Publication details
Komodifikace venkova a utváření identity regionu
| Title in English | Commodification of the rural and the construction of regional identity |
|---|---|
| Authors | |
| Year of publication | 2016 |
| Type | Article in Periodical |
| Magazine / Source | Sociologicky casopis/Czech Sociological Review |
| Citation | |
| Web | http://sreview.soc.cas.cz/cs/issue/182-sociologicky-casopis-czech-sociological-review-2-2016/3610 |
| Keywords | rurality; commodification; regional identity; cultural economy; LAG; LEADER |
| Description | This paper focuses on the commodification and marketisation of Czech rural areas and on the consequences these processes have for regional identities. Using a case study of a Local Action Group (LAG), the paper traces the construction of rurality and the ways it is employed as an identity tool and a market commodity. The study is grounded in a constructivist approach in rural sociology, emphasising the multiplicity of meanings ascribed to the rural by actors. The study points out the identity politics produced by the rural development programmes and its implications for the defining of regional borders and for the very notion of "rurality". Commodification gives rise to a sphere of cultural economics, whereby the past and the natural and cultural heritage are sold on the market. The establishment of a certified brand of regional products is an important tool of cultural economics. In the study of this process (and of the activities of the LAG in general), two layers of identity are identified. It is argued that the tension between the layers of marketised identity and quasi-natural identity reflects the tension between the professional and the lay discourses of rurality. |