Image of socio-cultural changes of Czech countryside in several generations’ memories
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| Year of publication | 2018 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
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| Description | This paper deals with perceptions of the socialist past by several generations of people who spent part of their life in the late socialist era within Czech countryside. Key issues of doctoral research are related to changes of everyday practices with focus on social life and leisure time. The author is interested in a role of initiative individuals, migration and social ties in establishing of new phenomena in the cultural life of a rural community, especially young generations, who grew up during this era. However, the interest in collective spending of leisure time presents a key starting point for the wider interpretations of social relations in microcosms of few small villages and a little town, where the research was conducted. It is also narrowly defined by time with focus on the last twenty years of socialism in Czechoslovakia, so-called normalization era, from the Soviet occupation in 1968 to the Velvet revolution in 1989. Czech rural areas influenced by the collectivization of agriculture and introducing of mass production went through much greater urbanization than countryside of other socialist countries. This rapid change also formed the perception of leisure time, which can be seen in the differences between its perception by members of different seemingly close related age groups. A reflection of generational memory specifics will be presented in the context of other aspects, which influences the recent image of remembering of the past. Namely, in relation to space and perception of lesser or wider defined territory, a view of symbolic boundaries between local and strange or influence of social relations. Circumstances of rural dance parties or socialist youth organizations activities will be also touched in this paper. |