Social Security and Local State in a Village in Southern Banat, Vojvodina, Serbia
This research is part of the lager research project ‘Local State and Social Security in Rural Hungary, Romania and Serbia’.
Fieldwork Location and Village Characteristics
Fieldwork for this study will take place in the village of Gaj. Gaj is a medium-sized village (3302 inhabitants) located in the district of Southern Banat, itself a part of the province of Vojvodina, Serbia. The village is 9km away from the small town of Kovin, the local municipality centre, and 35km away from the town of Bela Crkva, the other municipality centre of the district of Southern Banat. The village is situated near the Danube, on the alluvial slope that gently descends to the river.
Gaj is a very old village. The first recorded mention of it dates from 1355, when it belonged to the Krasovian district. Later on, it was destroyed during Ottoman military advancements towards Hungary. After the recapture of the territories from the Ottomans, the village was rebuilt in 1713, partially repopulated, and attached to the Vrsac district. In 1753 it was mentioned as a Serbian settlement. It was destroyed anew by the great Danube floods (1750/60). The chart drawn in 1761 by Baron Mercy mentions the village as unsettled. The village was rebuilt on a new location, further away from the river. In 1770, at the orders of Maria Theresia it was attached to the Austrian Military Frontier (Militär Grenze). According to the 1869 census, the village of Gaj had 1526 inhabitants. In 1873, with the dismantlement of the Frontier, the village was incorporated in the Tams district, and was accorded the right to organise permanent Sunday fairs. Three years later, the first credit association was formed in the village. In 1895 a park was erected in the centre of the village, on the ground previously functioning as the military mobilisation assembly space. In 1900 a waterworks association was formed, owing to the efforts of which a levee was built in order to prevent the threat of future floods. The first four year village elementary school opened its doors to pupils around the end of the 18th century. During the 19th century, it became a six year school. After the Second World War, it was transformed into a full eight year elementary school. During the War, the Southern Banat partisan unit was formed in the village (8th March 1942). Almost 200 villagers were killed in action or shot dead during the war by the German occupation forces.
The village at present has two churches. The Serbian Orthodox was built in 1791, and the Catholic one in 1940. Apart from the two churches and the school, for which a new building was erected in 1985, Gaj has a Hall of culture, which is the seat of the local cultural and artistic society, as well as several sports clubs, a riding club, the Hunters association, the Voluntary firemen association, the women’s association and several NGOs.
As has been mentioned, Gaj at present has the population of 3302 inhabitants (according to the last Serbian Census of 2002). Serbs are the largest population in the village (2619), followed by Roma (191), Czechs (137), Hungarians (120) and Romanians (32). Among persons older than 15 years, there are 1300 men and 1369 women. The average agricultural household has 3,63 members. Of the 989 households in the village, 655 possess an agricultural production unit. The average number of arable plots of land per agricultural household is three, and the average surface of the plots is 1,25 hectares. The overall number of dependant persons in agricultural households of the village is 482.
As far as overall characteristics of agricultural economy are concerned, Gaj combines the features of dwellings belonging to the two main types of rural regions in Serbia. These characteristics can be described in the following way:
Region 1 – Highly productive agriculture and integrated economy
– such regions havefavourable edapho-climatic conditions and rather appropriate structure of agricultural production dominated by more capital intensive activities, as compared to other rural areas of Serbia. In comparison to other parts of Serbia, these regions possesses adequately developed human capital, distinctive entrepreneurship, a sufficiently diversified industrial sector and a well developed physical and economic infrastructure; as a result, such regions display more favourable socio-economic indicators of overall economic development and a more integrated and advanced economy.
Region 2 – Small urban-dependant economies with labour intensive agriculture
– these regions cover the area in the perimeter of urban centres and of bigger towns and their surroundings. The general economic structure and the productivity rate of certain economic sectors are more favourable in these regions, compared to other parts of Central Serbia. Taking into account the proximity of these “regions” to markets with large numbers of consumers, the structure of the agricultural production in them is oriented towards intensive farming producing fruit, vegetables, and intensive livestock meat and diary products.
Research Approach, Topics and Methodology
Research on the individual project will combine several approaches.
The first approach is based on the reconstruction of village history and an inquiry into the functioning of the legacies of previous administrative and organisational systems.
The second approach focuses on recent development trends on the national level. Of particular importance will be an understanding of contemporary trends of Serbian economy, as well as detailed research into the reform of the social security system, the functioning of the national poverty reduction strategy, and regional projects of the national rural development strategy.
The third approach will contextualise the researched village into the micro-region of Southern Banat. At this level, attention will be focused on the political, administrative and economic ties with the district centre, the small town of Kovin, as well as with local state and private owned firms which provide employment and income to some of the villagers of Gaj. Of interest will also be patterns of local temporary and permanent migration, as well as the micro-regional distribution of kinship relations and other existing social networks.
The fourth approach will consist of controlled comparison with another village from the Southern Banat district, Grebenac. Grebenac is a small and isolated village mostly populated by Romanians, with an important number of Roma residents. Contrary to Gaj, the population of Grebenac is exclusively engaged either in local economic activities (agricultural production, small scale commerce, and two or three larger ventures like the local private petrol station) or has opted for economic migration into Austria, Italy, Germany, Sweden and the United States. As an isolated minority village, Grebenac has relatively weak ties with the regional administration, but attempts to strengthen cultural and economic ties with neighbouring Romania.
The fifth approach focuses on the dynamics of social and economic processes in the village of Gaj itself. Here, of particular interest will be the functioning of the representatives of local state, the activities of local institutions like the Orthodox Church, the organisational structure and activities of local vertical clientelistic networks, as well as kinship networks and networks of friendship and neighbourhood networks. The availability and acceptability of traditional forms of reciprocity will also be investigated. Research will further encompass individual strategies of compensating for the shrinking of state-supplied forms of social security, such as competition for newly appearing funds like those centring on rural development; attempts at marketisation of previous subsistence-oriented household economies, re-direction from agriculture towards new professions in the service sector; legal acquiring of land and other types of property (houses, flats, agricultural machinery) as forms of long-term securitisation, illegal tapping into state controlled natural resources (timber, poaching of game animals, illegitimate fishing), investment into education of the younger generations, local migration and emigration etc. In depth interviews will be made with various types of local social actors: local state officials, NGO members, larger farmers and successful agricultural entrepreneurs, small subsistence oriented agricultural producers, members of mixed-households, members of elderly households, unemployed and/or landless individuals etc. Attention will also be directed towards developing forms of rural non-farm economy, as well as the villagers’ perceptions of issues of quality of life in rural areas, the availability of various forms of social services and satisfaction with existing village services and infrastructures.
Envisaged sources of data
Questionnaires (Project Questionnaire, Poverty Reduction Project Questionnaire)
Life history/Occupational history interviews
Qualitative interviews with key informants belonging to the specified categories
Participant observation
Statistical data
Local administrative sources
Church books
NGO documents, depending on availability
Photography and videography