Overview and details of the sessions of this conference. Please select a date or location to show only sessions at that day or location. Please select a single session for detailed view (with abstracts and downloads if available).
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Why do “I choose Croatia“? Quality of life considerations in (return) migration decisions.
Caroline Hornstein Tomić1, Janine Isabelle Pinkow-Läpple2, Ana Budimir3
1Ivo Pilar Institute of Social Sciences; 2IAMO, Germany; 3University of Zagreb
“I Choose Croatia” (Biram Hrvatsku) is the title of a policy measure recently launched by the Croatian government to encourage return migration from emigrants to their regions of origin in mostly rural, peripheral parts of the country. Those regions have been affected most by economic decline and shrinking population, both equally cause and effect of years-long, continuous outmigration. Based on the assumption of a nexus between migration and development, the policy measure incentivizes and financially supports entrepreneurial activity of return migrants, to enhance the economic viability, prosperity and quality of life in those regions. Without explicitly stating, it might contribute also to their demographic revitalization.
Can Cooperatives Help Mitigate Rural Exodus? Insights from a Croatian Case Study
Mario Njavro1, Miroslav Kovac2, Tajana Cop1, Duro Njavro3
1University of Zagreb Faculty of Agriculture, Croatia; 2Živo Selo” ("Living village"), an informal expert group of agronomists; 3Zagreb School of Economics and Management
Slavonia and Baranya, historically Croatia’s agricultural heartland, have faced significant socio-economic challenges since the 1990s. The transition to a market economy, the war during the 1990s, and increasing competition from the European Union have contributed to the region's economic decline and high rural migration rates.
Croatia's agrarian structure is undergoing rapid transformation, with farmland concentration and enlargement leading to the disappearance of small and medium-sized farms. This trend is exacerbated by unfavourable socio-political conditions.
Cooperatives are widely regarded as a viable organizational model for supporting small and medium farms, yet their development in Croatia has been hindered by historical and societal factors. Cooperative traditions were disrupted after World War II, leaving a negative perception of cooperatives despite their economic potential.
A case study of a Croatian cooperative (2008–2019) highlights challenges such as political misunderstandings, competitive pressures, and insufficient managerial expertise, which ultimately led to its dissolution.
The study underscores the potential of cooperatives to address rural migration and strengthen family farming but identifies key barriers to their success. It suggests policy measures to promote cooperative development, improve management capacity, and foster a supportive socio-political environment to revitalize rural areas and stabilize the agrarian structure in Slavonia and Baranya.
The farmer I want to be: Farmers' role identity in multifunctional agricultural landscapes
Malin Gütschow1, Bartosz Bartkowski1,2
1Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research UFZ, Germany; 2Martin-Luther University Halle-Wittenberg
Public and political demands for more multifunctional agriculture may challenge farmer identities, especially when these have a strong focus on food production rather than other ecosystem services. Although alignment with farmer identity can improve the effectiveness and efficiency of agri-environmental policy, a comprehensive account of farmer role identity considering the full range of socio-cultural, ecological and economic functions of farming is so far missing.
Operationalizing role identity as the prioritization between multiple societal functions, we aim to describe distinct Perspectives on farmers ideal societal role that exist in the farmer community in Eastern Germany. Thereby, we seek to contribute to the understanding of farmer role identity in the context of the multifunctionality transformation.
We used Q method to collect data from a heterogenous sample of 29 Eastern German farms. In the interviews, we asked respondents to sort 71 functions according to how much they would like to fulfil these in the future if working under optimal conditions, and comment on their sorting decisions. This data was processed using a by-person Principal Component Analysis, yielding three groups of respondents with a corresponding representative Q sort (factor array).
Based on the factor arrays and qualitative data, we present three distinct Perspectives on farmers’ ideal role in society. The results provide important insights into potential policy-related identity conflicts as well as potentials for framings focused on synergies and common objectives.
