Regional response to post-socialist decollectivisation – The example of slovak villages in the little carpathians

Abstract

This paper addresses questions connected with the restructuring of agriculture in the Little Carpathian region, which is one of the most dynamically developing regions of western Slovakia. Analysing the course of the transformation process in large-scale postsocialist agricultural enterprises, the author stresses its variable character in the differentiated local context. Attention is given also to other spheres of agricultural activity: the enterprises of privately producing farmers, and private plot production for families’ own use. It is argued that in the real economy of the region the importance of agriculture as a branch of production has declined. Ideas of the region’s progress and prosperity are rarely associated with agriculture nowadays (with the exception of vine-growing). Nonetheless, agriculture is beginning to be perceived as a natural part of the landscape, as a particular feature which must be preserved and utilised in the long-term, including in the context of developing regional tourism.