Farmers vs middle class. Social structure in peri-urban areas

Abstract

The main subject of the article is process of rural gentrification. It shapes the rural social structure, and thus causes social, economic and cultural changes. Recent analyses conducted in Poland (based on the index of rural gentrification) indicate that this process is most advanced in rural peri-metropolitan areas. They are the optimal place to observe the transformations taking place as a result of rural gentrification process. In the article special attention will be paid precisely to farmers as a segment of the social structure. Their characteristics resulting from demographic and socio-professional differentiation in two types of counties (intensively gentrified and those in which the process of rural gentrification does not occur) will be discussed. The objective of this research is to elucidate the dynamics of agriculture and the farming community within the framework of the rural gentrification phenomenon. The analysis will be based on existing data (publicly available databases in, among others, the Central Statistical Office and the database of the “Social Diagnosis 2015” survey).

Keywords

• social structure
• Poland
• rural gentrification
• middle class
• farmers