

Serbian Digital Library ® All rights reserved.
2014-2025, LIBRARY.RS is a part of Libmonster, international library network (open map)
Keeping the heritage of Serbia


LIBMONSTER NETWORK ONE WORLD - ONE LIBRARY

US-Great Britain Sweden Serbia
Russia Belarus Ukraine Kazakhstan Moldova Tajikistan Estonia Russia-2 Belarus-2

Create and store your author's collection at Libmonster: articles, books, studies. Libmonster will spread your heritage all over the world (through a network of affiliates, partner libraries, search engines, social networks). You will be able to share a link to your profile with colleagues, students, readers and other interested parties, in order to acquaint them with your copyright heritage. Once you register, you have more than 100 tools at your disposal to build your own author collection. It's free: it was, it is, and it always will be.

Download app for Android