Projects / Programmes
Integrated peasant economy in Slovenia: a comparative approach (16th - 19th centuries)
| Code |
Science |
Field |
Subfield |
| 6.01.00 |
Humanities |
Historiography |
|
| Code |
Science |
Field |
| H270 |
Humanities |
Social and economic history |
| Code |
Science |
Field |
| 6.01 |
Humanities |
History and Archaeology |
rural history, economic history, Slovenia, Alpine area
Researchers (14)
Organisations (3)
Abstract
In the European historiography it is possible to notice a renewed interest in rural history, where the research focus in no longer on the “immobile” structural characters of the agrarian economy and society, but on the dynamics and changes before and during industrialization process. It has been also noticed how the European peasant population in the Modern era shows a remarkable degree of economic activity, “agency” and “industriousness”. This means it did not represent only an observer who would passively adapt to external conditions and pressures, but it was an active player. Recent research is moreover characterised by the inclusion of the comparative approach.
The project applies such tendencies to the one of the most prominent features in the economic history of the Slovenian countryside, that is the widespread phenomenon of “peasant trade” and, more in general, the integration of agricultural sources of income with those from additional activities and non-agricultural sources. The project stems from the observation that, in the case of Slovenia, we can observe a great diffusion and a large variety of additional activities, if compared to the much larger Alpine and European areas. Also at the international level there is a distinct tradition of addressing the issue of self-sufficiency of peasant farms and additional activities. Often this phenomenon is defined with the term "pluriactivity", while for the Alpine area the term "integrated economy" has been used.
On these bases we propose the concept of “integrated peasant economy” for Slovenia, meaning a system characterised by a structural integration of agricultural and a variety of different non-agricultural sources of income. We have developed the concept of “integrated peasant economy” on the case of the Slovenian countryside as an interpretation and conceptualization proposal that could be applied to other European realities, as well. The project therefore discusses the activities of the peasant population that are aimed at overcoming the levels of income from non-specialized and non-intensive agriculture, with an emphasis on combining incomes from all the economic sectors (primary, secondary and tertiary), which were systematically linked into an integrated peasant economy.
The project addresses two central research problems. First, to provide a temporal and qualitative definition, and a quantitative base for the concept of "integrated peasant economy" on the case of Slovenia in the pre-industrial period, and to test the model in other European regions. Second, to test the response of integrated peasant economy and of peasant households to the industrialization process in Slovenia, and to provide a comparison with other European cases.
To this purpose the research work will be directed towards some specific research questions: to define the extent and typology of "additional" activities in relation to the space (location of the village), to the social strata (peasants with or without land), and to the time period, also aiming at gaining an insight into the moveable property of rural households. On a broader level the research will address questions, such as to identify the factors of the integrated peasant economy system and to check its ability to respond and adapt to changes in the ratio between present population and available income sources, to determine how the system changed through time, as well as to verify the similarities and differences between Slovenia and other cases in the Alps and Europe, and the wider applicability of the concept of integrated peasant economy.
Specific objectives:
1) To define the concept of "integrated peasant economy" as a model based on the Slovenian case.
2) To apply the concept of "integrated peasant economy" on other Alpine and European cases.
General objectives:
1) To deepen and update the knowledge about rural history and peasant economy in Slovenia over a longer period of time.
2) To place the rural history of Slovenia in a
Significance for science
The research project represents a thematically and problematically original research, since it addresses with new conceptual categories an outstanding historical characteristic of the economy of the Slovenian countryside, namely the combination of agrarian and non-agricultural sources of income among the peasant population. Basing on the the Slovenian case, it developed, defined and founded the original and innovative concept of "integrated farm economy", testing and upgrading it with both a theoretical and empirical approach through different historical periods and specific case studies (especially between the Alpine and Scandinavian areas). It was proved that the integrated farm economy concept can be applied to Slovenian and other realities in the Alpine and European areas over a long period of time from the Middle Ages to the present. At the same time, it turned out that both integrated farm economy concept with its (so far seven) characteristics and its checklist of peasant activities demonstrated to be appropriate and efficient in ensuring comparability in addressing the peasant economy through space and time, also in comparison with older and newer terms, models and concepts, such as the " family economy" (Chayanov), protoindustry, "pluriactivity" (in the Italian and French versions), "industriousness” (de Vries), and the "survival commercial economy" (Thoen). In this way, the project brought a better knowledge and a more modern understanding of an outstanding characteristics in the Slovenian rural history, while contributing at the same time to the international comparability and visibility of the Slovene economic history. A particular novelty of the project lays in the fact that its result represents a Slovenian conceptual contribution to international historiography. While watching a diverse array of peasant activities, Slovenian historiography predominantly sees an agriculture striving for survival. Is this not a contradiction? We tried to render agency to the peasant, to recognise him a role of active actor, the ability to choose and change. We set the peasant economy at the centre of our attention and treated it as a whole. This renewed view revealed a system we called integrated peasant economy and which includes all three economic sectors as equivalent components of the whole. The integrated peasant economy questions the prevailing assumption that the peasant in Slovenia (and elsewhere) strove exclusively for subsistence and survival, and that activities beyond self-sustaining agriculture were an expression of bare necessity. On the contrary, the peasant demonstrates agency and the ability to shape history and economy even beyond the countryside, while Slovenian and European rural history reveal a much more complex and interesting image. The main results of the project are two scientific monographs in Slovenian and English: • Integrated Peasant Economy in a Comparative Perspective. Alps, Scandinavia and Beyond, Aleksander Panjek, Jesper Larsson and Luca Mocarelli eds. Koper: Založba Univerze na Primorskem, 2017 ( http://www.hippocampus.si/ISBN/978-961-7023-02-2.pdf ). • Preživetje in podjetnost. Integrirana kmečka ekonomija na Slovenskem od srednjega veka do danes [Subsistence and agency. Integrated peasant economy in Slovenia from the Middle Ages to nowadays], uredila Aleksander Panjek in Žarko Lazarević. Koper: Založba Univerze na Primorskem, 2018 ( http://www.hippocampus.si/ISBN/978-961-7023-81-7.pdf).
Significance for the country
The project has a direct impact on the rural development of Slovenia in line with the EU Common Agricultural Policy, which recognizes and explicitly emphasizes the multifaceted role of farmers in rural areas. They play an important role not only in food production but also in environmental care, management of public goods in rural areas and for the maintaining of diversification of the rural economy through the provision of additional activities and jobs (in the fields of tourism and conservation and promotion of cultural heritage, for example). Likewise, the Slovenian Rural Development Programme 2014-2020 emphasises that non-agricultural activities by farmers have a significant impact on the vitality of the wider rural economy, since the existence and prosperity of farms depend on the functioning and further development of these activities. The project with its integrated peasant economy concept may significantly contribute to a better implementation of such an approach: by emphasising the long-lasting historical presence and importance through many centuries of a wide range of non-agrarian activities among the rural population in Slovenia, the Alps and Pre-Alpine areas, Scandinavia and elsewhere, it demonstrates how this is a historically established and possibly the only way for a sustainable agricultural and rural development in Slovenia (and Europe), especially – but not limited to – upland areas.
Most important scientific results
Annual report
2014,
2015,
final report
Most important socioeconomically and culturally relevant results
Annual report
2014,
2015,
final report
