Paper discusses some results of anthropological research on farm families in Prekmurje. The research focused on the intertwined relationships among members of six multigenerational farm families to obtain new knowledge of these relationships in view of reproduction and developmental orientations of farming. The selected collocutors were from the farm households, the beneficiaries of aid for young farmers and early retired farmers, and the non-beneficiaries of such aid. The semi-structured interviews revolved around the topics on farm history, division of labour, and developmental farm orientation. The results show that the beneficiaries of both forms of aid are promising in two aspects: they continue with farming and they have enlarged the production on the farm compared to the older generation. The fieldwork material also shows that the introduction of tractors contributed to a more clear-cut division of tasks between genders. Irrespective of the time period observed, the care for the elderly and children remains the working domain of women.
B.03 Paper at an international scientific conference
COBISS.SI-ID: 33819437In the Rural Development Programme 2004-2006 and 2007-2013 (RDP) two measures (the Early Retirement of Farmers and the Setting up of Young Farmers) are aimed to improve reproductive and development capacity of farms. The aim of the survey Generations and Gender Relations on Farms in Slovenia carried out in 2007 was to found out which farm households from the point of view of agricultural development were actually addressed by these two measures. In the paper the focus of analysis is the relationship between gender equality measured through the attitudes towards gender roles, division of labour and decision-making on the farm and considering household chores and development capacities of farms measured by secured succession of the farm and projected extent (no change, increase or decrease) of agricultural activities. The results indicate that farms of the beneficiaries are indeed more development oriented than non-beneficiaries’ farms, while from the gender perspective the farms do not differ among each other.
B.03 Paper at an international scientific conference
COBISS.SI-ID: 6789497Book review: Katy Fox's book explores various coping strategies of Romanian farmers, who have struggled with the changes introduced by the Romanian EU's accession and introduction of CAP. Although the author analyses specific transformation of Romanian countryside, the review offers basis for comparative analysis, since it highlights the specificities of local responses of farmers to political claims. With the strong theoretical framework, which includes emphasis on important concepts (personality, value, hope), author contributed to the developement of theoretical tools that were used also in the interpretation of ethnographic material gathered in two main regions of our analysis (Gorenjska, Prekmurje). Therefore, suggested concepts enabled understanding of moral economies that turned out to be crucial for transformation of contemporary Slovenian countryside.
B.06 Other
COBISS.SI-ID: 264758016Despite the fact that rural women’s work has been often unrecognised and described as “hidden” or marginal, interdisciplinary research in the last decades demonstrated the importance of women’s input in sustaining the existence of the family farms. Their contribution was – it seems - even greater in the time of economical as well as political turbulences. The paper focuses on two cases of successful family farms in Slovenia, where women acted as important innovators and contributed immensely to the socio-economic stability of the farm. The paper is focused on the two turning points, that is dissolution of Yugoslavia (which resulted also in Slovenian independence in 1991) and Slovenian EU accession (2004). The ethnographic research in less favoured area (LFA), conducted during the winter months of 2012 and 2013, reveals the process of introducing pluriactivity on the farms and analyses the household dynamics that contributed to women’s active involvement in decision-making process, which in turn resulted in farm’s socio-economic advancement. The results show that coping strategies amongst rural women that have been often guided by the various forms of resistance: resistance to patriarchy and conservative division of labor in the farming households, the expectation of older generations and, in particular dominant ideas of agricultural development and policy (including agricultural educational programs) promoted by Slovenian state and EU (CAP).
B.03 Paper at an international scientific conference
COBISS.SI-ID: 56331874Following envisioned activities in the context of the International Year of Family Farming, the guest editor invited scholars to join in common effort to critically reflect upon actual circumstances and practices of family farming worldwide. The articles in this special issue of Anthropological Notebooks Doing Various Paths of Family Farming Development draw on the authors’ field material. Topics discussed include external sustainable intensification interventions in African smallholder farming, contrasting response to globalization of agriculture of family farmers from Australia, New Zealand and the UK, the emerging collaboration between alternative provisioning networks in Italy and smallholders, changed gender and working identities in family farms’ couples in Northern Ireland, the complex motivations of Slovenian family farmers to take up organic farming, and a critical reflection on the agricultural knowledge transfer system in Slovenia.
C.03 Guest-associated editor