Open AccessProcesses of Change in the Social Structure of Poland’s Rural Population in the Years 1991–2013
Author(s) -
Maria Halamska
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
wieś i rolnictwo
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2657-5213
pISSN - 0137-1673
DOI - 10.53098/wir042016/05
Subject(s) - proletarianization , middle class , bourgeoisie , petite bourgeoisie , social class , population , demographic economics , geography , sociology , economic geography , political science , economics , demography , market economy , politics , law
The article discusses changes in the social structure of rural population in the years 1991–2013. In that period the share of farmers decreased from 46% to 27%, the share of workers increasing from 33% to 45% and the share of middle class – from 15% to 27%. These changes are the result of three overlapping processes: deagrarianisation / depeasantization (the specific, two-phase “end” of the peasants), proletarianization (saturation of rural community by the representatives of social groups classified as blue-collar workers) and gentrification (i.e. the growth of middle class, also called bourgeois). In Poland, those processes took a different course than in the West: they are not only shifted in time, but they also overlap. The article is based on the data from 1991, 2003 and 2013.