<abstract xml:lang="en" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">The study analyses the role of - two so-called collective factors - spatiality and ethnicity in social exclusion in Hungary. Furthermore, it highlights the unfavourable effects of incorrect political decisions concerning regional development on rural poverty and exclusion in Hungary's history since the end of World War II. It suggests the need for a new practice of monitoring and focused reporting at micro-regional level, close cooperation of regional development and social policy actors in regional planning, as well as a definite commitment of local decision makers in order to reduce spatial inequalities and avoid further escalation of exclusion.</abstract>

Poverty and Social Exclusion in the Rural Areas of Hungary

<abstract xml:lang="en" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">This paper reports on the fundamental processes reshaping rural areas in Hungary. Using indicators of social composition of settlements, the first section demonstrates large-scale polarisation resulting in vast zones of social crisis on the peripheries. The proceeding sections explore that small villages in lagging areas have been in a situation of despair in the last decade and a half, partly because of the social and economic burden they had to cope with, and partly because of their meagre financial situation brought about by the contradictions of the Hungarian administrative system, fiscal policies and their marginal position in relation to their access to development funds. The last paragraph of the last section voices hopes concerning some second generation development policies targeting rural areas in general and lagging areas in particular with more focused policy instruments.The study refers to research material gained from the following projects.</abstract>

Social and Administrative Crises Interlocking: The Misery of Rural Peripheries in Hungary

<abstract xml:lang="en" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">This paper addresses the problem of how civil society emerges as a by-product of EU-funded structural development projects in Eastern Europe, in the case of Slovakia. The case study is indicative of how local forms of civil society can gain strength and establish public legitimacy thanks to the growing divide between national and local political orientations. However, it is due to the planning and implementation processes of the motorway construction project, under the umbrella of the Trans-European Transport Network, that different layers of power from state to local level emerge and consolidate. The interplay and conflict in these layers endanger accountability, economic as well as environmental sustainability.</abstract>

Civil Society and Environmental Activism in One EU-funded Transport Development Project in Slovakia

<abstract xml:lang="en" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">The article focuses on trust/mistrust relations, strategies of cooperation, and emerging conflicts in the period of establishing capitalist reforms in Bulgaria after 1989. In this frame, trust building, as a key challenge for a successful transformation process, is analysed as a premise for cooperation and social cohesion in the process of reforming governance, establishing local institutions, rebuilding civil society, and validating the acknowledged human and natural potential of a "failing" i.e. "fragile state" like Bulgaria. Of specific significance is the analysis of agency in which individuals possess mainly personalised types of trust and cooperation and are suspicious about systemic trust. The analysis of the empirical materials reveals that the agents involved in present capitalist agriculture do not follow the abstract model proposed by transition/consolidation theories but rather they confirm the validity of the <italic>multiple modernities</italic> approach proposed by S.N. Eisenstadt.</abstract>

Multiple Modernities in Bulgaria: Social Strategies of Capitalist Entrepreneurs in the Agrarian Sector

<abstract xml:lang="en" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">By providing a forum for collaboration between diverse stakeholders, a main aim of the governance and rural development model is to ignite a representative and transverse inter-sectoral debate in relation to local development issues. This article identifies some of the determinants that arise in the transferability of the governance and rural development model from its conventional operational context of free-market liberal democracy to the post-socialist rural setting of the Ukmerge district in Lithuania, where a Rural Partnership Programme (RPP) was implemented (2003-2005). The analysis focuses specifically on how elements of the post-socialist context and other more case-specific aspects of the RPP's operation impacted on the inter-sectoral dynamics of the RPP partnership board's operation. The attitudes of the sectoral representatives towards the RPP as a model for representative and integrated rural development are explored.</abstract>

Towards a ‘transverse inter-sectoral debate’? A Case Study of the Rural Partnership Programme (RPP) in Post-Socialist Lithuania

<abstract xml:lang="en" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">In this study I present the conclusions of reports of the research teams which examined the policy range and analysed the activities regarding the inclusion of the socially deprived in rural areas, i.e. the British, Hungarian and Polish reports. When undertaking to find a reply to the question raised at the beginning of this article, I considered that the empirical basis would be quality material collected within the framework of focused group interviews1.Although the focused group interviews were conducted according to a scenario which was prepared by the research teams, changes were possible in each country (although these changes did not affect the research issue). Apart from the main aim of the discussion, i.e. the diagnosis and analysis of both successes and failures of educational activity enabling social inclusion, these differences concerned the digressions concentrating on poverty and social exclusion in rural areas and problems connected with the implementation of inclusive policy - Hungary; considerations concerning the kind of help which should be provided to individuals and groups struggling with poverty in the countryside - Great Britain; methods evaluating the effectiveness of aid agencies acting in favour of social inclusion - Poland.Representatives of government agencies playing a key role in the introduction of various forms of inclusive policy and representatives of institutions which provide direct help to the marginalised and those exposed to social marginalisation (which use various educational methods) took part in the research.</abstract>

Lifelong Learning for Inclusion - between Theory and Practice

<abstract xml:lang="en" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">A drop in standard of living does not have an equal influence on the way of life in different environments. So, for example, in more urban environments the possibility of realising greater purchasing power gets harder, and in others (economically underdeveloped) the minimal funds for food, clothing, footwear, children's education, health care etc. decrease. Poor households in rural environments have existed throughout the years. They exist today, but with different characteristics and dimensions than in the past. Chronically poor, the most vulnerable categories in the village are the households of elderly people. They represent a serious economic and social problem. Regarding the economic plan, the unexploited available capacities (cultivable soil), and on the social plan they either earn no income or a modest income.A significant number of agricultural households in the village, run the risk of becoming poorer. The participation of cash income from property is decreasing, and the participation of income from social transfers and the value of natural expenditure is increasing. The main characteristics of these households are: low education level of the members, none of them are employed, bad quality of the owned land, the elderly. There is a significant increase and profound poverty in the households of mountain village districts. Beside low incomes, the households do not have any possibility of providing enough income for a decent living, there is a greater influence of the inaccessibility of basic living conditions (road, transport connections, health care, education, postal services etc.).</abstract>

The Socio-Demographic Context of Rural Poverty

<abstract xml:lang="en" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">This paper aims to demonstrate some ethno-cultural specificity in land use and land inheritance by the data of the field survey carried out in four different municipalities in Romania, representing different historical regions where the ethnical composition of the regions is very different. The understanding of land management and agriculture is very different between the groups. The paper presents the data of a project which is the collaboration of a Swiss and a Romanian team in a three-year programme (SCOPES programme of Swiss National Science Foundation), in which a survey was carried out with the help of questionnaires. This was applied in a sample of 612 rural households in four municipalities. The main questions focused on land use and land inheritance as well as agriculture. The sample included two generations: the parents and their children (362), men and women. The research team looked for an answer to the question: "who are the next generation farmers in Romania and are there cultural and ethnic and also gender-based differences between rural families?" As the data show there are four different strategies applied in the four regions. In one, traditional sustainable agriculture was preserved, combined with a high rate of international migration. In another village there is a good perspective for farming, but a lot of young people are going to other sectors of activities. In the third location the former socialist cooperative was transformed into a new type of agricultural cooperative. This region has the best developmental perspectives. In the fourth region agricultural activity is maintained and the local economy also includes other types of activities which are complementary to agriculture (trade, industry and other services).</abstract>

Cultural and Ethnic Determinants of Land Use and Inheritance in Romania

<abstract xml:lang="en" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">This paper develops a framework for analysing the process of rural community development and institutionalisation in Lithuania. The first communal groups were established in rural Lithuania in the late 1990s. Over the last decade the number of such organisations in the country increased to 1,400. Although a very positive development, rapidly growing grass-roots activism has often led to a complex process of cooperation, conflict, competition and negotiation among the newly-created community groups and existing state agencies, non-governmental organisations, political parties, and various rural and urban interests. The model identifies four arenas of contention and negotiation, in which the newly-created communal groups have attempted to claim legitimacy and define their role in the social, economic and political life of the country: the public sphere, formalised (state financed and delivered) culture, social services' provision, and commercial (profitable) activities. Strategies of rural activists and their effectiveness in each of the four arenas of institutionalisation are examined. The contributions, as well as weaknesses, of the rural community development in promoting rural development in Lithuania are discussed.</abstract>

Department of Sociology, East Carolina University, 410-A Brewster Building, Greenville, NC 27858, USA

Department of Sociology, Faculty of Philosophy, Vilnius University, Universiteto gatve 9/1, Vilnius 01513, Lithuania

Conceptualising the Rise of the Rural Community Movement in Lithuania: A Framework for Analysis

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Eastern European Countryside

 Eastern European Countryside - printed volumes 23'2017 and 24'2018 - task financed under the agreement 785/P-DUN/2017 with funds Minister of Science and Higher Education for dissemination of science activities.  Eastern European Countryside - digital volumes 24'2018 and 25'2019 - task financed under the agreement 706/P-DUN/2018 with funds Minister of Science and Higher Education for dissemination of science activities.   Developed by Institute of Sociology at Nicolaus Copernicus University as an international platform for the sociological discourse on Eastern and Central European countryside developments, EEC publishes research on CEE countryside rather than research by CEE researchers. The journal covers social theory and analysis on two levels: comparative research on European countryside, and CEE countryside in international perspective. Concentrating on the present, EEC articles examine themes reflecting recent and significant changes in CEE countryside from a cross-disciplinary view point. The journal is essential reading for all sociologists, economists, political scientists and social policy analysts wishing to keep abreast of the very latest debates in this part of Europe.  The aim of the EEC is to provide a medium for the publication of original papers covering the entire span of sociological thought and research concerning Central and Eastern European countryside. The Editors are particularly keen to publish work on current developments in research and analysis.  Why subscribe and read  EEC is the only periodical dealing with countryside change in Central and Eastern Europe (countries which underwent a fundamental system transformation after 1989, abandoning socialism for a democratic system based on the free market economy). It presents the process of change in the legislative, organizational, economic, social areas, predicted consequences of these changes. Most of texts are about socio-economic, political, cultural phenomena in the lives rural communities undergoing change.  Why submit  EEC provides international circulation for research results and academic works generally published only in national Eastern and Central European countries languages and thus restricted within the borders of a particular country market.  The readership of the periodical – whose yearly circulation is between 100/200 copies is relatively wide. These are individuals and institutions in whole World (we have readers from Asia, Northern America and others) interested both in the progress of change process in the legislative, organizational, economic and social areas in Eastern and Central European Countries as well as the known and predicted consequences of these changes.   Archiving  Sciendo archives the contents of this journal in Portico - digital long-term preservation service of scholarly books, journals and collections.  Plagiarism Policy  The editorial board is participating in a growing community of Similarity Check System's users in order to ensure that the content published is original and trustworthy. Similarity Check is a medium that allows for comprehensive manuscripts screening, aimed to eliminate plagiarism and provide a high standard and quality peer-review process. 