The present historical moment may seem a particularly inopportune time to review Bowling Alone, Robert Putnam's latest exploration of civic decline in America. After all, the outpouring of volunteerism, solidarity, patriotism, and self-sacrifice displayed by Americans in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks appears to fly in the face of Putnam's central argument: that \"social capital\" -defined as \"social networks and the norms of reciprocity and trustworthiness that arise from them\" (p. 19)'has declined to dangerously low levels in America over the last three decades. However, Putnam is not fazed in the least by the recent effusion of solidarity. Quite the contrary, he sees in it the potential to \"reverse what has been a 30to 40-year steady decline in most measures of connectedness or community.\"' As an example of how the current \"war on terrorism\" could generate a durable civic renewal, Putnam points to the burst in civic practices that occurred during and after World War II, which he says \"permanently marked\" the generation that lived through it and had a \"terrific effect on American public life over the last half-century.\" 3 If Americans can follow this example and channel their current civic

Bowling alone: The collapse and revival of American community

The postsocialist transition resulted in widespread structural change in Polish agriculture, but fine-scale assessments of how these changes affected farming and rural landscapes are scarce. This article examines changes in farm sizes and land use patterns after the breakdown of socialism in Poland using micro-census data and satellite images. Our study area is Pyrzyce County. The analysis indicates a polarization of the farm size distribution (e.g., medium-sized farms disappeared) as well as marked changes in land use patterns (e.g., increasing field sizes and field aggregation). Interviews with farmers and stakeholders suggest that this shift can be explained by decreasing competitiveness of medium-sized farms in the emerging new agricultural value chain, which forced farmers to increase and intensify production or to downsize their farms, especially when the preference was for other occupations.

Farm Size and Land Use Pattern Changes in Postsocialist Poland

The creation of optimal land institutions attracted renewed attention in the 1990s because of its central role in the transition process in former Communist countries in the former Soviet Union and...

The Diversity of Land Markets and Regulations in Europe, and (some of) its Causes

The present work contributes to the relatively new concept of path breaking. Based on simulations with the agent-based agricultural structure model AgriPoliS and the statements of stakeholders in the field of milk production possible path breaking options of dairy farms in two German regions, the Altmark and the Ostallgaeu, are analyzed. The analyses are run against the background of the current developments on the dairy market and the imminent abolition of the milk quota system. The milk market has always been highly regulated and subsidized, thus structural change was slowed down and suboptimal structures could persist. These regionally diverse and sometimes suboptimal structures may be challenged when the liberalization of the dairy market leads to increasingly fluctuating milk prices. The establishment of such structures could be explained in various studies as the persistence of path dependencies (see BALMANN, 1995, 1997; ZIMMERMANN, 2012). The dissertation goes into depth at that point and addresses the question of whether a break-up of path dependency, i.e. a path breaking, is possible. Furthermore, it analyzes which farms can break persisting paths and to what extent political conditions influence path breaking. [...]

Milchproduktion zwischen Pfadabhängigkeit und Pfadbrechung - partizipative Analysen mit Hilfe des agentenbasierten Modells AgriPoliS

This article presents a comprehensive review of the Polish farm sector. The main objective is to analyse the causes of its backwardness and slow development. Low remuneration of farm work and the resultant low profitability are the largest problems of many farms. Several causes of the low profitability are evaluated. We show that all relevant causes are closely interrelated and that the extraordinarily high labour intensity has the largest impact. Subsequently, we analyse several causes of the extremely large share of agricultural employment in the Polish economy. Low skills of farm workers, the poor performance of the land market and the high level of subsidisation of the social security system for farmers (KRUS) are identified as the most important causes. Finally, some policy recommendations are given.

Why is the Polish farm sector still so underdeveloped

This volume of proceedings, available both as hard copy and pdf , is an edited compilation of selected contributions to the IAMO Forum 2004, which will be held in Halle (Saale), Germany, at the Institute of Agricultural Development in Central and Eastern Europe from 4 to 6 November 2004. CONTENTS: The role of agriculture in Central and Eastern European rural development: an overview; Martin Petrick, Peter Weingarten. Subsistence Farming and Rural Unemployment - the Case of Slovakia; Gejza Blaas. Rural Development in Albania and the Role of Agriculture: a Case Study in the Prefecture of Elbasan; Vittorio Gallerani, Nada Krypa, Meri Raggi, Antonella Samoggia, Davide Viaggi. Agricultural Problems in Georgia and Strategic Policy Responses; Zurab Revishvili, Henry W. Kinnucan. The Role of Private Household Plots in Russian Rural Development; Galina Rodionova. Agriculture in Southeastern Poland - Main Problems of The Systemic Transformation Process; Janusz Zmija, Ewa Tyran. Factor Market Imperfections and Polarization of Agrarian Structures in Central and Eastern Europe; Alexander Sarris, Sara Savastano, Christian Tritten. Agricultural Credit Market in Poland - Experiences in the Market Economy; Alina Danilowska. Social Aspects of Agricultural Employment in the Czech Republic; Hana Horska, Daniela Spěsna, Jan Drlik, Radomir Koutný, Tomas Ratinger. Lease as a Form of Land Consolidation in Moldavian Agriculture; Dragos Cimpoies, Grigore Baltag. Analysing Variation in Russian Dairy Farms, 1990-2001; Irina Bezlepkina, Ruud Huirne, Alfons Oude Lansink, Arie Oskam. The Role of Agriculture for Rural Development in a less favoured Rural Area: The Experience of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania (Germany); Theodor Fock. Wine, Sand and Socialism: Some enduring Effects of Hungary's 'Flexible' Model of Collectivization; Chris Hann. Off-Farm Activities and Subsistence Farming in CEE Countries - A Statistical Approach; Franz Greif. Agricultural Productivity Growth: a Vehicle For Rural Poverty Reduction in Ukraine? Viktoriya Galushko, Stephan von Cramon-Taubadel. Institutional Factors Influencing Agricultural Sales of the Individual Farmers in Romania; Borbala Balint. Social Capital in Rural Areas of Latvia within the Context of Public Organisations; Modrite Pelse. The Effects of Social Capital on the Organization of Agricultural Enterprises and Rural Communities in Transition: the Case of Ukraine; Vladislav Valentinov, Tetyana Matsibora, Mykola Malik. Farm Tourism: Myth or Reality? Stefan Bojnec. Biomass Production as a Future Agricultural Development Factor in West Pomerania (Poland); Jaroslaw Senczyszyn, Agnieszka Brelik. Rural Implications of Foreign Direct Investments in the Food Industry of the Visegrad Countries; Csaba Jansik. The Impact of Information Society on Agriculture and Rural Areas Development; Anton Nedyalkov, Victoria Borisova. Agricultural Policy and Rural Development: Theoretical and Empirical Aspects; Heinz Ahrens. A Tailor-Made Common Agricultural Policy for the Accession Countries: Help or Harm for Agriculture in Eastern Europe? David Sedik. Evaluation of the Effects of Pre-Accession and Accession Instruments on the Development of the Northeast Region in Bulgaria; Plamen Mishev, Antoaneta Golemanova. Measures of Rural Development Policy in Russia; Alexander Petrikov. Priority Setting for Rural Development: an Interactive PC-Based Programming Approach; Dieter Kirschke, Astrid Hager, Kurt Jechlitschka, Stefan Wegener

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The Role of Agriculture in Central and Eastern European Rural Development: Engine of Change or Social Buffer?

Socio-demographic characteristics of farm managers in the European Union. Women – farm managers in the European Union. Socio-economic characteristics of farm managers in the Czech Republic. Managing the agricultural production of Ukraine: social and economic characteristics of the management staff. Analysis of the socio-demographic profile of the farm managers in Bulgaria. Socio-economic characteristics of farm managers in Romania and their implications upon farm performance. Transformation of socio-demographic characteristics of Polish managers of private farms in the conditions of growing competition in the light of field studies. Economic activity of managers of individual farms in Poland.

Daniela Spesna

Papers

The Role of Agriculture in Central and Eastern European Rural Development: Engine of Change or Social Buffer?

Characteristics of farm managers in Poland and selected Central-Eastern European Countries