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Village- people and country
Maťaťa, Tomáš ; Chuděj, Tomáš (referee) ; Žalmanová, Petra (advisor)
Agriculture in Slovakia has historically gone through many stages of development. In the past, it was the main livelihood strategy for rural populations, where it reinforced social bonds and cooperation. Socialistic collectivization and the creation of Common agricultural cooperatives (JRDs) represented a violent transition that did not respect the historical and cultural traditions and their development. They resulted in rural populations losing their connection with the soil and marked the beginning of the deterioration of Slovak agriculture and depopulation of rural areas. JRDs were thus a massive blow for the character of Slovak countryside. Natural and climate conditions had been until that time the main factors shaping the architecture, which was therefore specific to every region. After JRDs’ arrival, outbuildings of family farms were slowly replaced with uniform large-scale structures. With the scale of these buildings not matching the surrounding environment and context, the aesthetic and residential value of rural areas was distorted. After the fall of the communist regime in Czechoslovakia and the incipient restitutions that followed, the intended revival of bonds between people and their soil never materialized. “Cooperatives” became companies struggling for survival in the now open market and farmers remained their employees. The importance of the countryside has risen in terms of its residential value, but severely deteriorated in the economic sense. Traditions surviving with the original rural populations mix with new modern elements of the in-migrating urban populations. A number of these cooperatives have gone bankrupt, with their premises abandoned, neglected and becoming derelict. Others have survived only to see most of their agricultural productivity decline relative to competition, which, too, resulted in many of their buildings being unutilized and neglected. Since these JRDs used to be part of the majority of villages, with 2759 rural settlements in Slovakia, their number is bound to be very high. They have left a deep imprint in the countryside which occupies soil and hinders the villages in their development. Is it therefore necessary for every village to have their own cooperative, if they tend to be either abandoned or utilized only partially? Transformation of this space into an area serving locals, supporting reinforcement of their social bonds and bonds with the village itself. Opening up former cooperatives for the rural populations.
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Village- people and country
Maťaťa, Tomáš ; Chuděj, Tomáš (referee) ; Žalmanová, Petra (advisor)
Agriculture in Slovakia has historically gone through many stages of development. In the past, it was the main livelihood strategy for rural populations, where it reinforced social bonds and cooperation. Socialistic collectivization and the creation of Common agricultural cooperatives (JRDs) represented a violent transition that did not respect the historical and cultural traditions and their development. They resulted in rural populations losing their connection with the soil and marked the beginning of the deterioration of Slovak agriculture and depopulation of rural areas. JRDs were thus a massive blow for the character of Slovak countryside. Natural and climate conditions had been until that time the main factors shaping the architecture, which was therefore specific to every region. After JRDs’ arrival, outbuildings of family farms were slowly replaced with uniform large-scale structures. With the scale of these buildings not matching the surrounding environment and context, the aesthetic and residential value of rural areas was distorted. After the fall of the communist regime in Czechoslovakia and the incipient restitutions that followed, the intended revival of bonds between people and their soil never materialized. “Cooperatives” became companies struggling for survival in the now open market and farmers remained their employees. The importance of the countryside has risen in terms of its residential value, but severely deteriorated in the economic sense. Traditions surviving with the original rural populations mix with new modern elements of the in-migrating urban populations. A number of these cooperatives have gone bankrupt, with their premises abandoned, neglected and becoming derelict. Others have survived only to see most of their agricultural productivity decline relative to competition, which, too, resulted in many of their buildings being unutilized and neglected. Since these JRDs used to be part of the majority of villages, with 2759 rural settlements in Slovakia, their number is bound to be very high. They have left a deep imprint in the countryside which occupies soil and hinders the villages in their development. Is it therefore necessary for every village to have their own cooperative, if they tend to be either abandoned or utilized only partially? Transformation of this space into an area serving locals, supporting reinforcement of their social bonds and bonds with the village itself. Opening up former cooperatives for the rural populations.
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