Hygiene Campaigns and State Penetration in the Sixties in Socialist Albania
Hygiene Campaigns and State Penetration in the Sixties in Socialist Albania

Summary/Abstract: This paper discusses hygiene campaigns in socialist Albania from the early 1960s up to 1970. During this period, communist authorities undertook a series of hygiene campaigns aimed at improving the living conditions of the population, especially in rural areas. These campaigns were directed by state agencies and carried out in schools, factories, and public spaces. Their principal aim was education and the prevention to health hazards, particularly during a time marked by increased urbanization, industrialization, and collectivization. This paper employs the theoretical concept of state penetration, understood here as the state’s capacity to brake and reform traditional or resilient forms of premodern organization. In the Albanian case, the authorities pursued a series of reforms aimed at breaking and reforming the family structure to align with broader efforts of industrialization and modernizations. In addition to state agencies, other organizations were tasked with implementing such campaigns – most notably the Union of Albanian Women (Bashkimi i Grave të Shqipërisë). This article focuses in particular on the methods used by U.A.W.’s local chapters and women activists to conduct hygiene campaigns. Focusing on the organization’s role in these efforts reveals a wide range of instruments the state deployed to penetrate and shape women’s lives, as well as the intimate space of the home.

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