From scythe to smartphone: Rural transformation in Romania evidenced by the perception of rural land and population

Abstract

History, economy, policy arrangements, and individual choices can all explain changes in ruralness. The rural transformation represents the main focus of this study which is intended to be a journey in the past to discover the present and understand the future, figuratively marked by the expression “from scythe to smartphone”. The objective of the paper is twofold. Firstly, to offer benchmarks on Romania's economic literature and the modern political, economic, and social changes that have shaped today's rural communities. Secondly, to assess the importance that people assign to rural land and rural population. The research was developed in two main parts and it used a mixed-method approach including document analysis as a qualitative method and survey as a quantitative method. A stratified random sampling method at the country level was used to select a sample of 217 persons. A broad context for the debate on how to negotiate for preserving the ruralness is also outlined. The analysis suggested a small perceived deficit of the rural population for ensuring environmental protection and food security. The results revealed that the hardship of rural space was a human-engineered problem and that modernity, through technology, deeply impacts the diversification of rural people's needs. It follows that this study could stimulate the stewardship of ruralness in other national contexts where rural space is about to become a cyber-reality, a museum space of “how it was once”. Moreover, the present contribution recommends the realignment of rural-urban boundaries. Last but not least, the complex interaction among small-scale farmers' motivations and needs, large-scale land acquisitions consequences, rural exodus, and the dynamics of rural land and population must be scrutinized as well.