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- Convenor:
-
Marta Songin-Mokrzan
(University of Lodz)
- Chair:
-
Stefano Beggiora
(University Ca' Foscari of Venice)
- Stream:
- Rural
- Location:
- A224
Short Abstract:
The aim of the panel is to retrace social, cultural and material transformations of rural spaces caused by contemporary marked-oriented global discourses that project utopian futures (usually unfulfilled) of wealth and prosperity.
Long Abstract:
Although it is the cities, being places of capital concentration, that are commonly recognized as the strategic centers of globalization, rural spaces, which seem to be situated on the peripheries of these processes, have not in fact been untouched by economic and socio-cultural changes. The reconfigurations of sociospatial infrastructures and symbolic imaginaries of rural communities have been brought about by a range of phenomena, including the implementation of new environmental policies, the introduction of new forms of rural industrialization, the reorganization of agriculture, and the rise of the heritage industry, which adds to the commodification of ruralities.
These interventions in rural spaces are intertwined with various market-oriented global discourses, such as neoliberalization, sustainable development, modernization, growth and progress, and several other types, all of which offer utopian visions of future by promising economic security and material well-being. As migratory technologies of governing they interact with very specific configurations of local elements and create new forms of ruralities.
This panel offers a reflection on the various transformation processes of rural spaces shaped by market-oriented narratives and practices. Its key questions are as follows: what is the nature of these changes?; in what ways do they reconfigure local folklore, habits, social and material landscapes, as well as strategies, hopes and dreams of social actors?; and finally, how do they redefine the notion of "rurality"?
Accepted papers:
Session 1Marta Songin-Mokrzan (University of Lodz)
Paper short abstract:
The aim of the presentation is to retrace sociospatial and cultural transformations of the rural areas subjected to neoliberalization processes. I will particularly focus on the materialities of economic growth and their impact on reshaping the imaginaries of the local communities.
Paper long abstract:
In the course of systemic transformation Poland has adopted growth-oriented approach toward development and a line of politics that supports it. One of the key assumptions underlying this approach is the idea that the influx of international capital is an indispensable condition for stimulating economy at macro and micro levels. For this reason, the consecutive governments have been introducing legal mechanisms which offer investment incentives to foreign entrepreneurs. As a result of these efforts, in 1995 the first Special Economic Zone (SEZ) was established. Since then, Poland has created another 13 zones, mainly in rural areas. These neoliberal procedures of restructuring ruralities have contributed to the sociospatial reorganization of the local landscapes.
In my presentation I would like to explore the cultural consequences of the economic transformation processes through the prism of the manifestations of economic growth in rural Poland. I will particularly focus on the changes that have occurred in a commune which is well-known for its active policy on attracting foreign investors. My point of departure is the territory, occupied by the SEZ, which I conceive as a certain time-space material palimpsest representative of the scenario of economic transition: from the utopia of state-owned collective farms to the neoliberal dystopian industrialization with its complex infrastructure. Questions of my interest are as follows: what are the material indicators of growth in rural areas?; what meanings are attached to them?; and in what ways do they redefine the imaginative landscapes of the local communities?
Sasi Kumar (Woxsen University, Hyderabad, India.)
Paper short abstract:
Money can be: Traditional Vs Neoliberal. This duality of money is entailed in the cultural practice call Panapayattu, in South India. It may counter to the idea of neoliberalism on the question of money.
Paper long abstract:
For Mauss gift practices (The Gift, 1925) give , take and return is essentially represents a pre-modern social relations. In this particular context it is important to understand what is Panapayaattu? Though it can be defined as a system or a network of relations exists among the people of a particular part of Malabar (South Asia) by their money use or exchange.
The ethnography of neoliberalism would suggest that its overarching dependence on money and as a result of which people uses violent means to get accumulated because they satisfy the desire and pleasures. But, the ethnography of Panapayattu, a more subtle use of money, a thing to be created collectively which satisfy their long wishes of a some land, house and a decent life.
Bogdan Iancu (National School of Political Studies and Public Administration Bucharest Museum of Romanian Peasant)
Paper short abstract:
Building on the ethnographic work of Romanian scientist Grigore Antipa (1916), as well as on recent ethnographies of postsocialist Danube Delta the goal of this paper is to explore the range of anxieties in the process of remaking the discipline of the post-socialist local workforce.
Paper long abstract:
The local population's access to resources was reshaped in the Danube Delta by an increasing set of regulations on local fishing derived from the postsocialist status of natural reservation (Biosphere Reserve). Paired with the shape of tourism or large private holdings in some of these villages, this factor triggered a process of structural transformation of local economy, households and of the locals' everyday practices towards a territory managed to a great extent by a large number of regional and national institutions. Building on the ethnographic work of Romanian scientist Grigore Antipa (1916), as well as on recent ethnographies of postsocialist Danube Delta, I will depict the range of anxieties in the process of remaking the discipline of the post-socialist workforce through national and European regulations and policies:
1. The changes in the process of fishing, the new routines and disciplines of work (including the processes which reconfigure the worker's skills), and the new market-shaped worker subjectivities;
2. The processes that reshape the navigation of local territory.
During the presentation, I will focus on the social history of fishing and related occupations and on some of the complex new meanings of the natural reservation status of the territory: mapping and valuing available resources after the dramatic reconfiguration and decrease of industrial fishing. By using ethnographic data my goal is to scrutinize the manner in which the local population of Danube Delta copes with the various new constraints regarding fishing, by the (im)possibility of access in various areas of the reservation and by the continuous mirroring with the "forbidden lands": Biosphere Reserve and concession areas.
Bibiana Martinez Alvarez (Universidade de Santiago de Compostela)
Paper short abstract:
Transformations of rural space in the context of family farms in Galicia are caused by their gradual subordination to the capitalist relations of production and market-oriented global discourses. I try to analyze these questions through an historical perspective and the concept of moral economy
Paper long abstract:
Family dairy farms in Galicia (north-west of Spain) operate in a complex institutional context that encompasses the dairy industry, agricultural unions, and a variety of technicians in agricultural management and in agribusiness. Based on ethnographic fieldwork, I discuss how economic relations generate contradictions that hamper the productive process and even jeopardize the survival of family farms. These contradictions are generated because of their gradual subordination to the capitalist relations of production. This process also produces a significant tension among the three types of sustainability that exist in the present context: economic, social (such as the way of life or household reproduction) and environmental sustainability. The historical perspective and the concept of moral economy are key elements in my analysis. Therefore through all these questions I discuss how the contemporary market-oriented global discourses as well as different practices in this orbit produce social, cultural and material transformations of rural space and also project utopian futures of progress and prosperity. In these family farms this process is embodied in the intensive mode of farming exploitation developed during the years of the implementation of the Green Revolution in Galicia. The serious problems of these family farms to survive and the implementation of the extensive farming in the context nowadays, generate also among the farmers the feeling of failed modernity besides other material, cultural and social transformations, such as the problems around land access or the changing perceptions around their livelihood and the environment
Stefano Beggiora (University Ca' Foscari of Venice)
Paper short abstract:
We propose an analysis about the folklore of an aboriginal community in India; here the modernity, the economic boom and the need for resources have brought dramatic changes in the social and environmental layout of the jungle strongly affecting the local cultural strategies of adaptation.
Paper long abstract:
This paper aims to investigate the religion, myths and rituals - but also the social structure and cultural heritage - of an Indian ādivāsī (indigenous) group: the Kondhs. The research is principally focused at investigating a set of beliefs and magical-religious practices that are at the base of the phenomenon of the pālṭa bāgha: a case of therianthropy (human to animal transformation). The comparison between the colonial sources and the fieldwork outline a series of 'narratives' that seem to be located within a background of witchcraft accusations. The data creating the socio-ethnographical context are collected in and around the town of Phulbani, the headquarter of the Kandhamal district (Orissa), between 2001 and 2006, in order to. Here the theme of the metamorphosis between man and animal overlaps the phenomena of the modernity that today imposes dramatic changes in the environment and social local system. The conclusions, emphasizing the cultural importance of folklore and indigenous knowledge, propose some reflections on the themes of ecology, development and sustainability.